Review: The Book of Accidents

The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book! Wow. It is a wild ride. It is a chunky work of fiction that grabs you from the first chapter and takes you on an impressive, and somewhat challenging, journey. I don't want to give much away because I prefer to read books like this with little information at the start.
The book opens with the execution night of a serial killer who has been found guilty of abducting 5 girls and killing 4 of them. He is having his last meal and preparing for the electric chair when the current is turned on and he is plucked away to some other reality.
We primarily follow a teenage boy, Oliver, who is overly empathetic, where he can literally feel the pain of everyone around him. He doesn't quite know how to utilize this ability or gift yet and it causes him to be emotionally unstable and highly anxious about certain situations. His father, Nate, was raised in a small town, by an abusive father who is now dying of cancer. Oliver's mother is Maddie and she is an artist who makes sculptures primarily. As Oliver is bullied at school due to his inability to quiet his empathetic mind, his dad discovers that he is due to inherit the home that he grew up in and has vowed to never return. The family decides that the break from Chicago life and moving to this small town might be just what Oliver needs to restore some calm to his life. This couldn't be further from the case.
A story that is full of time-travel, magical realism, supernatural events, magic, good versus evil, and human interaction will deliver a wild ride. At times the ride seems rocky (as in possibly abandoning ship) but ultimately is worth the effort.
This book reads quickly and easily despite its length. It is a page turner with short chapters that pack a punch. This feels like a book that will stick with me and I will be thinking about for a long time.
Highly recommend, especially for those readers that are willing to step outside their comfort zone of reality based stories and into a different world.
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