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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
This was so messed up and so good and so weird. I read it all in one sitting and only wish it were longer. It's also so much more than I thought it would be.
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
The more I think about the more terrifying it becomes
The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson is such an original horror story filled with life, death, and lots of blood. While reading, I felt very unsettled and anxious throughout; I loved it!
What an amazing plot! I thought it was so interesting that clones were created whenever Molly bled and didn't dispose of it properly. What a terrifying idea, especially for a woman! And then to top it off, you could never guess how quickly a molly would turn on her. One second they could be friends, the next they're fighting to the death! Phew!
Check out this quick passage:
The rules are simple.
If you see a girl that looks like you, run and fight.
Don't bleed.
If you bleed, blot, burn, and bleach.
If you find a hole, find your parents.
I get the chills each time I read that!
I thought that Molly was such an incredible character! I really enjoyed seeing her grow up while dealing with her very unique issue. I mean, it’s confusing enough to go through puberty, but add this on top of it all?
I also really enjoyed Molly’s relationship with her parents and how real it all seemed, especially during her teenage years!
The writing style and the pacing of the novel was perfect; it started with a bang and swept right me along. I was totally captivated with each and every page!
When I finished the last page, I was so happy with where the author had taken the story. I loved that it circled back to end this book in a wonderful way that could be left as a standalone (if you wanted to stop there of course), but an ending that also that leads perfectly into a second book.
My favorite passages:
I know things, but I can’t remember them. I feel teased by them. Have I had a head injury? It’s odd remembering that a head injury can cause memory loss but not remembering my phone number or my mother’s name or if I like coffee black. It’s like knowing someone is beside you, but not being able to turn your head.
“If you ever see a girl who looks like you, run. If you can’t run, fight…”
At night Molly sees monsters sometimes. She no longer gets scared because it has been going on since as long as she can remember. She sees them only at night, hiding in the bushes. They have long black bodies and eyes that sometimes glint, although sometimes they have no eyes at all. Her father told her that they are just bushes shaped like monsters. Her mother taught her a word for it: pareidolia. It is true that in the daytime she does not see them, but what Molly does is she stands at her window at night and draws the outline of the monster she sees each night. Come daylight she compares the night shape against the shape of the grass or trees or bushes. They do not match.
She is mostly surrounded by darkness. Her back is cooled by the roofing slats and the sky is made of ink, with an untamed spray of glitter, the Milky Way.
After this, James takes blood samples and biopsies at different times, depending on Molly's emotional state. He deliberately provokes her to anger, then tries to take a sample. This does not quite work out, because Molly punches him in the face.
My final thoughts:
This novella really packed a punch! It was chilling but also heartfelt. The level of suspense made it an unsettling read, but a fantastic read nonetheless.
This is a book that I immediately wanted to begin reading again as soon as I had finished reading it the first time. And it was just as amazing the second time around!
I highly recommend this book to fans of light body horror, or to readers that simply don't mind a lot of blood!
What an amazing plot! I thought it was so interesting that clones were created whenever Molly bled and didn't dispose of it properly. What a terrifying idea, especially for a woman! And then to top it off, you could never guess how quickly a molly would turn on her. One second they could be friends, the next they're fighting to the death! Phew!
Check out this quick passage:
The rules are simple.
If you see a girl that looks like you, run and fight.
Don't bleed.
If you bleed, blot, burn, and bleach.
If you find a hole, find your parents.
I get the chills each time I read that!
I thought that Molly was such an incredible character! I really enjoyed seeing her grow up while dealing with her very unique issue. I mean, it’s confusing enough to go through puberty, but add this on top of it all?
I also really enjoyed Molly’s relationship with her parents and how real it all seemed, especially during her teenage years!
The writing style and the pacing of the novel was perfect; it started with a bang and swept right me along. I was totally captivated with each and every page!
When I finished the last page, I was so happy with where the author had taken the story. I loved that it circled back to end this book in a wonderful way that could be left as a standalone (if you wanted to stop there of course), but an ending that also that leads perfectly into a second book.
My favorite passages:
I know things, but I can’t remember them. I feel teased by them. Have I had a head injury? It’s odd remembering that a head injury can cause memory loss but not remembering my phone number or my mother’s name or if I like coffee black. It’s like knowing someone is beside you, but not being able to turn your head.
“If you ever see a girl who looks like you, run. If you can’t run, fight…”
At night Molly sees monsters sometimes. She no longer gets scared because it has been going on since as long as she can remember. She sees them only at night, hiding in the bushes. They have long black bodies and eyes that sometimes glint, although sometimes they have no eyes at all. Her father told her that they are just bushes shaped like monsters. Her mother taught her a word for it: pareidolia. It is true that in the daytime she does not see them, but what Molly does is she stands at her window at night and draws the outline of the monster she sees each night. Come daylight she compares the night shape against the shape of the grass or trees or bushes. They do not match.
She is mostly surrounded by darkness. Her back is cooled by the roofing slats and the sky is made of ink, with an untamed spray of glitter, the Milky Way.
After this, James takes blood samples and biopsies at different times, depending on Molly's emotional state. He deliberately provokes her to anger, then tries to take a sample. This does not quite work out, because Molly punches him in the face.
My final thoughts:
This novella really packed a punch! It was chilling but also heartfelt. The level of suspense made it an unsettling read, but a fantastic read nonetheless.
This is a book that I immediately wanted to begin reading again as soon as I had finished reading it the first time. And it was just as amazing the second time around!
I highly recommend this book to fans of light body horror, or to readers that simply don't mind a lot of blood!
