The Accident

by Kate Hendrick

A rainy night.

A car crash.

After the accident Sarah moves to a new school. A new place where no one knows what happened to her or her brother—where she doesn't have to deal with the history that's pulling the rest of her family apart.

Will is keeping his head down at home, just trying to get by. Then his sister Lauren comes back—as caustic as always but somehow changed. Will doesn't know what upheaval brought her home. But it's sparking some serious change in his life too.

Eliat's got no mother of her own, and she's way too young to be one. Looking after a two-year-old, trying to finish school—sometimes all that keeps her sane is partying as hard and fast as she can. Now the pressure's building and Eliat just wants to get away.

Just get into a car and drive.

In this impressive and beautifully written debut, Kate Hendrick sets the butterfly effect in motion. The moving stories of three teenagers going through crucial changes—before, after and around the accident—show how random actions acquire significance. How one pivotal moment could transform your life and you might never know; how what you do matters.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Australia, Mental Health, Fiction, Family

272 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2013

About the author

Kate Hendrick is a high school teacher and creative jack-of-all trades, with interests in art, design, photography, writing and anything DIY, especially if it involved power tools. She lives in Sydney with her husband and two children.

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alternating between later, after and before, The Accident is set around teenagers Sarah, whose brother Robbie was in the car accident with her; Will, who lives at home with a non-existent mother and his two sisters, Lauren and Morgan; and Eliat who lives with her two year old daughter Tash and their foster parents.

Sarah has started a new school, away from the memories of that terrible night, hoping no one will be aware of her pain – both physical and mental. She wonders if the pain will ever go away.

When Will’s sister Lauren appears at home again – no reasons for leaving or returning – Will can sense a shift. She is still Lauren, but she’s changed. And Morgan is totally involved in something special at school – but getting their mother to “care” is beyond Will. Their lives are changing…

Eliat knows no one wants her – she’s too young to be a mother; desperate to go somewhere with school – the pressure is released with partying and alcohol. Her foster parents, Terry and Rose-Marie don’t understand; what will she do? Where will she go?

Three teenagers – linked and connected through fate.

The Accident is the debut novel by Aussie author Kate Hendrick and set in and around Sydney, Australia. I found it hard to get in to – I think if each chapter had been titled with the character’s name that was narrating it would have been easier to follow. As it was, the flow seemed to break while I worked out who I was with each time. I also couldn't connect with the characters. But the storyline was intriguing and the setting interesting. I’m sure others will enjoy The Accident more than I did.

[Nomes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started The Accident on the day it arrived and was rewarded with that elusive feeling all book lovers seek after: picking up a book you know nothing about and realising within pages that it is going to be a new favourite.

The first thing I loved about the Accident was the prose. Hendrick's prose is gorgeous, literary and emotive, some phrases/ideas/sentiments are just so well captured I had to pause and read them again, let them rest with me, before moving on. Likewise, the dialogue is so authentic I felt like I was eavesdropping rather than reading fiction.

The characters are flawed and vulnerable and wonderfully layered. Hendrick knows how to up the stakes, raise the tension and she is not kind to her characters (things are tough, things get tougher). They just bleed onto the pages in such an intimate and unpretentious way it was impossible for me not to ache for them.

Right in the middle of my photo wall is a text collage I spent hours making from newspaper headlines.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Gandhi said that; it used to fire me up, and now it only makes me feel tired. It's just not so simple anymore. (page 9).

(A resounding yes to Sarah's thoughts, right down to my memories of making similar collages, things are not so simple after tragedy strikes.)


The plot: Things are not what they seem. The story is presented from three different POVs. Each POV covers a different time period. Sarah's chapters occur Later, Will's After and Eliat's Before. And the chapter's alternate so the story unfolds like so: Later, After, Before, Later, After, Before, Later, After, Before (and so on). Our three narrators paths are seemingly separate for the longest of times and I was continually trying to unjumble events, decode and predict everything. I think I made things more complicated for myself by trying to outsmart the book, haha. My advice: relax into the story and trust the author who has it all figured out. Also: the ending was not what I assumed it would be (loved that!). Once I arrived, I was able to look back and rethink things, figure things out. It's a smart and thoughtful book.

