Name: Michael Bowman's review of The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
Item: The Book of Accidents
Rating: 4
Author: Michael Bowman

Chuck Wendig

'Move over King, Chuck Wendig is the new voice of modern American horror' Adam Christopher ____________________________________________________________________________ A family returns to their hometown - and to the dark past that haunts them still - in this masterpiece of literary horror by the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers When Nate's father dies, he leaves behind a final gift for his son: his childhood home. Married now, Nate decides to move in with his wife, Maddie, and their son, Oliver, seeking peace from the chaos of the city. But it doesn't take long before things get strange in the night and even stranger by day. Because Nate was a child being abused by his father, and has never told his family. Because Maddie was a little girl who saw something she shouldn't have. Because something sinister, something hungry, walks in the tunnels and the mountains and the coal mines of this town in rural Pennsylvania... And now, what happened all those years ago is happening again, and this time, it is happening to Oliver. When he meets a strange boy with secrets of his own and a taste for dark magic, he has no idea that what comes next will put his family at the heart of a battle of good versus evil. ____________________________________________________________________________ 'The dread, the scope, the pacing, the turns-I haven't felt all this so intensely since The Shining' - Stephen Graham Jones 'Universally horrifying and viscerally intimate, Wendig brilliantly uses The Book of Accidents to explore a painful truth: in the end, we all haunt ourselves' - Kiersten White

The Book of Accidents

Michael Bowman

A family returns to their hometown--and to the dark past that haunts them still--in this masterpiece of literary horror by the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father--and has never told his family what happened there. Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn't have--and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures. Long ago, something sinister, something hungry, walked in the tunnels and the mountains and the coal mines of their hometown in rural Pennsylvania. Now, Nate and Maddie Graves are married, and they have moved back to their hometown with their son, Oliver. And now what happened long ago is happening again . . . and it is happening to Oliver. He meets a strange boy who becomes his best friend, a boy with secrets of his own and a taste for dark magic. This dark magic puts them at the heart of a battle of good versus evil and a fight for the soul of the family--and perhaps for all of the world. But the Graves family has a secret weapon in this battle: their love for one another.

Daphne

kelsey

this book was weird

but i also loved it’s commentary on pain. how we need our pain. how pain is a part of us you can’t destroy. also horror used to tell stories of trauma and grief are my favorite

Boothby

Lots of convoluted horror elements, but not much atmosphere. Each member of the family has his or her own specific horror drama, but while they all ultimately contributed to the big showdown stuff the end of the novel, the book really felt pretty scattered and stretched thin. However, the climactic end scene was exciting enough.

I will be so relieved when the multiverse trend has run its course.

------

Shout out to Caleb, whose only job in this book is driving Oliver places and warning him that the vibes are off with Jake. I swear I read the same conversation with the two of them three times.

Maddie keeps saying things like Nate is absent, that it always falls to Maddie to carry the family through, Nate leaves household stuff to her, she's tired of begging the strong one... But I don't think we see much evidence of that? Like Maddie is the one who missed all those calls from the school because she was in an art fugue state, and she leaves town for a weekend refusing to tell Nate OR her son Oliver where she was going or why. But I dunno, maybe I missed something. I do like Maddie a lot, but those moments in her interior monologue seemed off.

Kristen Claiborn

Thank you go to both Del Rey Book and Chuck Wendig for gifting me the ARC of this book. Thank you so much! I’m pretty honored that you allowed me to read this one! I also want to make sure the entire world knows I was in no way influenced while I wrote this review. 
	There is a WHOLE LOTTA STUFF going on in this book. So. Much. Stuff. This would have come close to being a five star, but I had a hard time wading through the stuff (did I mention there was a lot of stuff?). Otherwise I loved everything about this book. Who doesn’t love a book with Stephen King references? Unless you don’t, in which case, this is not the book for you. 
	This family decided to move to the sticks after their son had some unfortunate experiences, and after they got there they realized the sticks was kind of a crappy place. At first it seemed like the place might be haunted, but they soon realized the truth was so much worse. There was a little Stephen King, some Stranger Things, and a whole lot of somebody who might have been on drugs while he was writing this (I’m just kidding here, I have no idea what Wendig did while writing this, but I feel like therapy might have been needed at some point). Anyway, it’s very good. I’m just hoping that he writes a sequel, because the end left me a teeny bit frustrated (the book might have taken an airborne trip across the room).

