Mary: An Awakening of Terror

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I really didn’t like the author's writing style and his characterizing, it just felt very one dimensional (especially the main character). The Author's Note at the beginning and the Afterword at the end pretty much say everything I was trying to *do* with this book--and the former also offers some spoiler-free content warnings if you'd like them. It was a wild ride from start to finish, with some of the most vivid characters I’d read in a long time. She’s ignored at work, she’s single and has no prospects, and people tend treat her like she’s invisible.

It is very commendable that Cassidy highlights this bias to show that what’s going on here is that Mary, as an aging woman who wants nothing more than to be noticed, to be taken seriously, is not being given any worth.

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 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.

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. Cassidy has a skilled storytelling voice capable of intense, graphic imagery and scary scenes as well as laugh-out-loud humor. If you look for my bookshelf label "MARY Influences," you can see a whole motley batch o' books that helped inspire MARY. I also included in the Acknowledgements page a list of the books that were inspirational to me when writing MARY. 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.That probably sounds worst than it should, I didn't hate my time with the book I was just mildly bored, the writing wasn't bad but I didn't feel engaged or invested in anything happening. I didn't lose interest but I did find myself wanting to read faster or skim unnecessary details a few times. Instead, visions of terrifying, mutilated specters overwhelm her with increasing regularity and she begins auto-writing strange thoughts and phrases. In my case, I get a feeling that I am going to appreciate a book once I begin relating to the characters and to the writing style.