This is not a cruise-y, relaxing book for a rainy-day read. It's a little dark in places, introspective and beautifully hopeful. It is not a book full of cliffhangers, high moments of drama or raging tensions - yet it is effortlessly compelling, quietly, sneakily, powerful. Also, it feels so Australian -- the Sydney setting made it feel like home.

I love the idea of three separate story strands coming together in a butterfly effect and I ended up loving this book. I'm really excited for it (and for other readers to discover it) and I think it's the perfect example of a crossover book -- The Accident will speak to teenagers and adult alike. Also, take a look at this quote from (fabulous and awesome author) Vicki Wakefield: 'A sophisticated, surprising and beautifully written novel about tangled lives and consequences. from the first pages, I knew how this story would end. I love being wrong.'

The Accident really struck a chord with me and I am still thinking about it. I'm really impressed with the quality and brilliance we keep seeing come from Text publishing. Readers of young adult fiction in Australia today are truly blessed.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

See more reviews at YA Midnight Reads

Mini review

Thank you Text Publishing for sending me this copy. No compensation was given or taken to alter this review.

'We can't control the things that happen to us; we can only control how we respond to them.'

On surface, The Accident may sound plain, mundane and even simple. However, underneath we come across layers of depth and fascinating writing skills that can really redeem this book to a great extent. A lovely debut, with a calculated structure and tone that's soft yet eerie near the end, can really stick to readers for some time. After all, who knew that one car accident, just one could change, has changed and is changing everything completely.

Written in the perspective of three exclusive teen voices, Hendrick unravels to what seems like a tragic accident into how it can alter people's lives and decisions, or even how one perceives an issue. The Accident was a little mind-boggling to start with as the structure was very cryptic- yet I admired it in the end. So basically, we are set in time zones. Before, After and Later. One character for each time zone. And can I say, Hendrick utilised this structure advantageously and craftily.

The characters were a little boring for my tastes but they did show some fine character development. We have Eliat in Before. She's rebellious and messed-up, with a baby, Eliat's trying to juggle looking after Tash, school and partying all at once. No one can really blame her for just wanting to drive aimlessly. A much more reserved female we have under Later is Sarah. New school, new surroundings and disarrayed family. What else could get worse? For me, Sarah was a little too sensitive but was much more relatable. And then we have Will, we follow him as After and his story. I didn't really feel much emotion off Will but maybe that was the key- his minor withdrawal. However, what links these three characters cogently is that they are all lost. And this accident changed/is changing/ is about to change this.

All in all, The Accident was a bland ride for me but had a lovely structure and simple idea which was executed quite well.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this was a bit slow at the start and it took me awhile to get into it.
This is about three teenagers Sarah, Will and Eliat.
Will lives at home with his mother and two sisters. He spends most of his time in his room reading.
Eliat is a teenage mum and lives with her foster parents.
Sarah was involved in a car accident a year ago which she still carries the scars from and still has pain in one leg.
As the story unfolds we learn how the accident will connect these people any how their lives will change forever.

The chapters alternate between later, after and before which is where we get three different points of view. This style of writing is probably what took me awhile to get use to. I think it was an interesting read and one I'm sure many will enjoy.

[Marga · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I tell them that we can't always control what happens to us. But we can control how we respond to it."

Ehh. This was not a bad book but I can't really say that I like it either. I almost DNFed this because:

1. It's boring.

I like books that manage to capture my interest and could hold it until the end. Unfortunately, this book didn't do it for me.

2. I didn't connect with any of these characters.

I found them bland. There's no one that really stood out or affected me in some way.

Hmm. Eliat, maybe. I didn't know at first that she's Tash's mother. That's a lot of baggage to be thrown in a child. She was so young.

