Mary Hades

Read this review and more on my blog October Tune Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley, this has not changed my opinion on the book in any way. I'd heard a lot of things about Mary Hades already and added it to my to-read list a while back. When I found it on Netgalley I immediately requested it, not at all thinking I would get accepted. But I did, and I added it to my 'to-read in February' list. It was the first book I started reading this month (okay I cheated, I started it on the 31st of January already), and I did enjoy it very much. First of all, I must tell you - if you want to read this book, you should definitely read the novella - My Daylight Monsters - before this book, otherwise you'll probably be a bit confused at the beginning, like I was. So I quickly got myself a copy of the novella and read it before continuing Mary Hades and I have to say I understood everything a bit better after that. So: Read the novella first! Mary Hades is about a girl, named Mary Hades (I LOVE that last name), whose best friend is a ghost. She is also seeing Things (that's literally what she calls them) who warn her about horrible things that are about to happen. Which is actually kind of a good thing, if the Things weren't so bloody scary. In this book, she's just come back from the psychiatric ward, where she met Lacey (aka her ghost friend, who wasn't a ghost back then), and her parents thought a little vacation might be nice. But what Mary doesn't know is that that vacation might turn into a nightmare. I love books like these, books about ghosts and horrible things. That's why I read Miss Peregrine's (the pictures, ohhhh), Anna Dressed in Blood, Say Her Name, and also the initial reason I wanted to watch Supernatural. This book was a bit creepier than ADiB though, which I liked (honestly I didn't think that book and it's sequel, Girl of Nightmare were that scary). Anyway, back to this book: we meet some nice characters in this book; Seth, Neil, Lammar and Igor. I liked these characters, though some things in the book made me feel a bit conflicted about liking several of these characters. But hey, I liked the outcome of this book (okay not 100% but more like 80%)! The writing was done really well and I enjoyed reading it very very much. I thought to myself I wanted to check out more of Dalton's books, and not necessarily from this series. As for the ghost, it was pretty scary y'all, I mean I could just imagine her as a creature on Supernatural and sometimes I actually got chills down my spine while reading this book. There were some minor things that I didn't really like - like the fact that you don't understand some things if you haven't read the novella, but that was soon solved - but they didn't really bother me that much. Why haven't I given the book five stars then? Well, a book has to completely (okay almost completely) blow me away to do that, and this book didn't really do that. I loved it, but it wasn't a 5-star love, alas. But that cover guys, wow! Fun fact, I read another book (totally unrelated) that had the exact same picture on the cover: To Know Me. I will be reading the other two books in the series, and I will definitely recommend this book to people who want to read scary books about ghosts! My opinion on this book in one gif:

This review was originally posted on Caity Reads. I generally do not read horror novels. I am a person who gets scared easily; and let’s face it, I let that be a factor in the books I read and the movies I watch. But when I read the prequel to Mary Hades, My Daylight Monsters, a few months ago I knew that I wanted to continue on with the story. And Mary Hades definitely met my expectations. Now, while I did read the prequel novella, I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary for you to read it to be able to understand this book. However, I definitely think it helps with filling in some of the background information, and I think it’s a great novella. This novel starts shortly after the end of My Daylight Monsters, Mary is recovering from the fire and she is back home with her parents. We follow Mary, her parents, and her dead best friend Lacey as they go on a camping vacation. Mary, Lacey, and some exciting new characters come across a murderous ghost on a revenge mission. As in the first novel, I loved Sarah Dalton’s writing style. I thought the story came to a nice conclusion, it was well written, and I enjoyed the novel throughout. I really enjoyed her characters and I think they work well with the story. This novel was not quite as scary as I was expecting it to be, but towards the end I found my heart racing quite a lot. I also thought that the romance worked well with the story. What is a vacation without a little fling after all? Mary was a easy character to like and sympathize with as she struggled over whether to trust her gut or trust what her friend was trying to tell her. As in the prequel, I really loved Lacey. She’s very outgoing and outspoken and I love characters like that. She’s funny and is more than willing to be there for Mary when she needs her. There were definitely some twists and surprises that I didn’t see coming, and I love when a novel does that. I cannot wait to read more of this series. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. If you like YA paranormal stories, this one is for you.