Title: Mary: The Summoning
Author: Hillary Monahan
Series: Bloody Mary, Book 1
Number of Pages: 248
Date Read: 10/12/15
Genre: Horror, Ghost, Paranormal
Synopsis (Found on Goodreads.com)
There is a right way and a wrong way to summon her.
Jess had done the research. Success requires precision: a dark room, a mirror, a candle, salt, and four teenage girls. Each of them--Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna--must link hands, follow the rules . . . and never let go.
A thrilling fear spins around the room the first time Jess calls her name: "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. BLOODY MARY." A ripple of terror follows when a shadowy silhouette emerges through the fog, a specter trapped behind the mirror.
Once is not enough, though--at least not for Jess. Mary is called again. And again. But when their summoning circle is broken, Bloody Mary slips through the glass with a taste for revenge on her lips. As the girls struggle to escape Mary's wrath, loyalties are questioned, friendships are torn apart, and lives are forever altered.
Jess had done the research. Success requires precision: a dark room, a mirror, a candle, salt, and four teenage girls. Each of them--Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna--must link hands, follow the rules . . . and never let go.
A thrilling fear spins around the room the first time Jess calls her name: "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. BLOODY MARY." A ripple of terror follows when a shadowy silhouette emerges through the fog, a specter trapped behind the mirror.
Once is not enough, though--at least not for Jess. Mary is called again. And again. But when their summoning circle is broken, Bloody Mary slips through the glass with a taste for revenge on her lips. As the girls struggle to escape Mary's wrath, loyalties are questioned, friendships are torn apart, and lives are forever altered.
A haunting trail of clues leads Shauna on a
desperate search to uncover the legacy of Mary Worth. What she finds will
change everything, but will it be enough to stop Mary--and Jess--before it's
too late?
My Review:
So this book scared
the crap outta me. Besides it being creepy and scary, I read the book mostly at
night right before I went to sleep. So that part was my fault.
Basically the story is about four friends who summon Bloody Mary and she breaks out of the mirror to terrorize them. Mary picks one girl in particular, Shauna, to haunt and attack. The story is about the girls trying to find a way to de-haunt Shauna and to stop Mary.
Shauna is the main character of the book. She is the one chosen by Mary to be haunted because Mary tasted her blood. Shauna is a happy popular girl in the beginning of the book and then, as to be expected, she becomes depressed, scared and desperate when Mary haunts her. She wants to keep everyone safe because Mary will go after Shauna's loved ones to get to Shauna. Shauna becomes very jumpy, paranoid and sick. I really liked her as a character because she tries to protect the people she loves and even when she finds out she can pass the haunting on to someone else, she refuses saying that she would never wish Mary on anyone. She is determined to find a way to stop Mary before anyone dies.
I would never be able to be as strong as Shauna was. Mary would appear in anything shiny; glass, windows, mirrors, metal, chrome, plates. Just think about how much shiny surfaces there are in your home. How can all those things be avoided unless you go live in a cave in the mountains? I couldn't even believe how someone would survive the haunting. Literally everything is shiny like computer screens, cell phones, car windows, doorknobs. Mary could literally pop up anywhere and everywhere. No where was safe. Its insane. I'd probably just want to kill myself instead of being scared and wary all the time. I really give props to Shauna for dealing with it all.
Jessica is one of Shauna's group of friends. Jess was the one who had the idea to summon Mary. She learned the "right" way to summon Mary from her aunt and kept notes on how to do it. Jess was the one who kept on pushing the girls to summon Mary more than once. She was the reason things got out of control during the summoning and Mary got out. She didn't listen to the other girls when they told her to end the summoning. She kept on trying to talk to Mary. Jess was also very secretive about the summoning and held information back from the group until it suited her to tell them bits of the info a little at a time. Jess was very sneaky, is a bully and doesn't really care about anyone but herself. She put her friends lives in danger and was willing to let some other girl get haunted without a trace of guilt in her. I hated her and I felt like she deserved to be haunted by Mary instead of Shauna.
Anna and Kitty were the other girls in Shauna's group of friends. Anna is a tough girl who doesn't put up with Jess' s**t and tells her off when she has had enough. She is very strong and continues to help Shauna. Kitty is the weakest of the group but she still has Shauna's back. Kitty is very sensitive and allows Jess to walk all over her. She did likes confrontation and just follows everyone. She gets extremely scared during the summoning and cries a lot. Despite that I still liked her and Anna.
