Title: Mary: An Awakening of Terror

Author: Nat Cassidy

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Awakening-Terror-Nat-Cassidy-ebook/dp/B09CNGNQN5/

Summary

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.

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.

My Review

5/5 Stars

This book.

I don’t even know where to begin, there are so many well done things in this story.

Mary is a middle age woman on the precipice of fifty. She has no real family or friends saved for her “loved ones”, a collection of porcelain dolls that keep her company. She’s what could be considered a weirdo, but she does her best to be good. And she does a good job of it until a call from her Aunt Nadine forces her to return home. Then all chaos lets lose.

This book was a goldmine. There were funny moments and there were touching moments too. Scenes of philosophical awareness and moments of brutal savagery.

All the characters were so well done. It felt as if they were real people. The dynamic between Nadine and Mary really set the story, and I loved it. I didn’t know where the story would go, and I still am having a hard time wrapping my brain around it.

Reincarnation, cults, serial killers. This book is a whole journey of crazy, but it’s a fun one.

One of my favorite reads of 2023.