Mary, Will I Die? by Shawn Sarles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
Five years ago four childhood friends decided to play a little game. Elena, Steph, Grace and Calvin were all part of the same car pool and thus, spent some afternoons together.
One afternoon while at Elena’s house, the foursome headed into Elena’s Grandmother’s old bedroom. Even though her Grandmother had passed on, all her old trinkets and belongings were still in the room, including a beautifully-ornate, antique mirror.
As many kids before them tempted with a mirror, they decide to play Bloody Mary.
In their version, the mirror is supposed to reveal their one true love. Regardless of what each one sees, they keep it to themselves and don’t speak of it again.
Everything changes for them after that day, but was it because of the game, or just life?
By the time the foursome reach high school, they’ve completely grown apart. Elena is a bit of a Regina George, Grace is quiet and bookish, Steph is an athlete with a secret and Calvin is a broody artist.
When certain events start haunting the teens, they begin to wonder if that game they played all those years ago could have something to do with it.
As circumstances get increasingly more dangerous, with those around them and even themselves at risk for horrible accidents, they start to panic a bit.
Also, there’s a new girl lurking about. What’s up with her? Could she be the demon’s new host, here to take them all out one by one?!
The four finally decide it’s time to put petty squabbles aside and work together to break the curse and banish the demon back to whence it came before it’s too late.
Y’all, Mary, Will I Die is a fun time, but I feel like I need to provide a bit of explanation along with this review.
First, this is on the very cusp between YA and Tween. I think that is important to point out, as a lot of YA stories are more on the older end of the spectrum, bordering on NA.
These characters have just started their freshman year of high school. It’s the very beginning of the school year, Halloween is actually part of this story, so just keep that in mind if you pick this up.
They act young and think young, but that’s okay! Young teens are allowed to have great Horror stories too and this one is so much fun. It gave me nostalgia for the Fear Street books I had devoured as a Tween, but with more detail and better writing.
This narrative alternates between the four main characters chapters and I liked getting to read what each of them were thinking as the curse begins to reveal itself.
Each of the four actually has a different connection to the curse as well, which I thought was cool. For example, my favorite was Calvin, who ever since they played the game was able to see visions of bad things happening to people which would then be revealed through his drawings.
The ending of this went a bit as I anticipated, but I thought Sarles did a good job with it. This reads like a young Teen Scream, so I think if you go in with the right mindset, and enjoy that type of story, you will definitely have a good time with this.
Who doesn’t love some Bloody Mary!?
