Mary: The Summoning (Bloody Mary, 1) Hardcover – September 2, 2014

I absolutely love horror movies. I love feeling scared, jumpy and my heart racing…but I have not read a lot of horror books. In fact, I have never read a really good horror book…until now. I really enjoyed myself reading this book. It got by heart pounding and my adrenaline flowing. I found myself addicted to reading this story so I could find out what was going to happen next. This book would defiantly be good to read during October or if you just want a good scare!First off, I have to say that if you are looking for gorgeous, poetic writing with deep character development…then look somewhere else. This book is typical horror movie fun. It is fast-paced, with stereotypical characters that get themselves into a scary predicament and then they must solve the mystery of Bloody Mary to save themselves. The pacing of this book was great! It started right off with a séance to summon Mary and it just continues from there. I never found myself bored while reading this and Mary makes many appearances throughout the book.I would defiantly classify this book as scary. I knew that if any book was going to scare the crap out of me, it would be one revolving around the Bloody Mary myth. Mirrors give me the heeby jeebies and the fact that Mary could inhibit anything with a reflection pretty much made her able to be anywhere. Also, the fact that she could climb out of mirrors reminded me of that one scene in The Ring (you know which one). I would not recommend this to someone that is just looking to feel a little jumpy because this one is going to make you afraid to sleep at night.My one gripe about this book would be the character development. I find that this is really common in horror movies, but if this book would have made me care more about the friendship in this book…it would have put it over the top. I did not feel like the characters really cared for each other, which made the deaths not mean as much. I did like the main character, Shauna. She was relatable, but was still pretty generic. I wish that we could have seen some other aspects of the characters lives that did not revolve around Bloody Mary.I did really enjoy the mystery aspect of Mary. I liked the revelations made and was pretty shocked. I absolutely hate stories that have the killer mindlessly killing without reason. I am glad that there appears to be some reason why Mary kills and I am excited to pick up the next book to find out why.Overall, I would recommend this book. It was a quick, fun read that made it difficult to fall asleep at night. This book would have gotten a higher rating if the character development and plot was deeper, but I took it for what it was and really enjoyed myself. I will be picking up the next book closer to October and hope to delve deeper into the YA horror genre.

*review originally posted on A Bibliophile's Reverie*Mary: The Summoning (Bloody Mary) by Hillary Monahan follows Shauna and her three friends who decide to try and summon Mary in the mirror. Little did Shauna know that her friend Jess actually knew the real myth behind Mary and what actually needs to be done in order for the summoning to work. Once they summon Mary, the circle is broken and Mary gets fascinated by Shauna and doesn’t leave her alone. Mary can appear in any reflective surface and haunts her, trying to hurt her every possible moment, and trying to destroy any person who gets in the way. With the girls be able to make Mary return to the grave? Or will Shauna be stuck running from Mary for the rest of her life?This novel started out a little slow, and a bit confusing as it jumped back and forth a couple times, which was not needed. It seemed they only did that to capture the readers attention, and a sloppy job at that. But once you get past the first couple of chapters, it starts to get more and more scary and you begin to think you see something move in the mirrors. (Honestly couldn’t read this at night, though I get scared easily).The characters were your stereotypical high school girls and I wished I knew a little more about them. I know that two of them had boyfriends, but you only saw one and knew nothing about hobbies, favorite subjects, etc. It was only focused on the horror aspect of Mary.For being some girls who like spooky things, I want to know why they don’t put all their knowledge from the show Supernatural at work. Honestly, someone would have had to of known about the show and seen it. There was that and when they were trying to fight the spirit, they said they couldn’t find anything online. I would tend to disagree, if these spirits were real, then they would be real elsewhere and there would be some info online. The writer was just trying to corner them on information so she could search more on the history of Mary.This book also leaves a lot of loose threads, as it leaves off on a cliffhanger for the next book (which I was upset about because it’s horror and I need to know that the ghost gets apprehended or something). So be prepared to have to read more than one book in the series. There is a lot of unanswered information, leaving you wanting to buy the next book.I give this story a 4/5, as it was pretty creepy for a young adult novel, but the characters could have been more developed as high school girls and because there were a lot of questions left open.

HOLY CRAP..........I mean, HOLY CRAP.....this is so freaking scary. Yes. Scary. Climbing out of the book, gnawing at your dreams, and knocking on your brain scary. Well, for me anyway. I should not have started reading this book at night. SHOULD NOT! Too late now. hehe.I LOVE scary books, and scary movies. They just make me happy. I don't know why, but they do. The get my adrenaline pumping, and are so much fun to read. Who needs drugs when you have books and movies? Sheesh.I don't know of any one who didn't at one time play "Bloody Mary" at a slumber party during their years growing up. If you didn't you are better than me. :) I did and of course like most kids and just got freaked out at the pure thought of doing this. Maybe that should have been a clue not to do it in the first place...hehehe Kids will be kids...heheheheWell, this story brings Bloody Mary to a whole new level. I really liked this book. I liked all of the new aspects of this story. There is that annoying girl / friend who thinks that they know all and can actually summon Mary.Jess convinces some of her friends to join her in her summoning. Their whole world changes after that fateful night. Mary does come. Mary does haunt. Mary does kill.While all these things happen you cannot help but turn the pages, to find out just how they are going to happen. While reading, you keep telling yourself "stop reading, it's too creepy" but do you stop? No...of course not. It's to fantastic. Ya, that was me!I don't really want to tell you much I want you to go out and read it for yourself. If you like scary books, this is just the book for you. Be prepared though. It is by far the creepiest book I have read to date. I loved every minute of it. I cannot wait to see where the other books take us :)

Monahan really understands the sticky, difficult bonds between girls as well as how to write a cracking horror novel.