I’m going to keep this review brief, honest and to the point (scary, huh?).

I didn’t like Randy Susan Meyer’s latest, Accidents of Marriage. I know plenty of readers who did (I thoroughly enjoyed her previous book, The Comfort of Lies, which had some thoughtful and complex themes and really well-developed characters).

Accidents of Marriage fell short in a few ways –

– it felt contrived, as if Meyers was following a formula.

– the central theme is around the effects of emotional abuse but not enough was done to establish this and the fact that the point-of-view rotates between Maddy (the mother), Ben (the father), and their children, doesn’t help. Ben is certainly angry but at the same time Maddy initiates a lot of arguments, so the story doesn’t weight itself toward Maddy (which I think was the intention).

– the occupations of Maddy and Ben – social worker and public attorney respectively. Seriously? Was Meyers relying on the reader to say “These people should know better…”, coupled with the point that abuse happens at all socio-economic levels? Again, just too neat for my liking.

– the pace of the storytelling was all over the shop – you would think that Maddy’s recovery from severe brain trauma (and coma) would take months but it seems it’s all done in a matter of weeks.

2/5 Not for me.

I received my copy of Accidents of Marriage from the publisher, Atria Books via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

It’s all about takeaway food in this book, with pizza being Ben’s go-to meal. I like simple pizzas – a few basics such as prosciutto and mozzarella are perfect.