Nadine is verbally abusive and mean, but then as soon as Mary is on her own, there's a transformation. HONESTLY the idea of this small town, conspiratorial, anti government cult putting this serial killer man on a pedestal is something I can see happening. 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. How clever, (I thought) to take what is already a difficult transition in a woman's life and turn it into a horror novel. I was this close to making this one of my favorite books ever, however the last 100 pages just faded.

I’m a little reluctant to give a concrete number as to the amount of ARCs I got at ALA Annual in June, as the number is staggering and a little out of control. 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. I found out we have multiple mutual theatre friends, and that he’s a pretty prolific playwright in his own right. 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. In the split second before I react, I see the impression of eyes, of a mouth, the dented wetness of the gory fabric.I felt like we were spending 85% of the book in Mary's insecurities instead of any action or outside eeriness being addressed. I think there was some interesting parts of it (the linkage between Greek mythology and all of that) but it gets buried in this book. In his foreword to Mary, Nat Cassidy credits and makes a point in noting the strong mark King's titular figure left on him - up to the point where he, as a young boy, elevated her to a kind of matron saint due to her suffering, after seeing and being left shocked and awed by the sight of a bloodied, iconic Sissy Spacek playing Carrie White in the 1976 movie. I am a perimenopausal middle aged woman after all so I felt Mary was like a kindred spirit of sorts. But being back home brings something ugly and angry back to life in Mary, and she slowly starts to try to investigate the town's history and her connection to a serial killer who was shot dead by the police almost 50 years ago.

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. I did like that Mary who is going through peri-menopausal incidents right now is dealing with trying to tamper he rage down. 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.This book goes out to all those bad seeds who have gone beyond their bloom and entered the twilight of their murderous lives. NAT CASSIDY has been an off-off-Broadway playwright of speculative works that have been well-received by drama critics.

I won’t spoil anything, but there were three vivid moments where I was fairly put off by what I was reading on the page, and one in particular where I almost stopped reading altogether. 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.

The rich desert setting with an odd community of inhabitants reminded me of Sundial by Catriona Ward. The premise had so much potential: what happened if Stephen King’s Carrie was a middle aged woman and had a chance to confront her bullies? After reading the mention of Azazel, I was hoping we’d see some cool theological horror a la Hereditary, but alas, that was just me getting my hopes up. Disappointing because the opening line of “there’s a corpse in the bathtub” normally would have my FULL attention.