Scan barcode
magellen's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The author's note alone made me doubt continuing - what is it about white dudes where they beg you to give the book a chance because you'll LOVE it if you do? And then an afterword of 'I probably am not the person to write this book but I wanted to so SHRUG'?
Anyway my spouse asked if the author had used 'heavy pendulous breasts' yet, being a dude writing middle aged women, and literally two paragraphs down, badabing badaboom. 🙃
Book takes far far far too long to get its legs and then keeps on ass dragging. There's decent turn of phrase but ugh. Like. Through and through, just...give yourself a break. Read something else.
Anyway my spouse asked if the author had used 'heavy pendulous breasts' yet, being a dude writing middle aged women, and literally two paragraphs down, badabing badaboom. 🙃
Book takes far far far too long to get its legs and then keeps on ass dragging. There's decent turn of phrase but ugh. Like. Through and through, just...give yourself a break. Read something else.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, and Gore
archaicrobin's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Mary is about a sincerely weird middle aged woman with identity issues who returns to her verbally abusive aunt’s home in hopes of reliving her past and finding out who she is. Unfortunately, Mary is tied to the town in ways she never expected and is haunted not just by her past, but by actual malevolent spirits only she can see.
This one is a gory, weird, humorous, and empowering novel about how society views middle aged woman mixed with a violent twisted cult led by a misogynistic serial killer and kooky townspeople.
Mary was hard for me to get into at first just because Mary herself it is not very likable to begin with and the story moves a little slowly. However, I stuck with it and I’m glad I did because once things start happening they don’t stop! I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this one, and recommend it to anyone looking for a horror novel that’s disturbing and twisty but feminist and reflective. Check content warnings for sure, this one is gory.
This one is a gory, weird, humorous, and empowering novel about how society views middle aged woman mixed with a violent twisted cult led by a misogynistic serial killer and kooky townspeople.
Mary was hard for me to get into at first just because Mary herself it is not very likable to begin with and the story moves a little slowly. However, I stuck with it and I’m glad I did because once things start happening they don’t stop! I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this one, and recommend it to anyone looking for a horror novel that’s disturbing and twisty but feminist and reflective. Check content warnings for sure, this one is gory.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Misogyny, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Death of parent, Child abuse, Sexism, Animal death, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Chronic illness, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, and Gore
morganmay's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I absolutely loved this book. If you read it you HAVE to read the author’s notes (one at the beginning and one at the end) as they are a huge part of the reason I loved this. I won’t give too much away, but it definitely went a different direction than I predicted and I will keep parts of Thai book with me forever.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Abandonment, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Cancer, Death of parent, Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Torture, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Stalking, Misogyny, Bullying, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Violence, and Trafficking
readundancies's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
So at one point this year I declared that The Year of 2022 was my Year of Sci-Fi.
Guess what?
I lied.
I lied unconscionably.
Because Our Year of 2022 was not a sci-fi renaissance for me.
No, it was the Year I Discovered Horror and Unwittingly Fell For It, Hook-Line-and-Sinker.
And this book?
This book just kicked things up a notch further because I thought it was BRILLIANT.
To start off, it reminded me a bit of Oh Honey by Emily R. Austin, but I’m not sure I can articulate why. Perhaps it’s the neurotic tone so rooted in both? Alongside the female perspective, it was giving off strong madwoman trope, which I’m starting to think is a trope that I’m not only inclined towards but subconsciously cannot get enough of.
There’s also something to be said for the narrative voice of this novel; it’s got the somewhat macabre nature of inside thoughts, the dark paths our minds sometimes tread, the offbeat threads our brains tend to follow into thickets of disturbing topics and unconventionally distressing scenes that are hidden beneath the dark and sinister depths of humanity.
And then you’re suddenly welcomed to an incredibly self-aware unreliable narrator: Mary.
She’s fucking great.
You can’t help feel for the tragic MC. She’s not exactly likeable, but she’s by no means a paragon of charm either. She’s incredibly flawed and broken and so hollow that she cannot help but try and fill the empty parts of her soul with other people.
The more the I got into this novel and the worldbuilding and the characters, the more strange and fucked up the plot became and the more I fell helplessly in love with how dark and macabre and straight up filthy some of the plot choices were. This was a culmination of so many little things doing it right.
And truly, there are so many great things I could talk about this book. Like, it took less than 300 pages for me to come to the conclusion that I needed to own a physical copy. Because every time I got to a new part, I found myself exclaiming aloud about how excited I was to continue. The way that Cassidy served us as readers the plot he has constructed was nothing short of brilliant in how captivating it all was.
I savoured this read because I could put this book down without fear that I wouldn’t want to ever pick it up again. I was always thoroughly engaged when I picked it back up because the characters that surrounded Mary were larger than life and Mary herself was so compelling. I liked her incredibly too much for the flawed person she was and the one she harboured, but it was in spite of myself. I couldn’t not be completely hooked by her duplicitous nature.
Also, the cover is genuinely one my favourite things. It’s such a vibe and I can’t imagine anything better than what David Palumbo and Esther S. Kim combined to create.
The Afterword in which Nat Cassidy takes the time to explain why he as a cisgendered male felt he needed to tell this story really sold this story for me. I thought it was fantastic and one of the best Afterwords I’ve ever read. Not that I go around rating them, but like, it was incredibly honest with the right amount of righteousness and it resonated with me by the end in a way that I’ve not come across before. It solidified the 5-star vibe I was feeling and it has no business being so impactful when it doesn’t affect the plot of the story at all.
And that ending. I could not envision an ending that ties up the loose ends so tightly. Poor Nancy and the perpetual blaming of innocent women who are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was sickening and disgusting and made my blood boil in such righteous rage because of how alike reality it ended up being. There were so many harsh truths stated throughout this novel and they hit different because nothing changes in the end. A lady is still at the root of a murderer’s motives, Mary is as invisible as she’s ever been and the little blurbs from FBI Agent Peter Arliss’ true crime account of the Arroyo Easter Massacre really come to a head. The parallels of a history doomed to repeat itself just with different players on a different day were infuriating but also so satisfying to get to experience as a reader.
This was fantastic, and I cannot say it enough.
If you’re looking for a reason to pick this up, consider this your reason.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Gore, Murder, Body horror, Body shaming, Animal death, Violence, Death, Emotional abuse, and Blood
jamieleepilk's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
More...