Mary is a quiet, middle-aged woman doing her best to blend into the background. Unremarkable. Invisible. Unknown even to herself.
But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can’t look in a mirror without passing out, and the voices in her head have been urging her to do unspeakable things.
Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown, hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self. Instead, visions of terrifying, mutilated specters overwhelm her with increasing regularity and she begins auto-writing strange thoughts and phrases. Mary discovers that these experiences are echoes of an infamous serial killer.
Then the killings begin again.
Mary’s definitely going to find herself.
The Review
MARY
Nat Cassidy
Mary is middle-aged or rather old and getting older by the day. And one day, like no other day, she begins to experience unexplainable things. Things that don’t happen to women like Mary.
This was a lot of fun. Mary was a fun character. At first, I thought she was going to be written as a deviant and she was nothing of the sort.
There is a meandering quality to the storyline. And for a horror book that doesn’t have a big story structure, it feels long. I think they could have trimmed it down.
Imagine falling asleep in the bath and having an out-of-body experience. That is this book in a nutshell. And it is as scary as the day you stop being carded at the bar.
Overall though, for me, MARY was a mix. I think the book was a great concept and Mary as a character was well articulated and very clear. However, the story itself lacked the clarity and succinctness I like in horror fiction.
As a side note, I listened to this on audiobook and thought that Susan Bennett, the narrator, did a fantastic job. She added authenticity to her character and her voice is now forever intertwined with Mary in my mind.
MARY…⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire for the advanced copies!
Have to agree about it being a bit long, and sometimes felt a little off kilter. I was expecting some strange plot twists but, mostly I guessed them all, and even thought it went deeper than it actually did. I liked and didn’t like Mary, she was a complicated character, once I read the authors notes about her starting the book at 13, it made more sence. The fact that the book took so long to write is probably why it gave me the feeling of changing and chopping so much. Every time Mary would have some conclusions then change her mind a dozen times, that got a little tiring and the ending was a little lack luster. I also was a little put off by the blatant misandorist message, but overall I did enjoy the book.
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