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A review by brennanlafaro
Pretty Marys All in a Row by Gwendolyn Kiste
4.0
This book is oddly, beautiful. I really can’t think of a better way to describe it. The odd can be attributed to Gwendolyn Kiste’s very unique idea of what if we put a group of famous, fictional Mary’s under one roof. That’s Resurrection Mary, Mistress Mary (quite contrary), Miss Mary Mack, Mari Lwyd, and a Bloody Mary for you keeping track at home. The Mary’s are also given personalities and quirks, and it’s not just to keep them straight as it might have been in the hands of another author. It’s warm to us up to them as people.
The star of the show, and the beautiful, is Kiste’s prose. The storytelling voice transcends the page and pulls us right in to the action. The reader lives right there with all the Pretty Mary’s. We want to be part of the solution to the problem, and we want to aid them in any way we can to battle the darkness. Pretty Mary’s all in a Row walks a line, and does so with grace and finesse, between fitting nicely into a horror niche, and leaning into something altogether more fantastical like we might expect to see from Neil Gaiman. Given the strong voice Kiste possess, I’d say it’s about time I got my hands on the Rust Maidens and And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe.
The star of the show, and the beautiful, is Kiste’s prose. The storytelling voice transcends the page and pulls us right in to the action. The reader lives right there with all the Pretty Mary’s. We want to be part of the solution to the problem, and we want to aid them in any way we can to battle the darkness. Pretty Mary’s all in a Row walks a line, and does so with grace and finesse, between fitting nicely into a horror niche, and leaning into something altogether more fantastical like we might expect to see from Neil Gaiman. Given the strong voice Kiste possess, I’d say it’s about time I got my hands on the Rust Maidens and And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe.