or 5 star is that this book is too long and certain issues were drawn out to the point of feeling tedious. The final 10% of this book were pretty good, the other 90% was like a party that's not great but not quite bad enough to make me want to leave. Nat is also a member of the multimedia production company, Gideon Media, whose hit podcast STEAL THE STARS, was co-produced with Tor Labs (an imprint of Tor Books). Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown, hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self.

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. How clever, (I thought) to take what is already a difficult transition in a woman's life and turn it into a horror novel. It's about taking up space, and the power each of us has to influence the world around us whether we see it or not. Cassidy expertly twists the invisibility and disposability of society’s most vulnerable into qualities ideally suited to a terrifying avenging angel. Mary realizes this is the perfect time to escape New York after being fired from her job, but quickly notices that she has bigger issues at hand.I didn't lose interest but I did find myself wanting to read faster or skim unnecessary details a few times. 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. There's so much heavy content it really takes its toll on me enough to the point where I feel like I need a nap after reading it.

Not that I really believe in solid good or evil; they are simply two symbolic extremes, and I dig a little evil in my literature. And the comparison to Midsommer was a big reason that I requested it, only to have about…zero parallels to the movie. TWs for quite a number of super disturbing topics you might wanna look into but I have to mention that there’s a pretty graphic animal violence scene. Especially since we had a ton of reveals that showed us who Mary really was as a kid before she got "sent away.

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? My reading experience: At one point in the story, Mary says something to her Aunt Nadine's dog, Chipotle (they say it like chip-oh-dull, haha), and the actress, Jennifer Coolidge got in my mind and stayed for the duration of this book, which was genius. This was gory and horrifying and had some images/scenes that will surely stick with me for a very long time. I think it would have been better to break up the book a bit to just give us another POV besides the sheriff at the very beginning of the book.

The beauty standards, the financial instability, the being too-much but not-enough, the having to have a man or you're broken and worthless. I thought this was a novel about a woman who had suffered some trauma or breakdown in her life, now trying to cope with menopause and further emotional and physical upset. NAT CASSIDY has been an off-off-Broadway playwright of speculative works that have been well-received by drama critics. I would also compare his writing to Sara Gran based solely on a vibe that I can't for the life of me put into earthly words. 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.FYI, this book has a very long trigger warning, and I suggest that you read it and decide if you want to read this book or skip it. Mary is about to have her 50th birthday, and she is going through some normal and not-so-normal experiences.