It
starts innocently enough. Four kids - three girls, one boy - are at one
of their houses, playing games. One of them has read about "Bloody
Mary" and the idea that if you look into a mirror and say her name
thirteen times, she will show you the future. Some legends say she'll
show you your one true love or a skull to mark your death within five
years. Others say that conjuring Bloody Mary will bring her into your
world.
Both sets of legends are true. The kids go through with
the act, saying her name thirteen times. One girl looks in the mirror
and sees her longtime crush. One girl looks in the mirror and sees the
boy in the group. But she pretends to see something else. One girl looks
in the mirror and sees a girl she's never seen before but can't get out
of her mind. And the boy . . . he sees a skull. But he pretends to see
something else. They try to laugh it off. And mostly they forget about
it. Or at least they don't talk about it. Yes, over the next few years,
whenever they look into a mirror, it's like there's always another
figure standing in the background, getting closer.
Just short of
five years later, the four of them are no longer friends, having gone on
separate paths. The girl whose house it was has always tried to avoid
the mirror they used - because she always sensed someone in the
background. One morning as she's passing by, she sees much more than her
own reflection - it's a scary figure taunting her. She startles and
breaks the mirror. When the pieces are put back together (barely), the
figure is gone.
That day in school, a new girl arrives. Her name is Mary...
I received this ARC from the author in a contest
I won. I offer my review honestly and freely and was not compensated
for writing this.
Shawn Sarles has taken on a new horror story and this time it involves the urban legend, “Blood Mary” in
Mary, Will I Die? This was a creeptastic tale that will
leave you chilled to the bone and being leery of mirrors! Mirrors have
always been something that fascinated me as a child after reading
Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. Of course in later years, I became a little terrified of them when they started taking a darker turn!
When four friends decide to amuse themselves with a
game of “Bloody Mary” no one expected anything to come out of it. But
five years later, these teenagers are realizing just how dangerous that
game became. Steph sees the face of a girl
she has never met, Grace sees her crush, Calvin, Elena sees her own
longtime crush (not Calvin), and Calvin sees a terrifying face. They
were all changed by what they saw that day and somewhere down the line,
they all drifted apart.
Five years later they are all freshman in high
school and living their lives in the most normal of ways. Calvin sees
terrifying things now and is always sketching the outcomes, Grace has
become a social outcast, while both Steph and Elena
are vying for volleyball team captain. But then things start to happen.
Little things at first that are barely noticeable and then they
escalate. After a classmate is gravely injured the teens find themselves
drifting back together as they become connected
to something far greater and darker beyond their imaginations.
Then when a new girl comes to school, Steph is
taken aback when she realizes it’s the girl she saw in the mirror all
those years ago. Is it coincidence that she is showing up just as all
the strange things start happening or is it fate?
The fact that her name is Mary is also pretty telling!
This book was downright creepy! I love how Shawn
was able to incorporate those little instances where you see something
out of the corner of your eye or we, the reader see that hand lashing
out of the mirror just as the main character walks
out of the room! It was just so freaking creepy! Definitely not a story
you want to read next to a mirror…or other reflective surfaces, just to
be safe (thanks, Supernatural!)!
The story alternates between the four teenagers in
third person point of view. I enjoyed getting inside each of the
character’s heads. They were all mostly relatable. You had Grace, the
social outcast with her social awkwardness (hello
self!), there’s Steph who’s going through some self-realization about
her identity, there’s poor Calvin who has been haunted by his visions
for the last five years and then there’s Elena who I really did not care
for the majority of the novel as she has that
stuck up, Miss Popular thing going on. But I can happily say that all
these characters go through growth and changes and that I was rooting
for all of them by the end!
The pacing to this one was pretty moderate. It was a
speed that had you needing to find out what would happen next though
there were bouts of more “ordinary” moments as well that weren’t really
filled with horror or weirdness. Luckily,
those didn’t last too long. It did make for a rather quick read as well
in that sense as I read over half the book in one day without even
realizing it!
I liked that Shawn also included a reason for the
spooky happenings, the terror didn’t really come about for no reason.
Though I would have liked a little more detail to why and how it
happened way back when it started. We get enough of
answer that things make sense, but you know me, I always want to know
more and find myself asking “why?” a lot! Lol.
If you’re looking for a creepy read this Halloween I would be sure to add
Mary, Will I Die? to the list as it was quite the bone-chilling
tale! It will have you rethinking the amount of mirrors you want to keep
in your house for sure!
Overall Rating 4/5 stars
Mary, Will I Die? releases September 7, 2021
