My feelings on this book are...complicated. On the one hand, like other reviewers, I thought Amber, the main plot mover, stretched belief: what family is so uncommunicative that they let a complete stranger into their homes and lives so easily? Amber is so rude that I was left wondering why on earth she is so important to the family members, because I would kick her out on her blonde butt. Not to mention the cliches. SO MANY cliches. The family is a plethora: the adulterous professor who finds poetic inspiration through sex; the irreverent teenager whose irreverence hides insecurities enough to fill Fort Knox; the boy with a dark secret; the novelist out of ideas. On the craftsmanship side of things, the prose is very poetic, which sometimes hits my exact "oh this is beautiful" sweet spot and other times is over the top and eyeroll-worthy. Existence is hard. We get it.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I had a good think about this book involving a white board and multi-colored dry erase markers. And I realized all the cliches and Amber's rudeness is the point of the novel. I know, hear me out. In the beginning, the family is living their cliche lives. We, the readers, are bored and wish the family would get over themselves. Amber does just that. Really. She is our savior. See, Amber smashes. Amber is like the Hulk. Amber smashes and shakes and finger points and talks and sexytimes the family out of their funk. She is the Destroyer, who destroys typical modes of being and the boxes people put themselves in. She shocks people into talking and speaking authentically with her, and then in turn speaking authentically with each other. In a book obsessed with visuals (see: the cover), Amber deposits the thesis that it is through words that we confront reality and connect to others. That's why The Accidental is a novel, full of words, and not a photo book or a movie.

Now, getting people to talk to one another is a worthy, important message. It's Man Booker Prize worthy, which is the prize The Accidental was nominated for. Ali Smith obviously worked very hard on this book and probably obsessed over each word and indent. However, I had to get through a lot of crap and use up some perfectly good dry erase markers to get to her message. That's a pretty high barrier and explains to me why The Accidental doesn't have higher ratings.

So how to fix this? Add reader group discussion questions? Change the marketing to a poetic novel so people are warned ahead of time that extra thinking is required? I honestly don't know. Reading The Accidental was a journey I ended up enjoying, but emphasis on "ended."