Mary: An Awakening of Terror

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Occasionally I would look down to see how much time I had left to read and would be shocked that I still had so much more to go. This is a bad attempt to be the next Stephen King, the gratuitous violence is pointless, women enact more violence against each other than the men who have power, and the plot holes are as numerous as the specters.

Disappointing because the opening line of “there’s a corpse in the bathtub” normally would have my FULL attention.I also included in the Acknowledgements page a list of the books that were inspirational to me when writing MARY. It’s very interesting to imagine the story taking that form—it feels so perfectly suited to being a novel.

All this background will mix and build up into a progressively intense and hellish fever dream, resulting in a glorious climax in which Mary gains very unexpected allies and starts drawing strength and confidence in herself! I was this close to making this one of my favorite books ever, however the last 100 pages just faded. Without giving spoilers, this novel has some elements that would be challenging to pull off for many narrators, and Susan Bennett reads it beautifully.

Overall, I really liked the voice that Nat Cassidy gave Mary Mudgett, and I liked some of the creative and scary aspects of the novel as well. Turning internalized patriarchy/misogyny into a literal possession was a brilliant, well-executed spine for the story. There are so many fantastic problems brought up in this book and that's something I adore about horror. On the flip side, it is brought up far too often and with such depth that it did get a bit boring after a while.

The point of this horror is that the horror is really the world's expectations of women and how we destroy ourselves and each other to the same intensity that the world destroys us. Nat played the character of Lloyd in the podcast and also wrote the novelization of Mac Roger's audio scripts, which was published by Tor Books in November 2017 and named one of the best books of the year by NPR. I was really happy that Cassidy put a thorough content warning before the story began, because I was able to prepare myself a bit before digging in, but even with the content warning I still had moments where I just had to put the book down for a bit. It doesn't matter if you're into Stephen King, Octavia Butler, Jack Ketchum or Shirley Jackson, this is the place to share that love and discuss to your heart's content. 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.Born in North Carolina, raised in Arizona, and currently residing in New York City, Nat Cassidy in an award-winning horror playwright, horror novelist, actor, and musician. The main character is probably the most bland, unlikeable character I’ve ever encountered, and the absolute clusterfuck of a plot redeems nothing. It ended up being one of my favorites of last year, and is genuinely one of the most unique/memorable reading experiences period. And, when her delusions are casually dismissed as a “textbook” menopause case, Mary proves herself capable of rewriting her entry—in blood if necessary.

I had my eye on it for awhile, as it touts being in similar veins as “Carrie” and “Midsommar”, which catch my eye for varying reasons. Then it sort of peters out and turns into a draggy slow paced festival of weirdness that is too out there even for me.It was a wild ride from start to finish, with some of the most vivid characters I’d read in a long time. The rich desert setting with an odd community of inhabitants reminded me of Sundial by Catriona Ward. She’s ignored at work, she’s single and has no prospects, and people tend treat her like she’s invisible. Cassidy has a skilled storytelling voice capable of intense, graphic imagery and scary scenes as well as laugh-out-loud humor. Not because its about a woman going through peri-menopause, but because of its insight in to the female condition.