3. The POVs.

The book has 3 POVs without indicating which POV is the chapter about. Confusing as hell at the beginning but you'll get use to it somehow.

The ending is a complete mess. I am so confused on how these characters are connected in some way. So many of my questions are left unanswered. Others said to take note of the 'before, after, later' but I didn't because I couldn't really get what they mean.

Ahh sorry. I didn't enjoy this book. Maybe others will find this appealing but it's just not for me.

*ARC provided by publisher/author via Edelweiss in exchanged of a honest review.*

[Eugenia (Genie In A Book) · Rating 4 out of 5]

*This review also appears on the blog Chasm of Books*

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Told in a nuanced yet powerful tone, The Accident is an impressive piece of contemporary YA which delves into the lives of three teenagers as they come to terms with the aftermath of a car crash which impacted all of their lives forever. Each in their own distinct situations, Eliat, Will and Sarah all have their own challenges to face moving forward. From before, after and later, it still becomes clear that this one event in their lives had changed so much about them and their families. As their stories begin to converge, the novel takes on an even more captivating quality.

Sometimes when I can't sleep I stare at my ceiling and wonder about the other people who were there, whether it changed them somehow too, or whether they simply walked away and forgot about me and Robbie...They all had that look on their faces that said, 'That's terrible, but at least it didn't happen to me'.

It may be a little difficult at the start to distinguish the 'who's who' of the characters in each section at first, but it soon becomes apparent that it's Eliat 'before', Will 'after' and Sarah 'later'. Eliat is trying to finish school while living with her foster parents and two year old daughter, Will is living with his reclusive mother and two sisters who he struggles to connect with and Sarah is surviving with an injury and having to fit in to a new school while her family attempts to work past the tragedy. The three POV's alternate throughout the novel, meaning that we get a glimpse into each of the character's lives and all their tumultuous emotions which go with them. Understanding what a colossal impact this one car accident had on them all, with a ripple effect which engulfed so many others really added to the depth of the story. It isn't written precociously, but rather the writing clearly conveys what the characters are feeling with a simplicity which is actually quite beautiful in itself.

I've seen a lot of people try to move on from different things. Some people manage it, others don't. Sometimes they can't because they still need answers. They still have questions.

The three characters were so different and underwent some interesting development as the novel progressed. One little thing which stood out for me was that 'The accident' itself never got mentioned explicitly in great detail. This highlighted that although in many YA novels where such an event is involved there is always a focus on what made it happen in the first place, in this case the entire focus is on what happened next. All with their own challenges, quirks, and methods of dealing with the aftermath, I found myself drawn to each of them in a different way. Eliat for instance, may have seemed like a total party-girl and rebellious teen who didn't really connect with her foster parents Terry and Rose-Marie, but she does still care about her daughter Tash. What the author did really well was separate the novel into three parts, tell three seemingly different stories and then bring them back together.

CONCLUSION

Kate Hendrick has produced a stunning debut with her novel The Accident which is a fascinating novel from a talented Australian author. I would definitely recommend this novel for its expertly woven plot and unique insight into a tragedy and how it has an impact on everyone involved.

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Original review can be found at http://kristineandterri.blogspot.ca/2...

I received an ARC from Text Publishing company via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. The publication date is November 11, 2014 however it appears to be a re-release.

This book took a little while to get use to. It is told from the point of view of three different teenagers in three different time frames...before, after and later. The time frames revolve around the "accident" that the reader knows little about but learns of as the story progresses. Normally I really like this style of writing but I found it to be a little confusing at first.

Ultimately it is a story of how actions and events shape the lives of three different people and the people in their lives. Although not previously connected, one event can dramatically change and impact the lives of numerous other people. It is a story about growth, understanding and figuring out where and how your life will lead you.

