Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig

20 reviews

ripxreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

archaicrobin's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I started this novel thinking it was going to be a typical supernatural haunted house tale and quickly found out that was not the case! The Book of Accidents is a horror/sciFi novel that touches on generational trauma, abuse, alternate realities, time travel, and what makes strong families. So way more than I was initially prepared for! 

This novel is not your regular horror story and I loved that. It was weird, twisty, and honestly such a fun read. There were parts that dragged for me and the characters at times behaved really awkwardly (especially Maddie, who seems like the perfect manic pixie dream girl grown up…) which didn’t make this a 5 star for me, hence the 3 stars. I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone either, but to readers that love horror and don’t mind picking up one that crosses so many genres. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mrdcoolblue's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This starts out as the atmospheric spooky tale you expected, but not all is what it seems. The story quickly turns into a horror thriller fantasy as this family must rely on their love and support of each other as they battle against the looming apocalypse. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

miniaturephilosopher's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

cody's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

this had such a strong start, but unfortunately the beginning of the story was its peak and it was a smooth journey downhill from there  :(

The Book of Accidents begins with two hooky prologues proceeded by gripping introductions to its three main characters. I tore through the sample on my Kindle in a day and immediately bought the full book, and for the first 100 or so pages, i was obsessed. It had a gothic family drama vibe, which is exactly my taste, and what seemed to be a slow-burn supernatural mystery element. i was fully prepared to recommend this to fans of the Mike Flanagan shows on Netflix bc that’s precisely what it was giving.

but then things began to fall apart. first i noticed that the writing wasn’t all that great. definitely good, just not at the level i tricked myself into believing it was initially. like just within the first 120 pages, i noticed a bunch of typos, which is nbd but definitely a distraction in the moment. also a lot of the dialogue (mainly among the younger characters) felt dated and corny. and then the reveals started being made too quickly, the pieces of the mystery came together too soon and too predictably, everything became messy and convoluted, and i realized that this book wasn’t nearly as smart or impactful as i thought it was going to be. by the ~350 page mark, pretty much all of the reveals had been made, and it became clear where everything was headed. the story shifted from a character-driven narrative to a heavily plot-focused one. like, despite this being a pretty big book, almost all of the side characters wound up being personified tropes who seemed to exist only to propel the plot or the main characters’ arcs. plus, i was left with several unanswered questions. I’m not sure how it’s possible to write a 500+ page book with underdeveloped characters/relationships AND underdeveloped plot points, but this author managed to do it. 

that said, the first 25-50% of the book was great enough to make the overall reading experience a positive one. it’s just not the 5⭐️ masterpiece i was hoping for :(

3.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mayr3adsab00k's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kerrygetsliterary's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

paigemandia's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

imstephtacular's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

whatellisreadnext's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘩*𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘦, 𝘖𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳. 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘹 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘥𝘴𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴. 

When Nate's father passes, after a childhood of abuse, he's happy to see him go. He leaves behind a big house in the countryside, that's the perfect place for Nate and his family to escape the noise of the city. But it's not long before strange things start happening.
 
I LOVE THIS BOOK. CHUCK WENDIG IS AMAZING. I JUST WANT TO BE HIS BEST FRIEND. I finished The Book of Accidents this morning and immediately needed to review it and force it upon everyone💁🏻‍♀️ 

This book is wild, like a wonderful, gory, hellscape of a novel. It's as if Blake Crouch, and the best of Stephen King had a book baby. Like The Shining and Dark Matter ended up fornicating, somehow creating something even better. 

I read Wanderers a few years ago now, which is a whopping 800 pages, and it's been on my favourite books of all time since then. The Book of Accidents sits a little over 500 pages but like with Wanderers, it doesn't drag. The book is full throttle from the very first page. Chuck does this thing where he gives you loads of information straight away, that doesn't make any sense, and he's just like 'Here, deal with all of this in your brain box'. I love how he weaves even the tiniest details back into the story, everything has meaning, he truly is a skilled writer. I really loved the Wanderers easter eggs dotted throughout aswell, and found myself gasping everytime I found one🤣 

This book is just something else, and if you love absolutely bonkers sci-fi/horror then I couldn't recommend it enough. It really reminded me of books like Middlegame and The Library of Mount Char, another two of my favourites. I'll leave you all with another line from the book that I really enjoyed, because there was a lot of them.
 
𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦—𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘴. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings