SoWrongItsRANDI {Bell, Book & Candle}'s Reviews > Mary: The Summoning

Bell, Book & Candle | Mary: The Summoning Review



So I thought I would review something scary in honor of Halloween. Muah ha ha ha (*evil laugh*). What's more scary than a Bloody Mary? Plenty of things I'm sure, but that's not the point. I was plenty scared, believe me. Maybe it has a little to do with me being the only one downstairs tonight; I live in house inhabited by a few ghosts (I'm so serious right now). You can only imagine my reaction every time is heard a noise, or thought I saw something in the mirror that hangs by my bed-I just about pissed myself!



For the life of me I will never understand why people insist on playing around with things they don't understand; it's a recipe for disaster. However our 4 main characters: Shauna, Jess, Anna and Kitty didn't get that memo. These foolish girls decide they want to summon Bloody Mary, yielding disastrous results. One of them gets "marked for death" and they all spend the rest of the book trying to undo what they caused. The plot twists were indeed intriguing, as was the letters written by Bloody Mary, I mean Mary Worth. It's not terribly difficult to guess what happens next if you're paying attention, and you may find yourself shaking your head at these characters.

Our POV heroine, Shauna, got more than she bargained for apparently. If I were to sum up Shauna in four words, "curiosity killed the cat" would be them. For the most part I didn't feel sorry for her because of [SPOILER] her desire to see Bloody Mary's face. Uhm, why? After the first summoning of Mary was successful, she and the other should have left it alone and ran far, far away as A Flock of Seagulls would suggest. Not only that, but when she found out Mary would attack those around her she should have put her friends safety first; she's just as much to blame for the "incident" as Jess is. I found Shauna to be kind of bothersome. I think it was her whining that did it in for me.

As for Shauna’s friends, I'm pleased that Anna and Kitty had good sense to not want to summon Mary again, no matter how short lived it was. Those two obviously don't have enough backbone to put their foot down and say no. Jess, the Regina George (Mean Girls) of the group, was a pain in the a**. Are you that desperate for power or whatever it is you’re seeking, that you would endanger everyone's lives over it? What's worse is that she got some sick thrill out of it. I would say I'm appalled, but there's always that "one" friend who's like Jess. Towards the end I can't I was surprised about what was revealed about Jess.

On a personal note, I'm glad I never thought to play the Bloody Mary game when I was a kid, or a Ouija board for that matter. I had a couple of friends who wanted to use the Ouija board at a graveyard- I was like "Oh hell no!"

There are some decent thrills and a cool imaginative story of Bloody Mary. The characters are what you would see in any horror movie- a bunch of fools! Not a bad book to read, though. I would recommend not looking into any mirrors afterwards...especially on All Hallows' Eve!

P.s. Eerie cover right?