Ryan LaFerney

The Book of Accidents is an amazing work of horror by Chuck Wendig. Reminiscent of early Stephen King, The Book of Accidents is a horror novel with great heart that is about spirals, families, mistakes, love, empathy, and serial killers, ghosts-that-aren't-ghosts, interstitial liminal voids, and alternate realities.

Really, at its core, this story is about learning to break cycles of abuse and learning how to heal but it is told through a supernatural lens.

The Book of Accidents is big-hearted and terrifying. And I can't wait for another Chuck Wendig horror novel.

 is one of the scariest things I’ve read in a long time. It’s also one of the most original horror novels I’ve come across. I was gripped from start to finish, and I was deeply invested in the characters. It was horror on a cosmic level, while also being horror at the simplest and most vital level: that in which someone is at war with themselves. It didn’t even feel bloated, despite it length. And there were a few scenes that genuinely scared me, or disturbed me, or grossed me out. Or all of the above in one fell swoop. It was out there, but in the best way.

I was so hesitant to pick this book up. Not because I thought it would scare me, but because I had such a disappointing experience with 

, Wendig’s previous book. It wasn’t a bad book; on the contrary, it was very well written. But I was not only unable to connect with it, but was strangely repelled by it. Wendig’s political views were so palpable in his narrative that it came across as preachy, and that’s not something I ever enjoy, regardless of the worldview from which it’s written. 

So much of this story is about finding the potential to break free of the cycle of generational trauma and abuse. It’s about recognizing the cancer of pain within yourself and others and doing what you can to exorcise that cancer in any way you can. Can we judge someone based on their potential, whether for good or ill? Or can we only evaluate the actions they’ve already taken? With which viewpoint does the most hope and optimism lie? 

If I hadn’t listened to this on audio, it might have been a 4 read for me instead of a 4.5, but the narration was simply brilliant. Co-narrators Xe Sands and George Newbern did an incredible job breathing life into every single character. The only negative thing I have to say is that the ending didn’t feel quite as tight in terms of writing and plotting as the rest of the book. The change was nearly negligible, but it was there. At least, it was for me.

Overall, this was an incredibly satisfying horror story that radically altered my opinion of its author. I’m so glad to have read it, and to have enjoyed it so thoroughly. It’s a book that I can see myself happily recommending to others. And often. And even better, it’s a story that I’ll be contemplating for quite a while to come.

Celeste Richardson

The Book of Accidents is one of the scariest things I’ve read in a long time. It’s also one of the most original horror novels I’ve come across. I was gripped from start to finish, and I was deeply invested in the characters. It was horror on a cosmic level, while also being horror at the simplest and most vital level: that in which someone is at war with themselves. It didn’t even feel bloated, despite it length. And there were a few scenes that genuinely scared me, or disturbed me, or grossed me out. Or all of the above in one fell swoop. It was out there, but in the best way.

I was so hesitant to pick this book up. Not because I thought it would scare me, but because I had such a disappointing experience with Wanderers, Wendig’s previous book. It wasn’t a bad book; on the contrary, it was very well written. But I was not only unable to connect with it, but was strangely repelled by it. Wendig’s political views were so palpable in his narrative that it came across as preachy, and that’s not something I ever enjoy, regardless of the worldview from which it’s written. 

So much of this story is about finding the potential to break free of the cycle of generational trauma and abuse. It’s about recognizing the cancer of pain within yourself and others and doing what you can to exorcise that cancer in any way you can. Can we judge someone based on their potential, whether for good or ill? Or can we only evaluate the actions they’ve already taken? With which viewpoint does the most hope and optimism lie? 

