Horror Aficionados discussion

You have chosen Chuck Wendig's The Book of Accidents for the second group read in June.

Remember to use spoiler tags where needed.

Have a great scary time!

Although not the one I voted for, I do own this on Kindle and have requested the audiobook from my library. I think I'll give it a go.

I really enjoyed this when I read it. I’m looking forward to what everyone else thinks about it

Looking forward to this group read!!

I'm excited for this group read!

I’ve had this book on my shelf for at least a year. I’m glad to have a reason to dive into it.

Looks like I can get a rental copy for this one since it has been out awhile. Planning on participation.

Yes! I have had this on my shelf for quite a while now. Excited to get to read this! Happy spooky reading!

Also have been wanting to read this one. Can’t wait!

I've had this on my TBR for quite some time now. Can't wait to dig in

This has been on my TBR for a while as well. I'm excited to finally get to it

Oh I can't wait for this one! My long weekend is going to be awesome haha.

I’ve had this book on my shelf for 3 years now. Finally I have a reason to read it :)

Looking forward to this one!!!

I read this last year and really enjoyed

Yeah...also had book on my shelves for some months....finally cracked it two nights ago.....liking it so far....


Jeff Mc

I cannot wait to read this book. I hope I like it :)

I am loving this and can't believe how fast I'm rolling on through. The chapter names are fun, and once you're past Chapter 38 you see the way everything is 'coming together' :P

One complaint though, are the tiny quasi political moments peppered throughout. Things like this remove me from the "other world" an author is creating [que that loud record screech sound effect synonymous with getting back-to-reality], and remind me of our political climate. This story is SO well done though, that my love of it is overriding these minor nails-on chalkboard moments that disrupted the way I was feeling (escape).

There are so many witty analogies and descriptions that never seem over verbose though. Oliver feeling petulant like a "small child who didn't want to eat his peas" was a good one. Ha!

Over halfway through, and I've gotten some David Lynch vibes (view spoiler)[ via the Oliver doppelgänger combined with the other dimensions and time frames not making complete sense but still working just fine to build the story (hide spoiler)]

Just finished Chapter 5. This is my first Chuck Wendig. I'm really enjoying the flow of the story. Really great writing.

Just finished. I liked this better than Black River Orchard. I felt some scenes dragged on longer than necessary. Other than that, it was great.

FSWeird wrote: "Just finished. I liked this better than Black River Orchard. I felt some scenes dragged on longer than necessary. Other than that, it was great."

Glad you liked it! :)

I haven't read Black River Orchard yet, but got it recently. So, for those of you who have read both; I noticed something in "The Book of Accidents" that made me wonder if it was the beginnings of his imagination carving out the "Black River Orchard" story. He referenced a black apple and I'm going nuts trying to find it in the book. I knew I should have dog-eared that page...
Does anyone recall, and know the quote/page number?

I bought, but haven't read, Black River Orchard yet, either. However, I read this one not too long ago. I'll have to go through now and see if I can find that reference --I'm intrigued!

Erika wrote: "FSWeird wrote: "Just finished. I liked this better than Black River Orchard. I felt some scenes dragged on longer than necessary. Other than that, it was great."

Glad you liked it! :)

I haven't r..."

I caught that reference too. I can check for the page number when I get home from work unless someone finds it sooner but the quote read "DO NOT EAT THE BLACK APPLES"

Erika wrote: "FSWeird wrote: "Just finished. I liked this better than Black River Orchard. I felt some scenes dragged on longer than necessary. Other than that, it was great."

Glad you liked it! :)

I haven't r..."

Ok, so I have the hardocver edition so in my book, it's page 422. It's in chapter 69 Up and at 'Em, Tiger

Finished it last week....certainly not one of my favorite books this year....felt there was a lot of unnecessary derail and exposition......and the final fate of Nate was open ended.......

I just finished The Book of Accidents and I did enjoy this one. At first, I was a bit put off by the political banter (I'm not particularly eager to read fiction books with strong political opinions). But, it seems that politics played a small part in the story in the way of acknowledging a societal breakdown so I will give it a pass. That said, I did enjoy the story and the writing. I gave it a 4-star rating.

