Thank you to Netgalley for providing an advanced reader copy of this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Rachel Chavez is trying to forget something horrible that happened to her, so starting at a different school and making new friends seems like the best way to put the straight out of a horror movie event behind her.
It isn’t easy to fit in at Manchester Prep, though, so when members of the secret Mary Shelley Club offer an invitation to join, Rachel jumps at the chance. Everyone shares her love of horror films and classic gothic lit, so at first, it seems like she’s found the perfect set of new friends.
But part of being in such an exclusive club means you have an initiation challenge: come up with a terrifying prank on another person that causes real fear. And you have to get them to scream. It all seems pretty harmless, until one of the pranks goes horribly wrong and someone close to Rachel ends up dead.
Then members of the secret club start becoming targets themselves – but no one outside the immediate circle knows about them, so who could it be? Rachel is determined to get to the truth and just might die trying.
“The Mary Shelley Club” is Goldy Moldavsky’s third young adult novel. Like her other two titles, it’s an inventive, wildly over the top concept that’s extremely enjoyable. The pop culture references are great and if “Scream” and “Gossip Girl” had a baby, this would be it.
Outside of the main character, the rest of the supporting cast isn’t extremely likeable. So you’ll end up rooting for her, especially when you learn her dark secret and why she had to switch schools. It also feels like there could be a sequel looming – I loved the ending even though it was a bit rushed, and you’re left with a bit of an unsettled feeling when you turn that last page. However, based on the concept of the novel, that opened ended feeling fits pretty perfectly with a horror film inspired plot, so I have a feeling this is a one and done novel.
“The Mary Shelley Club” set the bar high for the rest of 2021 – this was one I wanted to read all night because there are so many pieces to the puzzle and once everything started coming together, I couldn’t put it down!
Expected publication date: April 13, 2021.
Pre-order here.
Five stars to start the year off right 🙂