The Book of Accidents: A Novel

What a great book . A story that has many layers to pull back and each one is creepy and darker then the last . Of course it sometimes got lost in its worlds and a bit confusing but if u hang in there , it comes to a satisfying end. A haunted house story that is so much more then that with characters like Oliver that you care about .It has the feeling of some of Steven Kings worlds and did a good job in its world building while being its own beast . Definitely can be reread as there are lots of things going on in these pages and I'm certain I missed some .

The story was compelling. Not 5-star...but interesting. I would have liked to know more about Jed. Oliver's empathic skills are poorly explained. BUT - it's a good read. Not scary...but unique.

Loved this book, sooooo good. I could barely put it down! Going to google other books by this author bc I enjoyed it so much.

I'm not sure if this is a horror story with fantastical elements or a very dark fantasy with elements of sci-fi. The Book of Accidents may defy a genre description but it is an excellent story. The story revolves around Nate, Maddie, and Oliver, a tight family unit that is beset by supernatural happenings.Nate was a victim of child abuse from his drunken father but has managed to stop the cycle. Maddie is an artist who was involved with stopping a serial killer when she was a child. Oliver, their son, is empathetic to a significant degree in a world with mass shootings, starvation, wars, and other evils, yet he still manages to find good in people.Mr. Wendig throws in a lot of horror tropes (I laughed at Maddie with her chainsaw), but there are also parallel worlds and time travel and magic. I didn't know where the story was going for the first half, but the characters are intriguing and I wanted to find out what was happening to them. It's good writing which one would expect from this author.I enjoyed this book a lot: 4 1/2 stars.

At times a little too convoluted.... Too many tangents... But overall a very good story. What else can you ask for?

I am a big fan of Chuck Wendig’s story telling and writing style, and this book did not disappoint me. The story begins with Nate and his family moving to a small town in rural Pennsylvania and into the house once occupied by Nate’s father. Soon, strange and unexplainable events begin to take place at the house and in the character’s lives. The story focuses on the son, Oliver, who makes friends with Jake, who has a gift for performing impressive and unsettling magic tricks. Jake may have one of the strangest backgrounds and motivations that I have ever read. Of course, Oliver and the reader do not initially know about this, but it is slowly revealed in the middle part of the book.As others have mentioned, this novel is very different from the usual horror/fantasy fare. The story has many elements that seem unrelated, but they are all brought together by the end. I recommend that you read the author’s afterward, as he acknowledges that this was an unusual approaches to storytelling.I give this book 5 stars for its originality and for Mr. Wendig’s ability to tell a very weird story in such an entertaining manner.

This novel begins with a man, Nate, obsessed with intense hatred of his cruel father, who is on his deathbed. Nate is a good father to his son and husband to his wife. I was immediately attracted to the family, which had to make the tough decision to move to Nate's childhood home with its bad memories. Strange things happening after the move further intrigued me. I thought I was reading a book I’d have to debate between a 4 or 5 rating. Midway through I was down to 3.Some reviewers compared it to Stephen King. The best of Stephen King is such that if a reader suspends belief on one thing, the rest is completely logical, a quality I love. The worst of King throws everything supernatural into a single novel. Still King’s worst is more logical than this concoction of strange awfulness. The writing would be good if it didn’t go on in such a laborious fashion, in particular of gruesome events.The use of the names Nate and Oliver to stand for multiple father and son combinations who existed at different times or worlds became confusing as which world, which time were not clearly delineated at the beginning of a section. One often had to read a few paragraphs to determine the person was not an original.With 100 pages left I was down to the 2 rating and thinking that the author must have led such a troubled childhood himself to write such a sick book. He is a most capable writer despite much overwriting.Some of my fellow-rate- 2 reviewers complained about politics. Unless you consider tolerance and kindness that a main character exhibits as politics I saw none.I would have abandoned the book if it were not for my concern for the family. I kept peeking at how many pages I had left. The author suggests it's a book started long ago and abandoned it hmself a couple of times. He should have followed his first instincts. I see, however, many really liked it.

Have you watched (and enjoyed) Netflix's "Dark"? Do you remember that strange cave in the woods where worlds collided? Do you enjoy thinking of what might have been and the butterfly effect? Do you enjoy stories about strange rituals, numerology and dates for the end of the world? Do you enjoy serial killer thrillers? Do you love Stephen Kind and his stories of precocious children? (By the way, the story here also takes place in New England!) And, finally, do you love when writer possesses good sense of [black] humour? Then "The Book of Accidents" is for you!

