Read This Book: The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

Each year, Cara’s family experiences what they call the accident season—during the month of October, they’re plagued with accidents. They start out small, and usually consist of stubbing a toe, ripping a favorite shirt, or knocking over a glass. But as the month persists, the accidents get bigger and bigger. Lost items, broken bones, car accidents…and sometimes, the accidents are fatal. This year, Cara, her best friend Bea, and her ex-stepbrother Sam are seventeen, and they can already tell by the accidents that it will be a bad year. But it’s also the year that Cara will uncover the secret behind what causes the accident year, and find unexpected love.

What sold me on this book was the concept, which I don’t think I will ever get over. It’s so subtle, so brilliant, and just appropriately eerie—to me, it screams to be made into a Netflix limited series. The characters, of course, are what pull it off and I found myself really fascinated by the family dynamics. Cara’s family is (justifiably) emotionally and physically scarred by this experience, and the way they deal with it was really indicative of their characters and how they cope with trauma, and how they bury the secrets they don’t want to face.

The setting is also really great. I love a good creepy October and fall-set read, but this book also takes place in Ireland. The writing was so evocative that I felt as though I could just feel the physical setting through the pages. Both the romance and the mystery didn’t go in the direction that I anticipated, and I so appreciated that about this book. It’s like an unexpected dark puzzle that will make you want to brew a pot of strong tea so you can sit under a blanket while the wind blows cold outside and just immerse yourself in the telling of the story.

Bonus: I love Fowley-Doyle’s other two books, Spellbook of Lost and Found and All the Bad Apples, which are similarly eerie but have the bonus of also being queer!