Mary
An Awakening of Terror
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4.1 • 131 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Nat Cassidy’s highly commercial, debut horror novel Mary: An Awakening of Terror, blends Midsommar with elements of American Psycho and a pinch of I'll Be Gone in the Dark.
Best Horror of the Year—Esquire, Paste Magazine, CrimeRead | Harper's Bazaar 15 Best Books for Spooky Season | The Lineup Best Debut Horror Novels of the Year | American Writers Museum—Staff Recommendation
Mary is a quiet, middle-aged woman doing her best to blend into the background. Unremarkable. Invisible. Unknown even to herself.
But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can’t look in a mirror without passing out, and the voices in her head have been urging her to do unspeakable things.
Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown, hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self. Instead, visions of terrifying, mutilated specters overwhelm her with increasing regularity and she begins auto-writing strange thoughts and phrases. Mary discovers that these experiences are echoes of an infamous serial killer.
Then the killings begin again.
Mary’s definitely going to find herself.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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. On the brink of turning 50, Mary Mudgett is fired from her job at a New York bookstore and haunted by visions of decaying older women. Returning home to Arizona to care for her elderly aunt Nadine, Mary is surprised to find these images escaping her nightmares and revealing themselves to her as ghosts. Teaming up with Eleanor, a local teen fascinated by true crime podcasts, she uncovers ties between her ghosts and the serial killer Damon Cross. While confronting both the bullies of her youth and the new cult that takes Cross as their prophet, Mary discovers that she may have a personal, past-life connection to the murders. And, when her delusions are casually dismissed as a "textbook" menopause case, Mary proves herself capable of rewriting her entry—in blood if necessary. Cassidy expertly twists the invisibility and disposability of society's most vulnerable into qualities ideally suited to a terrifying avenging angel. It's as scary as it is smart.
Customer Reviews
Love it!
I really enjoyed this book and I found Mary to be a enjoyable character. The dead women she was seeing everywhere was definitely creepy. But her aunt Nadine definitely delivered heavily on the humor and I loved it.
Mary
It was a long drawn out book. Someone raved about it on Tik Tok. I have read much better books unfortunately.