Madisoncanread | Mary

Mary

Nat Cassidy

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Nat Cassidy’s highly commercial, debut horror novel Mary: An Awakening of Terror blends Midsommar with elements of American Psycho and a pinch of I'll Be Gone in the Dark.

Best Horror of 2022—Esquire, Paste Magazine, CrimeReads

Harper's Bazaar 15 Best Books for Spooky Season

The Lineup Best Debut Horror Novels of 2022

American Writers Museum—Staff Recommendation

Mary is a quiet, middle-aged woman doing her best to blend into the background. Unremarkable. Invisible. Unknown even to herself.

But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. 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.

Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown, hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self. Instead, visions of terrifying, mutilated specters overwhelm her with increasing regularity and she begins auto-writing strange thoughts and phrases.

Mary discovers that these experiences are echoes of an infamous serial killer. Then the killings begin again.

Mary’s definitely going to find herself.

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Posts about this title from Madisoncanread

Madisoncanread\ \ Madison\ \ • Jun 20 2025

ICYMI. Horror Books Yes No Maybe!

Recommending horror books with a yes no or maybe! #madisoncanread #bookyesnomaybe #yesnomaybebooks #horrorbook #horrorbooks #Inverted

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Madisoncanread\ \ Madison\ \ • Jun 17 2025

[Poll:\ \ What's your favorite book setting?\ \ One of my favorite settings in a horror or thriller novel is a small town filled with secrets. Here's an ultimate list to get your small town horror fix.\ \

Something In The Walls by Daisy Pearce - Mina is a child psychologist and still grieving the loss of her brother. She joins a support group where she meets a journalist named Sam. The two go to investigate what is happening to a teenager living in a remote village, who claims a witch is haunting her.\ \
The Remaking by Clay Mcleod Chapman - Starting in the 1930s where Ella Louise and her daughter Jessica were killed accused of using witchcraft. Now, in the 70s a film crew is creating a horror movie based on these events. Child star Amber Pendleton is cast as Jessica and some disturbing things happen on set. For the rest of her life, Amber isn't able to shake that roll and has now been cast as Ella Louise in the remake of that movie in the 90s. Again, more disturbing things happen on this set. \ \
All The Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby - Titus, a Black sheriff in a predominately white town gets called to a mass shooting at the high school. That day ends in tragedy when the alleged shooter takes the life of a well loved teacher. This leads Titus to uncover a string of truly horrific crimes that have been plaguing this small town. \ \
Mary: An Awakening of Terror by Nat Cassidy - Mary is a middle aged woman who is struggling with the changes happening to her body. Hot flashes, unable to look in the mirror, and disturbing voices in her head that she can't quite shake. She moves back to her small home town to help her sick aunt when these voices only get stronger and now she's seeing these horrifying ghosts. \ \
Jackal by Erin Adams - Liz, a Black woman is going back home to her predominately white small town for her best friends wedding. She's in charge of looking after her best friends daughter, Caroline during the wedding and she ends up vanishing. In this town, young Black girls go missing year after year and no one seems to be doing anything about it so Liz decides to take matters into her own hands. \ \
Maggies Grave by David Sodergren - In a tiny Scottish town, it's rumored that Maggie Wall who was buried as a witch with her unborn baby in the 1600s has been haunting the residents here. When a new visitor comes to town, it seems like Maggie has been awoken and is here for revenge. \ \
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn - A reporter goes back to her small home town to investigate the murder and disappearance of 2 teenage girls. She having to deal with the very toxic relationship with her mother as well.\ \
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson - Madison Washington is an outcast at her small Georgia high school. The school is finally having their first integrated prom and she's asked to go by the very popular quarterback. Prom night is here and it's gone horribly wrong leaving the majority of her classmates dead. Now we listen to a podcast where the few survivors recount their experience. ** AMAZING AUDIOBOOK\ \
The Bird Eater by Ania Ahlborn - When Aaron was a child being raised by his aunt, she mysteriously died leaving him an orphan. Now 20 years later, he's dealing with the grief of losing his son and is back in the house he grew up in. Almost instantly he starts seeing a little boy who follows him everywhere and is plagued by horrible dreams. \ \
We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson - 2 strange sisters living in this house on the outskirts of town, its rumored that one of them is responsible for killing the rest of their family. \ \
I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones - Tolly Driver attends a high school party which goes horribly wrong, and he starts taking out his classmates.](https://madisoncanread.binderybooks.com/item/LzaCRd2Lk1iRxn4ok0kN/)

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Madisoncanread\ \ Madison\ \ • May 28 2025

Poll:\ \ What's your favorite kind of MC? \ \ I want a delusional, stabby, unstable main character. Just some of my favorites: \ \ \ \ **So Happy Together by Olivia Worley comes out June 3rd 2025

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Madisoncanread\ \ Madison\ \ • May 23 2025

