Mary: An Awakening of Terror

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She’s ignored at work, she’s single and has no prospects, and people tend treat her like she’s invisible. It's a good time for Mary to leave New York since she just got fired, and found out her rent is going to be so high she won't be able to afford it. With an acidic sense of humor more barbed than any cactus, Nat Cassidy’s fast-paced Mary is a perfect blend of Stephen King’s Dolores Claiborne and Frank De Felitta’s Audrey Rose. This book also dives into social topics that aren’t really discussed to much—perimenopause and the treatment of women once they reach a certain age. I would also compare his writing to Sara Gran based solely on a vibe that I can't for the life of me put into earthly words.

Not because its about a woman going through peri-menopause, but because of its insight in to the female condition. TWs for quite a number of super disturbing topics you might wanna look into but I have to mention that there’s a pretty graphic animal violence scene. The rich desert setting with an odd community of inhabitants reminded me of Sundial by Catriona Ward.I felt like we were spending 85% of the book in Mary's insecurities instead of any action or outside eeriness being addressed. Mary is honestly not an interesting character, and I think we were supposed to root for her, similar to Carrie, but the whole book had me going what is going on now. Nadine is verbally abusive and mean, but then as soon as Mary is on her own, there's a transformation. Playwright and podcaster Cassidy’s razor-sharp horror debut explores women’s roles as either prey or predator and cuts deeply into the societal structures that promotes the split. he adds that he aimed at closing a certain circle - Carrie being on the opening side of reproductive/cycle horror, while Mary representing the middle age/closure.

I think it would have been better to break up the book a bit to just give us another POV besides the sheriff at the very beginning of the book. Mary feels 'unhinged' from start to finish, which is meant as a compliment because I appreciate when a story is intentionally straying away from common tropes and formulaic arcs. A story of this kind doesn't really need to be more than 400 pages and while I was never really bored I still felt like this could have been trimmed down quite a bit without losing it's magic. Bottom line is, Cassidy's debut horror novel absolutely struck a chord with me and is definitely worth your time; lots of patriarchal anxiety smashed, tons of gore and blood, epic confrontations and ants!By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. But one thing to keep in mind is that I’m someone who can tolerate a fair amount of horror nonsense in her reading and consuming of other media. I was this close to making this one of my favorite books ever, however the last 100 pages just faded. Why are we referencing demons and religion, but then none of that is even relevant, however reincarnation - oh, that part is real. Honestly though look at the world what's the difference because this stuff and worse happens every day to literal children.