Every October, teenage Cara’s family struggles through the month they’ve come to call “the accident season.” Sometimes the accidents are small—a cut, a sprain. Sometimes they are more serious—a broken bone. And sometimes, they’ve been deadly. Cara, her older sister, Alice, and ex-stepbrother Sam, are always mindful. But they won’t give up their lives for a month. Their anxious mother, meanwhile, would encase them in bubble wrap if she could. This particular October, Cara is not only aware that it’s the accident season, she’s trying to find a classmate named Elsie, a quiet girl no one seems to remember. Cara is also finding it harder and harder to ignore her attraction to Sam. A novel that blends reality with elements of the supernatural is, above all, a psychological thriller as secrets and uncertain memories come into the light, and monsters of the real world are gradually revealed. Truths about love and abuse and power and control and love again unfold in beautiful language, through the interactions of incredibly real, complex characters in a novel that is vivid, compelling, and compassionate. (Age 13 and older)