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2.22k reviews for:

The Book of Accidents

Chuck Wendig

3.76 AVERAGE


3.5 stars. A little difficult to follow at first, but it was a really cool premise. Loved the ending and all things wrapping together. Definitely made me spooked and uncomfortable throughout which is what I’m here for
adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
dark mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It was…. Fine. Not what I was initially expecting, but it was fine. Could definitely tell it was written by a man
dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
michaelpatrickhicks's profile picture

michaelpatrickhicks's review

5.0

Wow. Fucking WOW. I mean, what the hell else is there to say?

Clocking in at a hefty 540+ pages, Chuck Wendig's The Book of Accidents reads like the lovechild between Stephen King and Blake Crouch. This is a full-on horror novel, but Wendig elevates it with some really creative high-concept twists and turns (as well as some wickedly effective gore scenes) that takes what could ostensibly be a slasher/serial-killer story into some truly next-level shit. There's so damn much I want to talk about here, but can't and won't because I don't want to spoil too much of this darkly fantastic story for eager readers.

Former Philly cop Nate Graves moves his family back to the home he grew up in. His abusive, scumfuck of a father has just died and left the house to his son. Nate's own boy, Olly, is a special kid in the way horror novel kids of this sort often are - he's got some unique gifts that make him outstandingly empathetic but which also make the world and its very many problems heartbreakingly overbearing. We're introduced to Olly as he attempts to cope with the demands of a school shooting drill (a safety practice run whose now-necessary existence sends chills up my own spine as a father of two of young children and reminds me of just how good and truly fucked beyond repair this country is), but each bang of the pistol firing blanks shows him another dead kid in the hallway. The hope is that taking Olly out to the 13-acre homestead where Nate was raised will give the 15-year-old room to grow and find his place.

Since this is, first and foremost, a horror novel, go on and take a guess on how well that plan works out! Olly makes some friends. Olly makes some enemies. Nate takes a job as a Fish & Game officer. Wife, mother, and artist Maddie gets the urge to buy a chainsaw and carve owls that randomly disappear. And Nate sees the ghost of his dead father and a serial killer that was executed by electric chair years ago. You know, the usual.

But also very much not the usual. Here's where I hesitate to tell you any more and give you skinny on the whys and whats of it all. Because there is so goddamned much else happening here. Like, big, big, big stuff, and a freaking lot of it, too. We get ants marching in weird circles, deer bleeding worms from their freaking eyes, and --- nope, nope, stop. I'm not going to say anything more. But, god, I want to!

The Book of Accidents is a thick boy, and the kind of hefty horror novels I occasionally crave. This one kept me completely captivated the whole way through, the pages turning themselves almost as if by magic and fueled by my constantly burning curiosity of what was going to happen next. It reminded me a lot of the horror novels I loved from late '80s/early '90s-era Dean Koontz, but also Stephen King and Robert McCammon (I know Wendig is a fan of the latter, and McCammon, particularly, feels like a primary inspiration here), but with a fresh 21st Century coat of paint and modern-day recontextualization. I've loved everything I've read of Wendig's, but holy shit, man. This one just fires on all freaking cylinders and might be his best yet. I was more than happy to open the door into this world, and while I hated having to close the door behind me when I left, I left feeling completely full and satisfied. The big question isn't whether or not I'll reopen this particular door at some point in the future, but when.

THIS HAS EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED IN A HORROR NOVEL. Liminal spaces, gore, serial killers, demons, ghosts, alternate realities, everything creepy + thrilling and then some!!!!

Reading this felt like following a trail of crumbs that then leads you to peel off an onion layer by layer, and then zooms you out so you can join the pieces together to form the most elaborate story!!! I LOVED this.