I just started this a few days ago. So far, so good, at about 30% in. The lack of communication between Maddie and Nate at this point is a little disheartening, considering they supposedly have a good marriage.

The storm just hit, so we shall see how it goes.

I'm at the 50% mark after taking a bit of a break from reading it, but I'm hooked now! Not my usual horror genre (I tend to read a lot of extreme/body horror) but this is great and definitely a nice, spooky change of pace.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I'll definitely follow on with Group Reads from now on :)

I will not be reading this one in June. I have had it on my library hold list since it was announced as one of the two reads. That said I can appreciate Erika's sentiment. I see Rikki also made mention of injecting "political banter". I did read Black River Orchard and the author opted to inject his political persuasion into it as well. Not for me. I am happy for all members who enjoyed Book of Accidents this month.

FSWeird wrote: "Erika wrote: "FSWeird wrote: "Just finished. I liked this better than Black River Orchard. I felt some scenes dragged on longer than necessary. Other than that, it was great."

Glad you liked it! :..."

Thank you, @FSWeird!

And Kimberly, glad you're intrigued about it too! :D
"DO NOT EAT THE BLACK APPLES"

@Pisces51 and Rikki
Happy to see I'm not the only one here who doesn't enjoy modern-political-cultural "stuff" being made so obvious and put into dialogue for characters. I don't want to read WaPo or NYT within my horror, or any fiction for that matter. I read that stuff enough in real life as it is! And I've read plenty of great political books, which are meant to be just that

Like Rikki though, I gave it a pass because it was overall amazing to me...also there's a personal connection with the owls and the wood carvings which got to me also

I’m only 1/4 in and am enjoying it so far! I’m reading Stephen King’s Pet Sematary at the same time as a group read with another horror group I belong to. And there are striking similarities to these books. Kind of fun to be reading them side by side.

Hmmm...well, I'm sad to report that I've decided to dnf this after 50%. While the writing was compelling and I enjoyed the characters, the (view spoiler)[plot progression went somewhere I wasn't all that interested in traveling. (Perhaps I'm premature on this but it felt familiar, like Dark Matter by Blake Crouch or the film "Everything Everywhere All At Once.????)--Someone please tell me if I'm wrong and I just might keep going with it. (hide spoiler)] I guess I just couldn't muster the desire to go another 250+ pages to see how it all played out. I'm going to shelve this "try again later".

Dark_Gillybean wrote: "Hmmm...well, I'm sad to report that I've decided to dnf this after 50%. While the writing was compelling and I enjoyed the characters, the [spoilers removed] I guess I just couldn't muster the desi..."

Oh man…I’m slogging thru this one also. At page 308 and don’t know if I care enough to spend several more hours on it. It’s not the writing. It’s the story. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Janette wrote: "I’m only 1/4 in and am enjoying it so far! I’m reading Stephen King’s Pet Sematary at the same time as a group read with another horror group I belong to. And there are striking similarities to the..."

Several times I found myself thinking back to Pet Sematary while reading this book. I'm glad I was not the only one who picked up on that.

For those struggling/DNFing - I get it. Interestingly enough I had just read Dark Matter before I read this so I definitely picked up on the similarities. I didn't really love Dark Matter, (too much scifi for my taste.) I did however really like The Book of Accidents. It's a long book and it takes it's time, and it went in a direction I wasn't expecting. I thought the ending/payoff was worth it. Hope that helps you keep going. I'll be reading more Chuck Wendig for sure.

Nickronomicon wrote: "For those struggling/DNFing - I get it. Interestingly enough I had just read Dark Matter before I read this so I definitely picked up on the similarities. I didn't really love Dark Matter, (too muc..."

Thank you for your insight. I've kept it on my "try again later" shelf and have not yet removed the download from my Kindle.

Finished it...interesting novel...but not necessarily impressed with it. I felt it was overlong, for one thing.

Would I read another? Maybe...but only if it was from the library.


Jeff Mc

I started this late, but am trucking right along. I really am enjoying it, though it does seem a bit long for what it is. I am hoping it will surprise me. I do see how comparisons can be made between this and Pet Semetary, but I haven't gotten far enough to recognize the Dark Matter comparisons. Looking forward to that, as I loved that book.