He has won the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for a one-man show about H. Nadine is verbally abusive and mean, but then as soon as Mary is on her own, there's a transformation. Edit; so here is my long review and I even wrote a longer one on my blog ( https://proteandepravity.

This book has been on my TBR for months—c’mon, once you see this cover, it’s impossible to not be intrigued, right? 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. Genuinely scary, and at times both heartfelt and heartbreaking, Mary is a powerhouse of a horror novel, with something important to say. 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.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. 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.

Especially since we had a ton of reveals that showed us who Mary really was as a kid before she got "sent away. 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.Also, major props to him for addressing his choice to give a middle aged woman a voice when he himself is a younger cishet man, and how he tried his best to be authentic in her voice and experiences. And, when her delusions are casually dismissed as a “textbook” menopause case, Mary proves herself capable of rewriting her entry—in blood if necessary. 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. 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. I also included in the Acknowledgements page a list of the books that were inspirational to me when writing MARY.

There are some doctor scenes in this book in which Mary’s problems get repeatedly dismissed as menopause and these scenes are especially significant, many women of any age will recognize this kind of dismissal of symptoms as either period or eating problems. 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. 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. 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.This scene of her skipping naked down the hallway and singing full of life that same song only now it has a WHOLE new and beautiful meaning. 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. Not because its about a woman going through peri-menopause, but because of its insight in to the female condition. 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. 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.