I'm not a horror fan and only bought this because it's Wendig. But he does deliver. The writing is very good - maybe not his absolute best, lacking the real snap and invention of a Miriam Black or Mookie Pearl book, but better than 95% of the books you'll read. The story moves at great pace and is well put together, chopping quickly between threads in a way that never allows you to get bored. And that story is good: big invention, sharp characters with snappy dialogue, and lots of evocative events and images, as they struggle with an ancient evil. There are maybe shades of Stephen King (It and The Shining) but it doesn't really read like King, has a much punkier feel. The only limitation is the usual one with this author: this flies pretty fast, drawing its characters like vivid charcoal sketches - but, finally, without too much depth, and as a result the book skates over them and their lives. It doesn't take you on a journey. But that is the inevitable outcome of fast, slangy, snappy storytelling like this, I suppose, and King-like explorations of communities would just slow things down. Overall, a pretty unqualified pleasure.A side note: I see some reviewers criticise the author for 'pushing his politics in your face.' What politics? The fact that he mentions global warming? Him saying 'poverty is pain'? These are hardly challenging ideas. If you think them too controversial, maybe you should consider what politics you yourself are bringing to your reading.

A 4.5 stars. Really a very good book, an old fashioned rollicking read. Straight down the pipe commercial fiction. Easy to read. Good character work and an excellent plot, which had additional resonance because of the themes it explored. Wendig is a little too in the nose at times with his own politics in the first half of the novel. It's a leftie politics I personally sympathize with, however, it felt he forced those opinions on the reader by also imposing them slightly inappropriately on a few of his characters. It's a minor gripe however. He is also heavy with the number of similes, but then Chuck can write a good one. This sounds like a lot of criticism, but really I enjoyed this read immensely. I was pulled into the story. I looked forward to picking it up each day and was sad to have to put it down. Ultimately, it is the kind of redemptive horror/supernatural thriller I prefer to the hip nihilistic trend going on at the moment. Anyway, if you enjoy Koontz at his former best, or King at any time, or Hendrix when he is not being overly tongue in cheek and just being the great storyteller he is, then you'll enjoy this too.

I really wanted to like this book but alas it wasn't to be. I found the writing to be truly awful; all over the place and the "quirky" asides grated on me. The story line just felt ridiculous, nothing like the small town horrors crafted by King. Such a shame.

When I read Wanderers by Chuck Wendig in 2019 it became my Top Book of the year. Why then has it taken me so long to pick up The Book of Accidents!This is a fabulous story and one that is a mix of horror, mystery, murder, supernatural and a whole lot of other stuff. The focus is on the Graves family, Father Carl, Mother Maddie and Son Oliver. They have just moved into Carl's father's house after his father had died. Carl didn't have a good relationship with his father, there is bitterness and anger, and even a feeling of being glad that his father had passed away.Starting a new life away from Philly and being a cop, Nate is hoping for a more relaxed life. One that will allow Maddie to create her art and for Oliver to find some piece from the trauma of being at school. Oliver is a sensitive child, he picks up on others' feelings and finds it all overwhelming.The feeling is something that runs deep in this novel, the feeling of something sinister lurking waiting for the author to unleash it. The feeling that there is more to this story than meets the eye. Then there is the feeling of unfinished business and events that are unfolding in the town.There was a series of murders in the area, and the man was caught, imprisoned and electrocuted. Then the mystery of why the boulder-strewn park is so notorious and why the tunnel is officially a no-go area. There is a lot going on in this book and the author lays it out in a way that allows you to get to grips with some of the characters before introducing more. There isn't an over-abundance of characters, instead, there are a lot of subplots, and plots within sub-plots. Again brilliantly executed and allows the reader to keep up to speed even though not necessarily know where the author is planning on going.This is a horror, and while there are some gory moments, I didn't find it scary. I was more intrigued by the mysteries and wanted to know what the outcomes would be. THe tense and intriguing nature of the story makes this such an addictive read. Mysteries deepen, more questions form and the story goes on a wonderful rollercoaster of a journey.The synopsis is good to tempt but comes nowhere near to giving anything much away, which is why this is such a vague review. The family concerned is one that I was rooting for, nothing however is guaranteed and I was on tenterhooks for a large part of the story as to what eventualities they would find themselves in.This is a brilliant story and at 500+ pages it is one that you can really get your teeth into, so to speak. I think this is one that would interest a good many readers as it does span several genres. I thought it was a cracking read and I would absolutely recommend it.