I liked the story and enjoyed seeing how each character evolved but I did find it a little slow. I fear that young readers will find it a little boring particularly Will's story. Although I understood and appreciated the message that was being conveyed, I'm unsure all reader will. It was a beautiful story but I feel it lacked something (although I don't know what) that would show the true beauty of it. Perhaps if the accident was at the beginning of the story instead of at the end? I don't know.

This is Hendrick's first novel and I look forward to seeing what she comes out with next.

[Trisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quiet yet intense. Loved the multiple narrators and loved the suspense built up by denying us access to all the information around the accident. I wanted Will's story to have a stronger connection, but gees, that's nit picking, because really I found it totally compelling.

With an interesting structure & realistic characters, this narrative offers a powerful exploration of grief and loss.

[Adele Broadbent · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great story in the fact that it focuses on the people who witness the accident and not the victims themselves - although who is to say the witnesses weren't victims too?

It is set before, after and around the accident.

Interesting concept.

[Trish Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like I just kept waiting for something to happen but nothing ever did.

[WJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Accident is a middle-of-the-road book, in that there's nothing particularly outstanding or terrible about the book. It's just a solid meh. An accident connects the stories of three individuals, with the book's perspectives alternating between "before, after and later". These perspectives are Eliat, Will and Sarah respectively.

Eliat is a wild teenager, who struggles with managing the expectations of her foster parents and with her young daughter, Tash. Abandoned since childhood, Eliat has never really felt like she belonged anywhere. Will has never felt like he belonged in his family either, not with his headstrong older sister who's always seemed to operate by her own moral standards and not with his stubborn younger sister, who never really treats Will like much of an older brother. His mother is often absent, trapped in her own world because of her occupation as an author. Sarah is recovering from an accident, having lost her younger brother because of it. Sarah's family is also reeling from the loss, with her loud overbearing mother burying herself in work whereas her stepfather is trying to deal with the pain as much as possible.

These characters are pretty well fleshed-out and I did get a sense of who they were as people. Eliat's perspective is particularly sympathetic, even if she does many questionable and irresponsible things. Eliat basically feels trapped in her own life and her choices thus far and it's pretty sad to read about. Meanwhile, Sarah is a totally likable character, who's dealing with the guilt from the accident but is clear-eyed enough to see the strain the accident has put on her parents' marriage. Will is probably the least-likable character, because I didn't really understand how or why he continuously just stood by as his mother distanced herself from the family.

Because we are promised that The Accident would intertwine these characters' perspectives, I had definitely hoped that we would learn more about the connection between these stories. But aside from the "before, after, later" structure, we don't really get a sense of how they are connected. If I understand correctly, it seems like Eliat is the girl who rescued Sarah from the car crash and because of that, she gets an awakening and realises that she shouldn't be wasting her life like that. Because of Sarah's accident, her rescuer Daniel breaks up with Will's older sister, which sends her back into town and causes a change within Will's family. I was definitely hoping for more details about how these characters would touch each other's lives, so it was kinda disappointing that that was really it.

[Georgina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is hard for me to write because I’m still so confused. I did enjoy the book but the whole time I felt as if I was waiting for a twist or some sort of event to link the three perspectives together. Like others have said, the lack of names on each chapter confused me at first but I eventually got into it quite well. The end was jarring as I turned the last page expecting another part and it just ended like that? How did the stories all tie together? Obviously I get Sarah and Eliats, but why was the ‘after’ chapter so important? Maybe if it focused on Morgan but her brother? How was he connected? It just seemed silly to have spent the whole time reading about it and he didn’t have any real connection to the accident as such.

[Vicky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very lazily written book. All of the characters were unbelievable stereotypical; caricatures rather than realistic people. We have the stalker, the mistress, the teenager with an eating disorder, the unfaithfully husband, the overbearing senior doctor etc. The author appeared to be attempting cleavernes by keeping switching to the coroner's court, but this was simply irritating; it failed completely to heighten the (none existent) tension which I assume was the intended effect. All in all I won't be reading anything else from this author.

[Ananya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book started out pretty well, and I was actually was enjoying it. But then the ending came, and I wasn't satisfied. It ended on a weird note, and I would've liked to explore the actual car crash a little more. The only reason I got this book was that I had other books on hold, so I needed something to read until those books were ready to be picked up. And this book did exactly that. So I would recommend this book if you're looking for something short but sweet.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

heart wrenching, thought provoking and spell-binding, this book is destined to be an Aussie classic that should be read by the whole world. So many themes were covered in this book, I didn't want the book to end!

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult to follow at the beginning with the different chapters from different perspectives and the way they were titled, but a beautiful book overall. I enjoyed the small photography parts as it is something that I enjoy and can relate to.

[Anne Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked seeing how they all fit together and figuring it out even though it was written all there. Very good 😋

[Sofia B · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING AND CAPTIVATING. PERIOD.

[Małgosia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread 3,5/5⭐
Uwielbiam końcowe refleksje 🫶

[Abi]

Dnf couldn’t finish

[Ernie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welcome to a new Sydney writer with this impressive debut novel for young adults, Kate Hendrick. She establishes a pattern with her chapter headings, Later, After and Before so I wonder, as the characters are introduced, what happened last year to the narrator Sarah who is beginning year 12 in a new school. Who is Robbie and what happened that night to him? Then in the next chapter After, a new, unnamed narrator of a dream is indicated by italic print as the older brother of Morgan who is making a mess as usual spray painting the backdrop for her school production of King Lear in which she is playing Cordelia. Next the drought breaks with a heavy storm threatening the backdrop laid out to dry in the yard and there is a blackout but even this is not enough to bring their mother out of her locked room. The brother goes running after midnight when the storm has eased but he becomes tense with anxiety as his older sister Lauren, skeletal and silent, returns home unexpectedly, treating him as if he didn’t exist.
In Before, the third and typically brief chapter, there is more mystery as another narrator, 17 year old Eliat, an intriguing name spelling with no gender clues, arrives home from a driving lesson where two year old Tash is in the bath with Rose-Marie while her partner Terry and Eliat joke about drugs and sex on Saturday night when she will be left alone in the house with Tash,. However, I don’t believe the joking when Eliat slips rum into her coke. It’s February and in the full heat of the drought so one connection with After is then reinforced by Terry working at the Bureau of Meteorology. At this stage, I wish the title had not been The Accident and that I hadn’t read the back page blurb so if you like working through fictional puzzles, avoid that back page.
As the pattern continues in the next chapter, Later, I learn that Sarah now avoids driving and that she and Morgan share an interest in art and photography. As the minor characters are added, I wonder why Morgan’s sister Lauren has returned home to a place she hates and I learn that the mother locked in her room is a writer who seems to be depressed after their father left the marriage. In another Before chapter, I find that Eliat is female, at last beginning to suggest her relationship with Tash is that of a single mother while now, perhaps on an earlier Saturday night she is drunk at a party, regretting sex with a stranger, showing off with pot smoking and arriving home drunk. In another After chapter, the second narrator, Morgan and Lauren’s brother is at last named as Will on page 83 where his memories of a much earlier family crisis are more easily identified with italic print and another link is opened up with Morgan’s story when he reveals the siblings’ determination not to be taken into foster care.
Looking back on my first reading, I realised that, using my usual method of not worrying about characters’ names in the early chapters because they will become clear later on, I settled into the immediacy of the present tense narrations of three teenagers. Looking back afterwards to write the review, I got more confused as a writer than I had been as a reader and got the relationships and identities wrong. The good part is that I enjoyed wondering about where the events and characters would coalesce as they do. Thanks to Marianne, a more alert Goodreads reader than I, for the corrections.
A good idea about the unexpected in fiction is that I can enjoy it but also recognise that the writer has convinced me that I should have expected it. The movements of the stories up and down the time scale are part of the writer’s method of gradually revealing the character’s memories that they are trying to suppress. Kate Hendrick succeeds in developing a cathartic end story that brings resolution to the tensions that she raised.
I recommend The Accident for readers from fourteen years of age and older. The drug and sex references are essential background material and do not take the focus away from the moral and emotional choices that the characters have to face. Every teenager wants to drive a car so this is one story that they all should read and absorb because the writer does not preach: she trusts her readers to come to their own conclusions.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I read YA fiction I sometimes pass onto my teenage grandchildren…I look for engaging storylines with age appropriate content. While The Accident was well written with some interesting character development, I found the overall structure with chapter titles “before”; “after”; “later” didn’t work for me (it was confusing) so my guess is it would quickly lose the interest of the average 14+ year old?? To help keep the flow from one reading to the next (I tried to read at least a chapter each night) I used post-it notes to label each chapter with the main characters’ names (there are many to keep track of!) & that helped. Chapters based on this structure seems to be a popular technique in contemporary fiction? ( I recently read Nicole Haye’s A Shadow’s Breath with “then”/“now” chapter titles. So I was left wondering if a more conventional structure eg a main character name, might attract a wider range of reading abilities within the YA audience? There are some very adult issues explored so…more appropriate for 15++ depending on the YA’s maturity etc.

[Narrelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Accident by Kate Hendric is a terrific book, and so smoothly and confidently written in a first novel. It is superb. It’s elegant. It’s complex. It seems to be going one way and then goes another.

The story is told through the eyes of three different people – Sarah, Will and Eliat – but also through three different points in time – Before, After and Later. The narrative explores the ripple effect of a car accident.

First we meet Sarah, Later – starting at a new school, repeating year 12, recovering from the leg injury she got in the accident and working through the loss she and her family experienced as well. She and they are both struggling with what has happened. Throughout the chapters we see Sarah’s emotional struggle through her art. She loves photography, but has taken to constructing technically perfect but emotionally distanced pictures of buildings.

Next, we meet Will, After. The accident is not mentioned, but we learn that one of Will’s sisters was deeply affected by the events surrounding the crash, which occurred during a drought-breaking storm. Will’s family already faces challenges, including the emotional absence of their writer mother and the sudden reappearance of the father who abandoned them. Will’s relationship with Lauren changes, though, because Lauren has changed. His other sister, Morgan – who is a Later friend of Sarah’s – is creative and angry. Will’s neighbour, Kayla, is bringing changes into his life as well. Everything is changing everything else, and Will is poised at the cusp, afraid to change with it, but maybe afraid not to, as well.

Eliat we meet in the time Before. A teen mum staying with foster parents, she’s trying to deal with school, her daughter, her foster parents and her discontent and pain about her past. She drinks, she lies, she is caught between the responsibilities of parenthood, the need to be a child and the gaping absence of memory that set her on this path. She needs change too, if only she can see it.

Characters meet and circle each other, part of the network of cause and effect. The teens and their families are beautifully written: believable and fragile in their grief and difficulties. It’s brilliant how the night of the accident is approached from all these time points, so that when it comes near the end of the novel, you know what’s led to it, what spins out from it, but the actual facts of the accident are not known until that last moment. That it’s not what you thought (or feared) is an elegant bit of plotting and writing.

One of the aspects of this book I loved so well was the relationship of various characters to creativity. Will’s mother’s creativity has become a wall erected between her and her family, a destructive force rather than one of release and connection. Sarah’s photography has become sterile, because she cannot let herself feel. Morgan’s passion for theatre and art are her only release when her family connections have failed her. Kayla’s final, very practical work of craft has an enormous emotional impact, while Eliat’s focus on neural mapping and memory technique are a way to creatively capture the gaps in her life, to try to make sense of them. The act of creation is, like the fact of being human, laden with meaning about change, growth and connection.

