Review: The Accident by C. L.Taylor

The Accident
by C. L. Taylor
Published by Avon HarperCollins: April 10th 2014
Paperback: 404 pages
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Star Rating: 2/5











Synopsis from Goodreads:

The person you trust most may only be telling you half the story...
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 is forced 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 Charlotte's private world. In her hunt for evidence, Sue begins to mistrust everyone close to her daughter and she's forced to look further, into the depths of her own past.
There is a lot that Sue doesn't know about Charlotte's life. But then there's a lot that Charlotte doesn't know about Sue's...

My review:

This was my second C. L. Taylor book and I was really excited to read it because I loved The Missing which I read earlier in the year. That was fantastic and I have since bought another couple of her books too! However, this one unfortunately left a bad taste in my mouth and I wasn't impressed. I would like to stress that I don't believe this is typical of her stories and I am still keen to read more. Having looked more into it, this is actually C. L. Taylor's debut novel and I think it just shows some immaturity of writing and an unbelievable ending.

This book follows Sue Jackson who has a seemingly wonderful life until her young teenage daughter deliberately walks in front of a bus and she then ends up in a coma. Sue reads Charlotte's diary and finds an entry that makes her question everything she knew about her daughter's life.

This book is told in two timelines; the first is present day where Sue is trying to trace Charlotte's footsteps before her accident and the second is years before in Sue's past. There is something she is keeping secret from her husband and her family that has caused her to suffer from anxiety and PTSD.

There were a number of reasons that this book wasn't for me. The main one was that because of Sue's troubling past she currently has and previously has had mental illnesses and because of this, my least favourite trope happens; the people in her life and others around her don't believe what she says and blame it on a relapse instead. This is something I despise reading about and it always rubs me up the wrong way.

I also found the ending to be completely unbelievable and ridiculous and some of the things that happened throughout, especially that Sue did in order to find out the truth about her daughter were just farcical! It's difficult to explain just how strange this book was without spoiling but unfortunately it wasn't for me.

I will say that although the writing was a little immature and underplayed, I do think the character development was great and I really loved reading about Sue and her husband. Again, having read more of Taylor's books, I know how fantastic her books are so although not loving this one, I'm excited to read more of her work!

Overall, I didn't enjoy this book but still enjoy the author!

Until next time, happy reading!