I was wondering how long it would take. No, not for me to finally have a spare second to post (sorry bout that–I specifically blame “Science Fiction in Victorian Literature.” Seriously–973 page books? Pshaw!) What I really mean is how long it would take for a YA author to get a hold of one of the great many urban legends out there and transform it into something bigger, bolder, grosser and, well, downright more exciting.
And then came Hillary Monahan’s Mary: The Summoning.
But first, a brief intro. Like the fairy tales of old, urban legends warn us off from doing stupid things. Now, you may be thinking that you would never do stupid things and, even if you were going to do stupid things, well, a stupid story would certainly not stop you from doing said stupid things in the first place.
That, my friend, is where you’d be . .. well, stupid. Why? Because *everyone* does stupid things and it is exactly these kinds of stories that are handed down willy-nilly at bedsides, or in classrooms, on school yards or by fireplaces late at night. But of course, to serve as warnings, not all such stories are going to be happy. No, in the realm of urban legends, you ain’t gonna see the princess ride off on the back of the prince’s white steed.
Bloody Mary has been an urban legend for a whiles. Certainly since before my time, and I actually rode a stegosaurus to the tiny one room school house when I was a lass. There are ongoing debates (because, apparently, people have time to debate the origins of a fictional story) as to whom this particular Mary is really supposed to be and, by extension, what she’s supposed to have done to make her a ghost worth summoning. Most theories agree that she was either a woman accused of murdering her own children or else was a mother whose child was stolen from her, leading to her impending insanity and eventual suicide. Or that she was a woman killed in a car accident or she was a witch. So basically, no one has a clue, other than that this ritual continues to be performed by kids.
Yet despite shaky and unknown origins, this particular legend is the basis of numerous websites, it’s nightmare fodder in virtually countless references in books, movies and tv shows, and it continues to be a source of morbid entertainment for kids today. And, really, who hasn’t tried it out–at least once–today? (Or back in the day, depending on how old your trusty dinosaur is?)
This story follows a quartet of teen girls–all long-time best friends–as they agree and participate in a Mary summoning ceremony, led by their Queen B, Jess, at her bequest. The narrator, Shauna, is intrigued by the activity–but that’s really all she sees it as: an activity. The other two girls, Anna and Kitty, are generally uninterested tag alongers on this ghost wooing expedition, uninterested in really investigating the matter and certainly hoping that it will not be in any way successful. But then, none of them–supposedly–expects the summoning to be successful, anyway. It’s just a bored teen girl activity, right?
And that’s where the author really takes liberties with the legend. Mary, in all her gruesome glory, is a fiend. Ms. Monahan does a pretty impressive job, for what it’s worth, of painting her in all the technicolor, modern horror film nastiness possible. She drips bugs, oozes various goos, spider walks, broken limb dangles, popped eyeball spews . . . and just generally angry ghost haunts the heck out of the girls.
Part of what makes this particular ghoul so scary is her ability to appear anywhere at any time, as long as there’s a shiny surface involved. But not even that’s the main scary here. The biggest issue the girls face in fighting this formidable foe–and fight they do, as she latches on to Shauna–is what the don’t know. And, in my great efforts to not completely ruin the book with spoilers, I’ll leave it there for now.
What I Liked About the Book:
1. This book is creepy. I mean, scary creepy. I am a devout follower of all things horror, but even I had a few moments where I was duly surprised at how well the author treated this book not as a kiddy-hand-holding-before-adult-books, but as a legit horror story. Rock on!
2. LOVE that it’s not all about some unnecessary life-or-death romance. One of the girls does have a romantic interest, but he’s not a key player here at all. The story really focuses on these girls, their friendships, and their families. And the drama of their friendship? Yet another thing that really helps set the tone and pace of the story.
3. Oh, and speaking of their families, they actually have parents. As in, adults who actually parent and take care of them, rather than just allowing them to wander free with no responsibilities or governance. Ms. Monahan even did a fine job of weaving in how the girls responded to different situations based on responsibilities that they have to their families (as opposed to most YA, in which teens all raise themselves, apparently).
4. Ms. Monahan did a great job of creating not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 separate, unique teen girl personalities and maintaining their momentum throughout the book. I really appreciated this, as too often I feel that characters tend to kind of mesh together–especially when they same-gendered friends in YA Lit. It was also an excellent twist that (at least to me) some of the scariest aspects of this story were directly related to this friendship (no more spoilers!).
5. The use of epistolary communications did an excellent job of blending Mary’s time with that of the girls today, as well as framing the narrative a lot better than simple discovery via google. We get a clearer reference and picture of what really happened to Mary, as well as personifying of the unsightly ghoul haunting the other pages of the book.
6. There are very few things about this book that conflict for me, but even those that do are quite few and far between. Perhaps more so than in any other YA book that I’ve read of late–and especially of those in the revitalized YA Horror/Thriller categories–this one did an outstanding job of covering potential plot holes along it’s way.
What I Didn’t Love About the Book:
1. Where I had some difficulty was with the tone. At multiple points, I found myself almost rolling my eyes, thinking that this story was clearly aimed towards an almost tween crowd (think 13-14). However, the content clearly placed it in the late teen group, especially with the graphically gory descriptions, surprise element and violence. Perhaps it was just me, and perhaps now it’s just me used to reading YA Lit portraying slightly older protagonists, but there were a few clangs in terms of what the story was doing v. how it was being told.
2. Though I loudly laud the presence of parents and family members throughout, I had some difficulty swallowing how Shauna’s mother in one scene is able to see straight through some fairly convincing lies, while in another is completely unaware–even when hugging/rubbing Shauna’s back–of the scratches/bandages there.
3. Similarly, I found it somewhat unconvincing that no parents saw fit to ask why their daughters were carrying around large boxes of salt wherever they went. Maybe it’s just me, but I have a feeling your average mom would notice that.
4. Sadly, while I really enjoyed the Cody story line (previous Mary survivor finally freed), I found her advice to Shauna the least plausible. Really? The best idea in your arsenal is to have the teen abandon her friends, family, and schooling with no explanation and just continue on along her merry way to be haunted and shredded by an angry ghost alone? Hmmm.
5. I have a little trouble following how the three other girls in the quartet could so readily and easily both follow Jess, the fourth member, into the summoning and then (especially as the proverbial poop hits the fan) continue to believe whatever she told them. They suggest later in the story that they might not have grounds to trust her, but this seemed too little too late. It clanged a bit, given the group’s dynamic, that they would all willingly continue to follow what she said and told them to do.
Overall:
In all, though, these are all pretty minor hiccups in my efforts at completely suspending disbelief and, as a result, this book feels like one of the tightest woven narratives I’ve come across. It’s unapologetically gory, violent, scary and interesting. It’s also one of the first moves in the YA Lit field towards retelling an urban legend (though we’ve seen quite a few recent retellings of fairy tales and classics). I assume that there will be more of these to come, to which I say, Bring em on!
The Alpha and the Omega: The Endless Ramblings of a YA Lit Lover 