Mary was freaky. Her description is so scary. She is decaying, had black veins all over her and is skeletal, even her face. She scurries places instead of walking and she is always wet. There's always water and muck associated with her. She is super strong and will kill anyone. She chooses one person out of the group that calls her to haunt and will stay with that person for years until the haunting gets passed to someone else. Its sad because Mary was a normal 17 year old, living during the civil war era. The book contains 3 letters written by Mary (Mary Worth) to her sister (these are not real letters, just letters the author made up for the story). Mary seemed to be a nice girl and her problems started when a new pastor came to her parish. Now, Mary is a freaky ghost that scared the crap outta me.
The story has a lot of action and a lot of Mary attacks. She was actually in the book as a character, attacking and haunting Shauna. The book was gory as well and there was a lot of blood. Mary would pop up anywhere and attack. The story was fast paced as well and I enjoyed the tidbits of information that were given to the reader about Mary Worth. I am hoping that there will be even more information about Mary (this book's version of Mary anyway) in the next book because I want to know what happened to her to change her into this hideous murdering ghost.
Basically the story is about four friends who summon Bloody Mary and she breaks out of the mirror to terrorize them. Mary picks one girl in particular, Shauna, to haunt and attack. The story is about the girls trying to find a way to de-haunt Shauna and to stop Mary.
Shauna is the main character of the book. She is the one chosen by Mary to be haunted because Mary tasted her blood. Shauna is a happy popular girl in the beginning of the book and then, as to be expected, she becomes depressed, scared and desperate when Mary haunts her. She wants to keep everyone safe because Mary will go after Shauna's loved ones to get to Shauna. Shauna becomes very jumpy, paranoid and sick. I really liked her as a character because she tries to protect the people she loves and even when she finds out she can pass the haunting on to someone else, she refuses saying that she would never wish Mary on anyone. She is determined to find a way to stop Mary before anyone dies.
I would never be able to be as strong as Shauna was. Mary would appear in anything shiny; glass, windows, mirrors, metal, chrome, plates. Just think about how much shiny surfaces there are in your home. How can all those things be avoided unless you go live in a cave in the mountains? I couldn't even believe how someone would survive the haunting. Literally everything is shiny like computer screens, cell phones, car windows, doorknobs. Mary could literally pop up anywhere and everywhere. No where was safe. Its insane. I'd probably just want to kill myself instead of being scared and wary all the time. I really give props to Shauna for dealing with it all.
Jessica is one of Shauna's group of friends. Jess was the one who had the idea to summon Mary. She learned the "right" way to summon Mary from her aunt and kept notes on how to do it. Jess was the one who kept on pushing the girls to summon Mary more than once. She was the reason things got out of control during the summoning and Mary got out. She didn't listen to the other girls when they told her to end the summoning. She kept on trying to talk to Mary. Jess was also very secretive about the summoning and held information back from the group until it suited her to tell them bits of the info a little at a time. Jess was very sneaky, is a bully and doesn't really care about anyone but herself. She put her friends lives in danger and was willing to let some other girl get haunted without a trace of guilt in her. I hated her and I felt like she deserved to be haunted by Mary instead of Shauna.
Anna and Kitty were the other girls in Shauna's group of friends. Anna is a tough girl who doesn't put up with Jess' s**t and tells her off when she has had enough. She is very strong and continues to help Shauna. Kitty is the weakest of the group but she still has Shauna's back. Kitty is very sensitive and allows Jess to walk all over her. She did likes confrontation and just follows everyone. She gets extremely scared during the summoning and cries a lot. Despite that I still liked her and Anna.
Mary was freaky. Her description is so scary. She is decaying, had black veins all over her and is skeletal, even her face. She scurries places instead of walking and she is always wet. There's always water and muck associated with her. She is super strong and will kill anyone. She chooses one person out of the group that calls her to haunt and will stay with that person for years until the haunting gets passed to someone else. Its sad because Mary was a normal 17 year old, living during the civil war era. The book contains 3 letters written by Mary (Mary Worth) to her sister (these are not real letters, just letters the author made up for the story). Mary seemed to be a nice girl and her problems started when a new pastor came to her parish. Now, Mary is a freaky ghost that scared the crap outta me.
The story has a lot of action and a lot of Mary attacks. She was actually in the book as a character, attacking and haunting Shauna. The book was gory as well and there was a lot of blood. Mary would pop up anywhere and attack. The story was fast paced as well and I enjoyed the tidbits of information that were given to the reader about Mary Worth. I am hoping that there will be even more information about Mary (this book's version of Mary anyway) in the next book because I want to know what happened to her to change her into this hideous murdering ghost.
Rating: A+
I loved this book and can't wait to read the sequel.
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