To get to know my taste, these are 10 of my favorite books of all time. You may notice that most of these have been published within the last few years and honestly? My taste has evolved so much since joining the bookish social media world. I feel like I've truly found my people and it's been such an amazing journey to finally get here. In no order, I'd short circuit trying to rank these.\ \ \ \ 01. Long Way Down - Jason Reynolds: There is no other book where I got to the end and turned back to page 1 to experience the book again. 15 year old Will is out for revenge after his brother, Shawn has been murdered. This story takes place on an elevator and at each floor he gets visits from different people in his life trying to convince him not to do it. This story takes you through a range of emotions, and I think this is one of the most important and impactful stories I've ever read.\ \ 02. Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder: What I think is the most important book that I read at the perfect time in my life. It was a few months after the fog of postpartum depression lifted. I read this and something clicked for me and it's one of those that changes your brain chemistry. A stay at home mom who's lost all identity to motherhood and thinks she might be turning into a dog. There's a certain scene that actually changed my parenting style and I implement it to this day. (Without spoiling, it's the park scene when she and her son start running like dogs IYKYK. It's my favorite scene, I was bummed that it was so short lived in the movie.)\ \ 03. Tender Is The Flesh - Agustina Bazterrica: I get 1 of 2 comments whenever I mention how much I love this book and it's either "How could you possibly enjoy something so disturbing?" or "That book isn't disturbing at all" - This book for me, shows the real depravity of humans and it has nothing to do with the "forbidden meat" of it all. The symbolism of this topic in fiction has been talked to death so I won't but I think it's just how far we will take said depravity that makes this so disturbing for me. The ending of course leave a lasting impact too.\ \ 04. Confessions - Kanae Minato: Every single thing this author does means something, which makes her such a powerful author. The chapters are long but this is one to take your time with, anyway. Middle school teacher takes revenge on 2 of her students who she believes took the life of her 4 year old. The fact that this isn't a fast paced thriller just adds to the building dread of it all leaving the climax having you trying to find something to hold onto.\ \ 05. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn: I am an Amy Dunne apologist. I read this 14 years ago and there hasn't been a day since, that I'm not thinking about the cool girl monologue.\ \ 06. Mary: An Awakening of Terror - Nat Cassidy: If a perfect horror novel exists, it's this one. Mary is an unremarkable woman going through scary changes in her body, moves back to her small creepy town and then begins seeing horrifying ghosts. Nat Cassidy is an author where you can just tell he puts everything into his novels. You see it in his forewords/afterwords and partly those are my favorite parts of his books. I think this is the book that solidified horror being my favorite genre. \ \ 07. The Only Good Indians - Stephen Graham Jones: The king of the most vivid, suffocating, atmospheric writing. It's not often that an author can write jump scares that work, but here we are. 4 Indigenous men go elk hunting in sacred ground and now something is coming after them for revenge. A side note, I also just love listening to the author talk about horror. You can tell how much he cares.\ \ 08. Alls Well - Mona Awad: My queen of weird literary horror. Theatre director suffering with chronic pain, has a strange night with 3 individuals and starts getting whatever she wants and takes out her revenge.\ \ 09. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman: I know this one doesn't seem like it would fit here but Eleanor showed me my favorite type of main character (Mary and Strange Sally Diamond as well)\ \ 10. The Lamb - Lucy Rose: It feels wrong to include a book that came out in 2025 but I couldn't leave it out. Margot and her mama live in a cabin in the woods where they consume certain people that knock on their door. This book is brutal and completely devastating. It's shocking that this is a debut novel.

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Madisoncanread\ \ Madison\ \ • May 22 2025

Some of my favorite audiobooks!

Some of my favorite audiobooks! #madisoncanread #thrillerbooks #horrorbooks #audiobooks #bestaudiobooks #Inverted

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Madisoncanread\ \ Madison\ \ • May 22 2025

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My favorites shelf ♥️🙌🏻 #madisoncanread #horrorbooks #thrillerbooks #favoritebooks #bestbooks #toptierbooks #godtierbooks

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Posts about this book from across Bindery