I read this in two sittings. That might not sound impressive due to its shortness, but I hardly ever read books, however short, this quickly. But I could not put this down, I needed to keep reading, and I needed to see where Tade Thompson would take this story next. He takes an already brilliant premise and then manages to make the execution an allegory for growing up female in a way that I found surprising. He does not shy away from from the most disturbing parts of his premise (like: what happens to the mollys born when Molly is very young?) and the phrase "a slow growing molly" gave me actual chills.
I don't read horror often (or at all) but this had me craving more which is quite possibly the highest praise I can think of. While not without its flaws (the novella format does limit the length), I cannot WAIT for the next book in this series to drop. I need to know more about this world and mostly about Molly's mother, who I found highly interesting and not quite fleshed out enough.
First sentence: "I wake into a universe defined by pain."
PS: I did have nightmares because of this, make of that what you will.
You can find this review and other thoughts on my blog.
I don't read horror often (or at all) but this had me craving more which is quite possibly the highest praise I can think of. While not without its flaws (the novella format does limit the length), I cannot WAIT for the next book in this series to drop. I need to know more about this world and mostly about Molly's mother, who I found highly interesting and not quite fleshed out enough.
First sentence: "I wake into a universe defined by pain."
PS: I did have nightmares because of this, make of that what you will.
You can find this review and other thoughts on my blog.
Molly discovers as a young girl that anytime she bleeds, a doppelganger of herself develops who tries to murder her. She deals with this almost daily as she grows up. She is sheltered, home schooled, and rarely ever leaves her family's farm until she goes to college. It's at this point where she begins to learn what happened that causes this to happen.
This short novella is definitely creepy. The story is well written, but I didn't connect with the characters as much as I'd hoped I would. The ending appears rather quick, so you must read the next book to see what happens as none of the loose ends are tied up in this book's ending.
This short novella is definitely creepy. The story is well written, but I didn't connect with the characters as much as I'd hoped I would. The ending appears rather quick, so you must read the next book to see what happens as none of the loose ends are tied up in this book's ending.
I am really not sure what to say about Tade Thompson’s novella The Murders of Molly Southborne. It’s an amazing piece of work with an emotional kick at the end that doesn’t let you go for quite some time.
Molly Southborne is different. Whenever she is injured, whenever she bleeds, her blood spawns copies of her, other Mollies, murderous Mollies, most of whom are intent on killing her, and sometimes other people too.
She grows up on a farm with only her parents for company. When she’s young, they kill the mollies for her. As she gets older, they teach her how to be as careful as she can be not to injure herself, how to neutralise the blood she can’t avoid shedding with bleach and fire. But there’s always something you can’t avoid, so they also teach her how to fight and kill the mollies, how to dispose of the bodies.
So many bodies, so many copies of herself.
Eventually she grows up, and hoes away to university, and makes contacts that give her the chance to learn more about herself and the mollies. After her parents die - killed by mollies themselves - she learns, maybe, why she is the way she is. But none of this knowledge brings comfort, and there seems to be no way out of the cycle of creating and killing mollies.
Until she thinks of a way.
This story walks the line between science fiction and horror, rather like such stories as The Thing and The Body Snatchers, both of which are also stores about identity and infection and threat. It’s probably no accident that, as we discover at one point, Molly’s mother was a sleeper agent, a source of infection hidden in the body of the state, or that Molly spreads a slow and hidden infection as well as creating the mollies that can pass as human. This is about the visceral horror of something horribly wrong within the self, and in the ways that the self reproduces. And like the tropes it plays on, it gets inside of you and doesn’t let go.
Molly Southborne is different. Whenever she is injured, whenever she bleeds, her blood spawns copies of her, other Mollies, murderous Mollies, most of whom are intent on killing her, and sometimes other people too.
She grows up on a farm with only her parents for company. When she’s young, they kill the mollies for her. As she gets older, they teach her how to be as careful as she can be not to injure herself, how to neutralise the blood she can’t avoid shedding with bleach and fire. But there’s always something you can’t avoid, so they also teach her how to fight and kill the mollies, how to dispose of the bodies.
So many bodies, so many copies of herself.
Eventually she grows up, and hoes away to university, and makes contacts that give her the chance to learn more about herself and the mollies. After her parents die - killed by mollies themselves - she learns, maybe, why she is the way she is. But none of this knowledge brings comfort, and there seems to be no way out of the cycle of creating and killing mollies.
Until she thinks of a way.
This story walks the line between science fiction and horror, rather like such stories as The Thing and The Body Snatchers, both of which are also stores about identity and infection and threat. It’s probably no accident that, as we discover at one point, Molly’s mother was a sleeper agent, a source of infection hidden in the body of the state, or that Molly spreads a slow and hidden infection as well as creating the mollies that can pass as human. This is about the visceral horror of something horribly wrong within the self, and in the ways that the self reproduces. And like the tropes it plays on, it gets inside of you and doesn’t let go.
For such a tiny thin book it really packs a punch!
I really liked the science fiction/ Russian spy elements.
In short this book was visceral, bloody and it left me wanting more immediately.
I really liked the science fiction/ Russian spy elements.
In short this book was visceral, bloody and it left me wanting more immediately.
This was a very quick read chronicling the life of Molly Southbourne. It reads like a whip fast memoir giving you snippets of her life in fast succession, some of them only a paragraph long. It would be easy to sit down and read this cover to cover (as is I read it in two sittings). The central idea, essentially of evil clones arising from any of Molly's spilled blood, was an interesting one but not terribly complex. I didn't find myself craving a longer story when I finished this - it was perfectly suited for short form, and in fact it felt very short story like to me. It also felt more like sci-fi than horror, which was fine but not what I expected. I liked this story, and the ideas, but all in all I wasn't blown away. I'm interested in trying more books from Tade Thompson, and would recommend this as a quick diversion to anyone attracted to the central concept.