Book Review: The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig

The Book of Accidents
by Chuck Wendig (Wendig)

My SciFi/Fantasy/Horror book group read this for a book discussion in November 2021, following recommendations of past Wendig titles that some group members had read.

 

I would describe The Book of Accidents as “Stephen King Lite” — it really felt like someone trying to capture the feel and tone of an early King novel — think back to the days of Firestarter, ‘Salem’s Lot, Cujo and The Tommyknockers.

 

The family of Nate Graves, his artist wife Maddie and their slightly autistic son Oliver move to Nate’s childhood home following the death of Nate’s abusive, estranged father and his inheritance of the old rambling house that the father had lived in his entire life. Ollie is a highly-sensitive empath, able to “see” and feel the pain of others, and the hope is that having him in a more remote, less “big-city” location will make Ollie more able to deal with his unfortunate gift. But life isn’t that simple — and not long after the Graves family moves in, odd paranormal things start happening, that both pull the family closer together and simultaneously try to pull them apart.

 

The Book of Accidents features a lot of well-drawn characters, from the new next-door neighbor with a passion for the unexplained, to Nate’s new state field & game partner, to Ollie’s group of D&D misfits. Unfortunately, the “big bads” of this story are portrayed with too broad a stroke, and the supernatural elements seem to be all over the place in terms of making any coherent sense.

 

I liked this one, for some of the scenes and moods it established, but overall it felt like an overfilled mish-mash of too many ideas crammed together without any of them given enough focus to hold up. Too bad…because I really would have enjoyed seeing a tighter, more-streamlined book that focused on the bits that were really good.

 

But…if you’re a fan of early Stephen King, you may enjoy this more than I did.

 

( official The Book of Accidents page on the official Chuck Wendig web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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