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A review by chidimmadesiree
Accidental by Alex Richards
2.0
2/5 Stars (maybe 2.5 stars)
“Accidental” by Alex Richards is a young adult contemporary that tells the story of Johanna who’s dealing with the death of her mother, her father abandoning her, and living with her grandparents. Johanna believes that the death of her mother was due to a car accident, but that all changes when her father comes back in her life with the truth. Johanna life changes forever as she realizes that all her life she’s been living a lie. Her mother was not killed in a car accident but instead by Johanna at the age of the two, who shot and killed her mother accidentally.
I thought going into this book that the plot was about a school shooting (because I’m an idiot who doesn’t read full synopses), so I was very surprised when 100 pages in I realized the actual plot. I thought the concept was very new and exciting. I felt it was a fresh idea in discussing the importance of gun regulation in this country without centering around a school shooting. I felt that the author could’ve gone deeper with this issue unfortunately. I feel as if the author knew the point she wanted to get across to her readers, but did not execute it well.
The main character was very insufferable at times. She was going through a lot with finding out that she was the one who caused the death of her mom, but even though I did sympathize with her I never was rooting for her. She didn’t have qualities that I liked or even related to. She was a very “I’m not like other girls” girl. Throughout the book the author was so obvious in the way in which she tried to make her main character so different than other girls. Look I wear very dark eyeliner, look I listen to classic rock music, look my clothes are so edgy, it was just very played out and made me not like the character even more.
For some reason there was a very insta love, underdeveloped romance thrown into the mix. I felt as if the relationship between Johanna and Milo held no purpose within the book. The relationship felt very rushed and very unnecessary to the story. After one day of them knowing each other, Johanna is telling this man her whole life story and sobbing her eyes and it just felt so unnatural. I didn’t understand why the two felt so close to one other and so attached at the hip day two of their relationship. I never felt as if the author fleshed out the romance, it was just there and I just had to deal with it. I felt as if Johanna and Milo were each other’s emotional crutches and I thought the author would delve into that topic, but I guess their relationship was suppose to seem normal to us as readers.
The story in itself was the only redeeming quality of this book. I felt that the concept was very interesting with how much guilt the main character felt about killing her mom even though she shouldn’t be to blame because she was a literal child. I enjoyed reading about the conflicting nature of the main character and her regret even though she can’t even remember exactly what happened because she was so young. This book could spark so much conversation with a issue in this country that needs to be talked about. This book could’ve been so much better if it had a character that readers found likable and a romance that felt natural.
-This book was sent to me for review through netgalley-
“Accidental” by Alex Richards is a young adult contemporary that tells the story of Johanna who’s dealing with the death of her mother, her father abandoning her, and living with her grandparents. Johanna believes that the death of her mother was due to a car accident, but that all changes when her father comes back in her life with the truth. Johanna life changes forever as she realizes that all her life she’s been living a lie. Her mother was not killed in a car accident but instead by Johanna at the age of the two, who shot and killed her mother accidentally.
I thought going into this book that the plot was about a school shooting (because I’m an idiot who doesn’t read full synopses), so I was very surprised when 100 pages in I realized the actual plot. I thought the concept was very new and exciting. I felt it was a fresh idea in discussing the importance of gun regulation in this country without centering around a school shooting. I felt that the author could’ve gone deeper with this issue unfortunately. I feel as if the author knew the point she wanted to get across to her readers, but did not execute it well.
The main character was very insufferable at times. She was going through a lot with finding out that she was the one who caused the death of her mom, but even though I did sympathize with her I never was rooting for her. She didn’t have qualities that I liked or even related to. She was a very “I’m not like other girls” girl. Throughout the book the author was so obvious in the way in which she tried to make her main character so different than other girls. Look I wear very dark eyeliner, look I listen to classic rock music, look my clothes are so edgy, it was just very played out and made me not like the character even more.
For some reason there was a very insta love, underdeveloped romance thrown into the mix. I felt as if the relationship between Johanna and Milo held no purpose within the book. The relationship felt very rushed and very unnecessary to the story. After one day of them knowing each other, Johanna is telling this man her whole life story and sobbing her eyes and it just felt so unnatural. I didn’t understand why the two felt so close to one other and so attached at the hip day two of their relationship. I never felt as if the author fleshed out the romance, it was just there and I just had to deal with it. I felt as if Johanna and Milo were each other’s emotional crutches and I thought the author would delve into that topic, but I guess their relationship was suppose to seem normal to us as readers.
The story in itself was the only redeeming quality of this book. I felt that the concept was very interesting with how much guilt the main character felt about killing her mom even though she shouldn’t be to blame because she was a literal child. I enjoyed reading about the conflicting nature of the main character and her regret even though she can’t even remember exactly what happened because she was so young. This book could spark so much conversation with a issue in this country that needs to be talked about. This book could’ve been so much better if it had a character that readers found likable and a romance that felt natural.
-This book was sent to me for review through netgalley-