The Accident‘s subject matter is loss and grief, but its themes are healing, connection and change. Those are subject and themes we all know too well in our lives, and Kate Hendrick offers a thoughtful, compassionate study on them all.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

The Accident is the story of Sarah Starke, Will McAlpine and Eliat Singleton whose lives are in some form connected. With the backdrop of Sydney, Australia it is an engaging and thought provoking read.

The characters: I enjoyed quiet, introverted Sarah the most, she has just started a new school and is trying to adapt to the recent changes in her family life as well as recover from the accident which happened a year prior; Will’s family life is difficult and I found his love of reading quite endearing but he came across as an unfeeling character and Eliat is in the foster system raising her two year-old daughter Tash but still living her wild lifestyle, she is the character I connected with the least because I didn’t feel she truly appreciated what she had and seemed oblivious to her own situation, as tough as it was.

The plot: Was interesting with three very different characters trying to decide the directions they will take with their lives, the changes they needed to make and their purpose; I was intrigued by each of their differing situations and struggles and felt each grew as the book progressed despite the problems they faced. It showed that all actions have some form of consequence and I liked the underlying message.

I felt the overall feel of The Accident was quite morose; I had to stop at one stage for a breather and a bit of light reading, the pacing of the first few chapters were quite slow and took me a while to get into but once I did, I was riveted. The characters show vulnerability and emotions true to their age which I appreciated, the story is told in time perspectives of Before, After and Later and it was all tied together in the end nicely.

My biggest gripe with this book was trying to work out whose point of view each chapter was coming from, Sarah, Will or Eliat’s, it was especially difficult in the initial stages where we were still working out who is who but I came to get accustomed to each characters unique voice as I read along.

The Accident was written extremely well, I enjoyed Ms. Hendrick’s style of writing and her characterisations. It is a book which evokes a lot of emotions and curiosity; it is a wonderful debut for Kate Hendrick and the Sydney setting I always find appealing.

Thank-you kindly to Text Publishing for providing me with a copy of The Accident to read and review.

[Myrthe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating this book is quite hard since I have so many different thoughts about it -I loved the way the story was put together and the writing was good, but the characters; not so much.

The use of the before, after and later chapters was genious. I think it takes some reading skills to get used to it, but once you do you'll definitely be able to enjoy the structure. It gives the story something extra and also a tension building up to find out how the three people will get affected by the accident (except from Sarah, you know that from the start).

As I said above, I didn't really like the characters and the reason was basically that I couldn't identify myself at all with them or feel emotion for them. they were all a bit bland. Sarah was the most likable one and I enjoyed reading her chapters the most. I can't really tell why I didn't like reading about Will, but I guess it had something to do with him observing so much and not really acting. Add the totally ridiculous mother and the sisters who can't even be nice to their own siblings and you'll get a family situation which I just don't get.
And last but not least; Eliat. I did want to read what would happen to her and Tash, but that didn't make me hate her less. Maybe it would've been easier if the author added something that could made me feel for her. Now I just thought she had to grow up and get her act together. She did have the brains for it, so why not use them?

The plot was okay, but for some reason I expected the stories to get more intertwined or at least that the accident had a bigger effect on them -or on Wills family at least. Yes, after the accident Daniel broke up with Lauren and maybe that was the thing that made her come home, but I'm not even sure if that was the thing that changed Will.
I also thought we would learn who the driver without the headlights was and why he/she forgot to put them on. Still, the concept is good and I wish I could read more stories like this.

Overall; the book was okay, I did like the writing and style, but I think the characters ruined it for me.

[Kelly (Diva Booknerd) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2013/11/t...
The Accident is a realistic view of the lives of the average teen and what the ensure each day. Eliat is a teen mother, who takes the emotional and and financial support of her foster parents for granted. She's selfish and at first I didn't realise that she was a single mother, her free and easy lifestyle seemingly ruined by Tash. Yet she won't allow her foster parents to raise her, and resents Rose Marie for being a responsible guardian. Will is the quiet achiever, a lover of literature and has just begun seeing his neighbour Kayla in a new light, and Sarah, who's life changed dramatically after the accident, is learning to cope without her brother. Three teens from different worlds, all changed.