ash.reads.horror\ \ ash\ \ • Jan 6

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\ \ I kicked off this year reading the fantastic Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature edited by Becky Siegel Spratford.\ \ You can find my review HERE, but I wanted to take this space to dive a little further on my own personal Horror journey.\ \ I'm often asked "What's the scariest book you've ever read?" And this is a very valid question. But it's also a loaded question as well, because what is scary to me may not be scary to you. This is because horror is subjective.\ \ What scares me? I think what gets under my skin the most is bleak horror. When there's no hope. One book that does this well is The Ruins by Scott Smith. It's a survival horror about four friends that take a vacation to Mexico and wind up getting stuck in some ancient ruins. One by one the characters are picked off, with hope dwindling with each life lost. While the characters annoyed me in this book, the hopelessness really got to me.\ \ Where did my love for Horror start? Let's take a journey into the past. As stated in my Instagram post, watching my dad play Resident Evil One really stuck with me as a kid. The scene with the giant snake truly traumatized little me. Looking back on it now, it makes me laugh. Everything was so cringy. The graphics weren't great and the dialogue was corny. But its a classic for a reason and I still love it dearly. "You were almost a Jill Sandwich!"\ \ Another instance was when I was flipping through the channels, looking for something to watch. Stephen King's IT was on television. My young, innocent mind believed that someone would truly make a movie involving kids playing Tag Your It...So you best believe I was in shock when I see a clown holding balloons, inviting children to float. Then blood spewing out of the sink all over Beverly's bathroom. You best believe I hit the guide button on that TV remote and figured out that it was rated R. I ran to my room in terror as my mom laughed at me. And yes Child's Play did the same thing to me too. Who knew a movie involving a doll was actually a slasher in disguise.\ \ So what made me stop being such a scaredy cat? Honestly, I think playing Resident Evil 4 made me start appreciating horror more. I slowly started building myself up, until I could handle movies like Sinister (WHICH PHEW terrified me a lot). Final Destination also terrified me. To think that near death experiences had become a death sentence had me on the edge of my seat. And death definitely gets creative when taking back what it's owed.\ \ I love chasing that rush I feel when watching something scary. I love looking in the background for something subtly creepy (i.e. Haunting of Hill House ghosts in the background). I feeling my heart race as I wait for the jump-scare to pop up on the screen, or the fake out to cue the scare when I least expect it.\ \ So what books got me into reading horror?\ \ Well of course Stephen King kick started me. Now you may think I'm going to mention The Shining. While that is a FANTASTIC book of his and an all time favorite, Misery was one of my first and favorite works.\ \ When I joined bookstagram, my world was opened to all kinds of horror novels. I never knew so many horror books/authors existed.\ \ Some of the wonderful books I've discovered and will forever recommend are as follows:\ \ Come Closer by Sara Gran\ \ The Reformatory by Tananarive Due\ \ Below by Laurel Hightower\ \ I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid\ \ Mary by Nat Cassidy\ \ Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven\ \ Bat Eater and Other Names by Cora Zeng\ \ Night Film by Marisha Pessl\ \ We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer\ \ Slewfoot by Brom\ \ The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher\ \ Eynhallow by Tim McGregor\ \ ...and so many more books!\ \ I love that Horror has a little bit of something for everyone.\ \ Love Romance? How about a gothic horror with a dash of romance on the side?\ \ Love Thrillers? So many horror books toe the line of thrillers.\ \ Love History? There are so many historical horrors out there to try out.\ \ Your favorite genre has a place in horror. There is a horror book out there for everyone! Want a rec to get you kickstarted? As for a rec on my profile page.\ \ Thanks for coming to my TED talk lol.\ \ Join for free or login](https://ashreadshorror.binderybooks.com/item/eSRBVSlLmBBDQSFv3TEq/)

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Kurryreads\ \ Kerry\ \ • Aug 29 2025

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[Killer Reader Weekend \ \ May 8-10 at Riverhouse Lodge in Bend, Oregon\ \ Further Details, Pricing, & Interest Form can be found on my website here: https://kurryreads.com/pages/killer-reader-weekend\\ \ Tickets are going FAST - limited on-site accommodation tickets left\ \ In conversation with many great authors, but here are the AMAZING authors who have confirmed attendance so far!!!\ \ \ \ We are also SO lucky that many book content creators have signed on to attend as well ◡̈ \ \

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Kurryreads\ \ Kerry\ \ • Aug 14 2025

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Ultimate Guide to Spooky Season Reading v2

Replying to @Kerry | Booktok 📖 Ultimate Guide to Spooky Season Reading - Version 2 📚👻🔪 Timestamps: 00:28 Stranger Than Fiction 00:39 Witchy 00:47 Creature Feature 1:03 Dark Past-Potentially Paranormal 1:14 Possession 1:19 Slashers 1:32 Haunted House 1:42 Eco Horror/Plant Horror 1:48 Supernatural 1:57 Demonic/Occult 2:06 Cosmic 2:13 Folklore 2:26 Speculative 2:35 Young Adult 2:46 Paranormal 2:55 Psychological 3:03 Crime 3:13 Historical Fiction 3:29 Cult 3:43 Vampires 3:51 Weird Girl/Feminine Rage 4:00 Sci-Fi 4:08 Cannibalism #guidetospookyseasonreading #spookyreads #horrorbooks #cultbooks #paranormalbooks #hauntedhousebooks #possessionbooks #creaturefeature #booktok #booktoker #bookrecommendations #whattoread #vampirebooks #speculativehorror #youngadulthorror #folklorebooks #ecohorrorbooks #scifihorrorbooks #slasherbooks #scarybooks

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Madisoncanread\ \ Madison\ \ • Jun 20 2025

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Poll:\ \ What's your favorite kind of MC? \ \ I want a delusional, stabby, unstable main character. Just some of my favorites: \ \ \ \ **So Happy Together by Olivia Worley comes out June 3rd 2025\ \ Upgrade for $5 or login

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