The Accident is the debut novel by C. L. Taylor and the second book I've read from her. After reading The Lie last week, which is the second novel from her, I wanted to read this right away because The Lie (in my opinion) was creepy, but at the same time a thrill read.
Here's what I think about her debut novel. (Contains spoilers)
The Blurb:
You took my child. Now I'll take yours...
Sue Jackson has the perfect family but when her teenage daughter Charlotte deliberately steps in front of a bus and ends up in a coma she has to face a very dark reality.
Retracing her daughter's steps she finds a horrifying entry in Charlotte's diary and is forced to head deep into her daughter's private world. In her hunt to discover the truth, Sue begins to mistrust everyone close to her and is compelled do delve into the murky depths of her own past.
Sue will do anything to protect her daughter.
But what if she is the real reason that Charlotte is in danger?
Fast-paced, suspenseful, this is a book with more twists than a helter-skelter. Prefect for fans of Before I Go To Sleep and Gone Girl.
My Thoughts:
It started a bit slow, but after some chapters it started to pick up. It wasn't like The Lie were I wanted to continue to read right after I'd put it down, but it got better after round 100 pages in. After I had finished her previous novel, I had some expectations with this story. Of course, this was her debut novel I started to like it more and more in the end. So much that I ended up finishing it round 4 o'clock this morning. Long night, but it was worth it. Lot of things happened in the last few chapters that I couldn't just put it away and sleep. I needed to know what happened and was not disappointed at all. In one of the last chapters I thought that maybe Sue had been so delusional that none of the things that had happen in the present time was real. But she was right all along and am glad that she trusted her instincts when no one else did. Finding the true reason why her daughter had walked in front of the bus was scary. I understand why she wanted to find out the truth because her past had caught up with her (literally). And not in a good way.
The way the chapters went back and forth with present day and diary entries from the 90's made it better than if there only was about the present day, because so many things happened in the 90's and reading the entries, I got to know more about the reasons why she acted the way she did and why she was so caught up with finding the truth. And that's all I want to tell you about this novel without spoiling that much (although there are spoilers at the end of this post)
This book started slow but ended up being one suspenseful read. I'm glad I continued to read this and I'm looking forward to read more from her. After reading The Lie and The Accident I know that the novels will be better and better. The Lie was so good that I couldn't put it down and The Accident might have been slow in the beginning but all in all, I can't wait to read more from C. L. Taylor!
4/5
SPOILERS:
There was also entries from her diary from the 90's about her psycho ex-boyfriend. In the beginning I got a bit annoyed because obviously he was manipulating her and she made excuses for not leaving him. And then I started to think from her p.o.v and understood that it's difficult to just up and leave when someone manipulate you the way he did. One second he was nice and all, and then out of nowhere he accused her of cheating and couldn't bare the thoughts of her having dated guys before him and wanted her to throw away her bed (because other guys had slept in it), her presents from previous boyfriends (because he thought she kept them 'cause she missed them or something) and so on. Even I got scared of the way he treated her! And got so, so angry at him! I mean, he even locked her up in his mum's house where they both lived so she couldn't leave! He treated her like garbage and called her things and he also made her stand naked in front of the window so everyone could see how ugly her body was and that no one could believe how anyone would touch a fat girl like her. That was the kind of creepy messed up guy he was. I completely understood why she was so scared when she found out that he had found her again after all these years and was after her daughter. I'm not going to say anything else because you just have to read it yourself.
