Mary: An Awakening of Terror

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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. Nadine is verbally abusive and mean, but then as soon as Mary is on her own, there's a transformation. 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. 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. I found out we have multiple mutual theatre friends, and that he’s a pretty prolific playwright in his own right.

I was this close to making this one of my favorite books ever, however the last 100 pages just faded.And yet in spite of these numbers I won’t disclose, there were a few books I was hoping I’d pick up but were unable to obtain either because they weren’t there or the timing was off.

That probably sounds worst than it should, I didn't hate my time with the book I was just mildly bored, the writing wasn't bad but I didn't feel engaged or invested in anything happening. Then it sort of peters out and turns into a draggy slow paced festival of weirdness that is too out there even for me. And the comparison to Midsommer was a big reason that I requested it, only to have about…zero parallels to the movie.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. 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. Turning internalized patriarchy/misogyny into a literal possession was a brilliant, well-executed spine for the story.

He has won the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for a one-man show about H. She kills her aunt by stuffing porcelain statues down her throat and somehow when she becomes a ghost, she’s cracking jokes and hovering around like this is a Disney movie. With the titular Mary being an unremarkable woman in her late 40s, there's a constant compare and contrast between society's lack of expectation and desire for unmarried women in that age, and her gradual control and understanding over her supernatural power. 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.Not because its about a woman going through peri-menopause, but because of its insight in to the female condition. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can’t look in a mirror without passing out, and the voices in her head have been urging her to do unspeakable things.

Nat played the character of Lloyd in the podcast and also wrote the novelization of Mac Roger's audio scripts, which was published by Tor Books in November 2017 and named one of the best books of the year by NPR. With an acidic sense of humor more barbed than any cactus, Nat Cassidy’s fast-paced Mary is a perfect blend of Stephen King’s Dolores Claiborne and Frank De Felitta’s Audrey Rose.This was gory and horrifying and had some images/scenes that will surely stick with me for a very long time. Mary doesn't have a lot of memories after her parents died in a fire, but she knows she was bullied and unhappy. She’s ignored at work, she’s single and has no prospects, and people tend treat her like she’s invisible. G." (TBS), "The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show" (Netflix), as well as on stages Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and across the country. 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.