Mary: An Awakening of Terror
Ratings50
Average rating4
A big, but not baggy modern horror novel which truly hit the spot. I crushed it in less than a week. One of the only horror novels I've read with a 50+ woman protagonist! Super gorey and engaging, with some complex and well-executed worldbuilding.
I liked the descriptions of the desert, and the beginning of the book. The end kind of fell off for me, I just don't know if I'm smart enough for this. Much of the last 1/3 went over my head. The afterward was great!
lovedddddd the writing because it has this beautifully horric nature, the body gore was top notch, and the themes in this book really resnoated with me but it dragged a lot. it also felt like it was messy and trying to do a lot. overall i end up with a lot of mixed feelings and emotions about this book because part of me was bored and part of me was entertained
“If you knew how much anger I had in me you'd say, “Thank God she's not a man. She might destroy millions. Thank God the only person she has the power to destroy Is herself.”
MARY effectively uses existing horror tropes to make for an enjoyable slow burn. Unfortunately, the twists in the final act don't make that burn worthwhile.
The final 10% of this book were pretty good, the other 90% was like a party that's not great but not quite bad enough to make me want to leave. That probably sounds worst than it should, I didn't hate my time with the book I was just mildly bored, the writing wasn't bad but I didn't feel engaged or invested in anything happening.
Neutral 2.5 rounded up.
3.5
Definitely don't read if you are triggered by verbal abuse, particularly misogynistic, and body horror.
i had a few issues with this but this is the most fun i've had with a book in a while and also if i hadn't known beforehand i wouldn't have thought this was written by a man which says a lot... i feel like the author took a lot of care in the way he wrote his female protagonist and im so appreciative of that
also i forgot to say i highly recommend listening to the audiobook the narrator is the best ive heard maybe ever
The real curse of womanhood is that we never get to forget we have a body.
3.5 stars - this was distinctive, weird, and horrifying, and it weaves in the plight of the middle-aged, perimenopausal woman in a really artful way. Not quite a home run for me because it's a little long and meandering for a tale with basically no likable characters. (Note: this is not to say the characters are poorly drawn, or that we don't sympathize with them or even cheer them on at times. It's just that ultimately, I spent most of my time not rooting for anyone.)
After the prologue, I felt like I knew exactly what was going on, and got a little impatient with the middle of the story, like, “You already told us what the reveal will be - just reveal it already!” But even after the reveal there are some shocking and intriguing developments!
This is very disturbing and explicitly gory, with some passages suggestive of even worse (which we mercifully do not see come to fruition, but know has happened to people in the past). If you're looking for something merely creepy/ghostly, this is not it! But the violence serves the story and is effectively depicted.
All in all, this was a good read, and I very much appreciate the author doing something different and strange. I also think he wrote with remarkable sympathy and knowledge about living in a perimenopausal body! This was a cool theme to choose, and he used his research and consultations with women to good effect.
I just finished Mary by Nat Cassidy and these are my thoughts on it,
Mary was so used to being an invisible woman to the world around her. The life suited her, a job in a bookstore, her porcelain dolls, then all that changes after she loses her job. What can a middle aged woman do in the world now?
Then a call comes in from her aunt, the woman who raised her after a house fire killed her parents. A woman who bullied and belittled her, all the while she was being bullied at school. But her aunt is begging her to come home to help her, she is dying. To sweeten the deal she offers to pay for her help. What choice does Mary have anyway. Things are happening to her that she doesn't understand. Voices in her head, avoiding mirrors and nightmares....
She thinks going home might be for the best but the town seems to still be gripped by a serial killer who was gunned down and killed by police on the day she was born....
This book gave me chills so bad. The writing was beyond gruesome! It was exactly what I was looking for in a horror book! I loved the build up of who Mary was and what was going on with her but the book was really long for a horror and I feel it really could have been condensed down without losing the magic.
Mary, to begin with, feels like a lonely middle aged woman with no real family. Unloved and broken by a world that didn't seem to understand her. As the book progresses you will find that this wasn't the case at all as Mary begins to learn and remember what it was like living with her aunt before leaving the small town in Arizona.
The town has a dark edge to it and I loved watching that all unfold and aunt Nadine, being a conspiracy theorist... Loved it. She's my kind of lady! This book pulled out all the stops to give you the kind of nightmares you haven't had since you were a child! I was thoroughly creeped out! I loved the serial killer elements too!
The only downside was I felt it was too long. If you really enjoy long books then this one will knock your socks off!
4 stars! Thank you netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, for my ARC in exchange for you honest review.