Book Review — Mary, Will I Die?

Title: Mary, Will I Die?
Author: Shawn Sarles
Genre: YA horror
Pages: Hardback, 296
ISBN: 978-1-338-67927-4
Opening Lines: "She knew she should have been scaredI."

Rating:

DNF

Only one of them knew about Bloody Mary. If you say her name into the mirror thirteen times, she'll show you your future. Some legends say that she'll reveal your one true love. Others, that she'll show you how you'll die. And thens ome believe that conjuring Bloody Mary will bring her into our world.

When the four of them—Elena, Steph, Calvin, and Grace—play the game, they think it's innocent enough. Elena sees her longtime crush. Steph sees a girl she's never met before. Grace sees Calvin. And Calvin sees her—Bloody Mary. They pretend it's all fake, that they only saw their reflections. But something happens to each of them that will follow them for years to come. A demon is unleashed, waiting for the right moment to strike.

Now, five years later, the four of tem are no longer friends and the mirror is only a distant memory. But they can no linger ignore the yes that have been watching them for years. The air is thicker. Her voice whispering in their heads is louder. Accidents start happening. People get hurt. And Bloody Mary won't stop until she gets what she wants.

~ Jacket copy

Four giggling 9-year-olds gather before an old mirror and summon recite "Bloody Mary" thirteen times. We all know how the story goes, right? Surrounded by candles and your giggling friends, you dare each other to summon Bloody Mary. And, in the end, you get nothing but a good scare. This was not the case for Grace, Steph, Calvin, and Elena. Each of the four friends saw something different in the old mirror. Unfortunately, even though they are now in high school and living their separate lives, Bloody Mary has decided to come back and finish the game they started five years ago. And this time, she's playing for keeps.  

I don't even know where to start with this book. Guess I shall talk about setting, writing style, and characters before the bad . . . Might as well be pseudo analytic about this. The setting of Mary, Will I Die? alternates between the local high school and the characters' houses. However, the majority of the conflict happens in the high school. The setting of the high school builds the various dynamics between the characters and shows the reader the vast gap that has formed between the four friends. The close setting of the high school forces the characters to interact with each other, which, given some of the comments made, would not have happened if characters had attended different schools. 

The writing style adds to the banal setting of the book. The author relies too heavily on long sentences to add description. The wordiness TELLS the audience rather than SHOWING them and pulling them into the narrative. Unfortunately, this makes the writing clunky and repetitive. And the characters are little better. The author attempts to add some flavor to them by giving them weird quirks (Grace loves B-horror and dresses like Velma, Stephe is awkwardly tall and a lesbian, etc.); however, they all suffer from being underdeveloped clichés of high school students. As a high school teacher, these four kids do not act like freshmen.

I'm currently over half way through the novel, and I simply cannot force myself to finish it. Mary has finally shown up; however, we've only seen her roughly twice. Each encounter was banal and lackluster. 

If you have a kid in middle school looking to venture into horror, this might not be a bad book to try. However, it lacks any depth or true plot. The characters are forgettable, Mary does not play much of a role (at least not yet), and the writing is juvenile. 

I was desperately wanting something more . . .