If I hadn’t listened to this on audio, it might have been a 4 read for me instead of a 4.5, but the narration was simply brilliant. Co-narrators Xe Sands and George Newbern did an incredible job breathing life into every single character. The only negative thing I have to say is that the ending didn’t feel quite as tight in terms of writing and plotting as the rest of the book. The change was nearly negligible, but it was there. At least, it was for me.

Overall, this was an incredibly satisfying horror story that radically altered my opinion of its author. I’m so glad to have read it, and to have enjoyed it so thoroughly. It’s a book that I can see myself happily recommending to others. And often. And even better, it’s a story that I’ll be contemplating for quite a while to come.

Jasmine

Thanks to NetGalley, Del Rey, and Chuck Wendig for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

This book was fantastic! There are many stories where you meet a family and grow to care for them through excellent character development, honestly, but this family will make you fall in love from the get-go. They are honest, loving, and an actual team. It’s so refreshing! I honestly can’t think of the last time I identified with a mother character as strongly as I did in this novel. She’s vulgar but would do anything and everything for her kid and family.

 This was my first venture into Chuck Wendig’s work, and it won’t be my last. It’s also important to note that this had one of my favorite endings in forever. Do yourself a favor by picking this up as soon as possible (which will be July 20th, so that you know). 
It's a well-earned 5 star read for me.

Victoria Drake

I can’t tell how I feel about this book. It wasn’t what I was expecting, I guess. The plot was so convoluted and confusing, I almost gave up on it a few times.
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t exactly good either. I feel like it took forever to read.

Sarahi Flores

Horror and magic? Count me in. 

Gives me the Time traveler’s wife vibe with the end of the world Dr. Strange magic. It had all the elements from Horror, mystery, fantasy and action, this was worth the read.

Emma Jacqueline

It's been a while since I've read a book where the author's strengths and weaknesses were so apparent and so equally strong. Wendig writes some very evocative prose—he fully earns the label "literary horror"—and given how complicated the plot of this thing is, it never came off as messy or overly-confusing.

His dialogue is...something. If Aaron Sorkin ever wrote a horror movie, I imagine the characters would sound like they did here. So much speechifying and broad declaration about the state of the world, even from characters who appear in a single scene. It's clunky and wrenched me out of the book on more than one occasion.

Probably more like a 3.5, but rounding up because it's an impressive story even with the dialogue problems.

Heather Keltz

I loved this. I don’t read anything about a book before I read it so I go in blind each time, and this did not disappoint. Pace was excellent, character development was great, and the story was deeply engaging. I DO immediately have a need to ‘solve’ each book while I’m reading, and to me this one wasn’t difficult…however, that absolutely didn’t take away from the story at all. This is also a wonderful book because the author seamlessly blends multiple genres in the best possible way. Definitely give this one a go.

Caitlin Snyder

Damn this book is good! I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time. It's a great mix of horror and scifi!

haley kendall owen

Very creepy and a bit grotesque in parts. Overall a very good story though!

Chelsey

Rosie Qua

Christian von Schack

Catie Brumit

________________________________________ An old country house haunted by a dark, mysterious presence forces one family to confront their own secrets in this masterpiece of literary horror by the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers Nate left his hometown in rural Pennsylvania behind years ago to escape his abusive father and make a new life for himself and his family in Philadelphia. So when his father dies and leaves him their family home, an old stone Colonial in the country, the last thing Nate wants is to return to the place where his only memories are of pain and loss. But he can also see that the beautiful old house will give his family a chance to begin again: for Nate to leave the police force behind; for his wife, Maddie, to focus on her art as a sculptor; and for their son, Oliver, to go to a small, excellent school in the country. But when they return to the house, they find it haunted by more than Nate's memories. Nate keeps seeing a presence that looks uncannily like his father. Maddie hears something speaking to her through her sculptures. And Oliver befriends a strange boy with a scarred face and a troubled past who seems to know something about the house's secrets. Because there is something there--something from deep in Nate's past--that threatens to tear this family apart . . . and they will have to come together to survive it.

Michael Bowman &
The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig

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