The Accident Season, Moïra Fowley-Doyle

I’m really not sure what to make of The Accident Season! It’s a strange story, rich with otherworldly descriptions and feelings, and yet in the end, you might read it as straightforward contemporary. I liked that ambiguity in the end: normally, I wish people would just go for it or not, but it’s more unsettling and strange and rich because you can’t be sure, and because the plot is driven by people being people, not by supernatural events.

I loved the way the characters relate to each other and get along and argue, like real friends, constantly readjusting to each other; I felt that the relationships were realistic and natural. The moral dilemma about one particular relationship felt a little manufactured, though — they keep asserting that a certain thing isn’t the case, then manage to have moral dilemmas about it anyway? You can’t have it both ways! Ultimately, I thought the relationship worked well, but then I also thought that about Harper and Tolliver in Charlaine Harris’ books and I’m used to cousin-marrying in Heyer and Stewart, so you might take that with a pinch of salt. I know it bothered some readers.

It’s hard to know what to say, and whether I’d recommend it to someone or not. I definitely found it interesting, though it’s slower and more atmospheric than you might expect from the plot, which seems to promise more of a horror film plot (to me, anyway). It’s more uncanny than outright chilling, though it has a couple of moments.

Rating: 4/5