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, CrimeRead

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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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Published Jul 19, 2022

416 pages

Average rating: 7.59

286 RATINGS

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Berlin Horror Book Club

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *Mary* by Nat Cassidy is a gory, weird, and empowering horror novel that blends unsettling supernatural elements with sharp social comment...

Mellific
Jul 09, 2026
10/10 stars
This is my second Nat Cassidy read and I think I have a new favorite author. I normally don't read horror, but Nat Cassidy has become an auto buy author for me. This particular book did an amazing job with making the reader feel unsettled. There was a twist or two at the end which made me gasp and visceral reactions throughout. I definitely needed this for spooky season!
pr0n_cena
Nov 07, 2025
10/10 stars
Just... Wow! The third act was drawn out, and I normally would have given a 4 star because of it, but the preface and afterward by the author really put everything into context and earned its 5 stars - everything being sometimes authors don't have the answers to societal problems that books (especially fiction) are grappling with even as allegory.
Casey O
Apr 20, 2026
4/10 stars
This needed like 4 more rounds of edits
daph_78
Nov 14, 2025
6/10 stars
There were some creepy parts and a lot of excessive swearing.
nicholey
May 21, 2025
10/10 stars
this was legit scary

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