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A review by shelf_blame
Accidental by Alex Richards
3.0
Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury YA for the digital ARC of Accidental by Alex Richards!
Accidental follows Johanna, a teenager raised by her grandparents after her mother was tragically killed in a car accident - or so she thinks. The truth is revealed when Johanna's absentee father barrels back into her life and lays it on her: Johanna accidentally killed her mother as a toddler when she found her father's gun.
This book takes a hard look at gun violence in the US, and how in addition to street crime, the deaths of children who have found unsecure guns or of other people they shoot accidentally is much higher than it should be. Johanna is understandably distraught when she finds out. She suffers from panic attacks, and while she has supportive friends, those friendships also suffer in the face of her devastation.
I mostly enjoyed this book. I will say I didn't really feel a connection with Johanna. She spends most of the book having various tantrums and yelling at anyone who looks at her. Like I said, her despair is totally warranted. I can't imagine finding this information out over a decade later. But unfortunately, I just felt like instead of feeling empathetic toward her, I find myself skimming a bit in the second half of the book.
Those issues aside, I think this book was really well written. The dialogue was done well and was believable for teenagers, and the plot moved along at a nice pace so that the story didn't feel like it lagged.
Overall I would say if you're interested, give it a read! I would definitely read more from this author in the future.
Accidental follows Johanna, a teenager raised by her grandparents after her mother was tragically killed in a car accident - or so she thinks. The truth is revealed when Johanna's absentee father barrels back into her life and lays it on her: Johanna accidentally killed her mother as a toddler when she found her father's gun.
This book takes a hard look at gun violence in the US, and how in addition to street crime, the deaths of children who have found unsecure guns or of other people they shoot accidentally is much higher than it should be. Johanna is understandably distraught when she finds out. She suffers from panic attacks, and while she has supportive friends, those friendships also suffer in the face of her devastation.
I mostly enjoyed this book. I will say I didn't really feel a connection with Johanna. She spends most of the book having various tantrums and yelling at anyone who looks at her. Like I said, her despair is totally warranted. I can't imagine finding this information out over a decade later. But unfortunately, I just felt like instead of feeling empathetic toward her, I find myself skimming a bit in the second half of the book.
Those issues aside, I think this book was really well written. The dialogue was done well and was believable for teenagers, and the plot moved along at a nice pace so that the story didn't feel like it lagged.
Overall I would say if you're interested, give it a read! I would definitely read more from this author in the future.