It was beautifully written, raw and honest and the vast majority of young adult will be able to relate to the issues all three face. The storyline beautifully woven and connects the three main characters in one way or another and told from before, after and later, surrounding the accident. It felt confusing to begin with, as each chapter is told from a different point of view without stating which character it is. It's only as the story unfolds that you can recognise each one. Readers should make note of which character has the before, after and later points of view, as it will make for an easier read.

Tash left me heartbroken and I found the little girl's plight devastating. Eliat's lifestyle is confronting and readers will more than likely be affected by her story more so than Will and Sarah combined. A clever debut about what life throws at us, but it's the choices we make that makes the difference.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Accident is the first novel by Australian author, Kate Hendrick. This talented young writer uses three young voices, Sarah, Will and Eliat, to narrate the events leading up to (Before), and following, the accident (After), and to reveal the impact that it has on many lives (Later). Sarah is trying to regain a normal life after an accident that devastates her family; Eliat is a teenaged mum who seems to be on a collision course with disaster; and Will is unsure how to react to changes at home. A tenuous thread connects these three lives. Hendrick’s characters, situations and interactions will resonate with young adult readers, so these voices will certainly appeal to them, but the characters have more than enough depth to hold the interest of older readers as well. The novel has intrigue as the reader waits to discover the who, why and how of the accident, as well as how the characters are connected, and the ending is impossible to anticipate. Hendrick touches on a myriad of subjects: guilt and blame, responsibility, communication, identity crisis and the direction of one’s life. Although Alan has some great lines (“We can't control the things that happen to us; we can only control how we respond to them.”), and Sarah also displays exceptional wisdom (“Every one of us – who and what we are – is the product of other people’s choices as well as our own”), Hendrick gives the best lines to Will, including gems like: “To venture out causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one’s self…” and “Why would you want glory if the cost is everything else?”. This is an exceptional debut.

[Chantal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This incredibly cryptic and twisted storyline took some time to get into and unravel. The three characters are all narrated in the first person, with each one's story occurring either before, during or after the accident (and few clues as to who is speaking). This alone makes the story incredibly complex and requires the reader to follow each story carefully, in order to make the necessary connections.

I gave the beginning of the story a 3 and the end of the story a 4, as the character's storylines came together and evolved beautifully. The challenge of understanding what is happening may be off-putting to less able readers, but the capable ones will enjoy the rewards of sticking with this one.
3.5 stars

Suited to ages 15+ some older themes including use of alcohol, drugs, sex,inadequate parenting, etc.

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for access to this title.

I really wasn't enjoying this one, but the wrap up at the end brought it all together and redeemed it a little. The biggest issue I had with this - and it was a HUGE issue to me - was the lack of viewpoint identifiers. Everytime there was a new chapter and a new character took over, it took quite a while for me to figure out which part of the story I was now reading. It completely took me out of the book every time. The Before, After, and Later labels were great, but I also needed to know who I was reading about at any given time.

This probably would have been a 2 star rating for me if it hadn't been for the final chapters. I think I would have given it closer to 4 stars if I hadn't had to struggle so much identifying characters.

[Deborah]

The uncommon story structure makes this book stand out: Sarah has physically recovered, but not emotionally; Will doesn’t know what’s throwing his life into chaos; Eliat needs, in short, a sign. The fact that the author made the story clear well before telling speaks to her skill. This is definitely a ‘think about it later’ book, entertaining but with implications you don’t fully realize until after it’s finished.

It was a story of small triumphs for Will and Sarah. I can see how that threw some people. In some ways it worked, in others a little less. Reality has to be a factor in a story like this, that makes it so powerful, and in reality you cannot fix everything. Because so much relied on other people than the protagonists, though, they could seem like (pardon the term!) vehicles rather than characters.