Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The Mary Shelley Club

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The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky

16 reviews

allisonsmith120's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

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fallingquinnlove's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Read this book in a day, couldn't put it down; felt extremely predictable in some respects

(Obviously, if you pick Bram's girlfriend, he is going to pick Saundra. Don't intentionally make enemies with people who scare other people for fun!)

, but with enough twists to stay interesting. Very easy to read; kind of the perfect book to get me out of a reading slump (I haven't read YA in years, but I think that's why it worked).
My main thing, I think, is the fact that it felt like it wanted to be a movie. It's extremely visual, and in the way that it borrows intentionally and makes explicit reference to a lot of horror movies (as opposed to horror books), I think there's something genuinely lost in the development of it as a book. I imagine it along the lines of "Do Revenge" or "Bodies Bodies Bodies".
Also, be prepared for Gen-Z language that feels a little out of place, particularly outside of dialogue.

It was when Saundra's POV had a line about how Rachel had been acting a little "sus" and someone else had a line about thinking that someone else should "prob/def break up".

I'm Gen-Z and it's not inaccurate, but it doesn't feel consistent with the mood that Moldavsky seems to want to create.
Overall though, I did enjoy it, I enjoyed the twists and the motifs

Everything to do with masks, especially Bram's masks, was brilliant. And I loved the Frankenstein motif, obviously, with the projector scene and the fact the masks are Frankenstein but painted, and everything about Thayer's Shelley lore drops. I also really liked what was being said about class divides in NYC schools.

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cactuspunk's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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themoodreader's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

snovella's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

jjames_mal's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This YA horror/thriller follows Rachel an outcast at her prestigious prep school who finds comfort in horror movies after her own traumatic experience. After witnessing a prank meant to terrify her classmates, she learns about the Mary Shelley Club, a secret club obsessed with fear and horror.

I usually hate books about trials and games, but I loved this one. I loved how we are quickly thrust into the Mary Shelley Club and while there is mystery we also have a pretty good idea what's going on. I also love books about people getting obsessed with things, and the Mary Shelley Club sure is obsessed with horror, and their excitement is super contagious even through the page. I really liked the ending (couldn't really care about the romance) and I liked the feeling this book left me with.

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sallytiffany's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is a solid book. It kind of moved slowly for me and not a genre I usually get into. The characters are well written but I couldn’t relate to them because I just don’t like horror movies. A fine book, just not written for my taste.

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aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I absolutely LOVED this. Read it in 24 hrs, I was entirely hooked. I need to read more from this author 100%. I enjoyed the pop culture, especially the horror film, references even though I personally am not big on horror films (I'm jumpy haha) and haven't watched the films referenced. But there were some references that I did know from the handful of horror I've watched and of course urban myths/legends that get told as spooky stories. I had a couple guesses on who the big bad guy was and I was both shocked and not shocked at the same time. Like I had a few theories floating in my brain so I was somewhat prepared for who it was, but I wasn't prepared for the actual execution of the bad guy reveal.
If you like seeing rich kids getting spooked and the token middle class/lower class kids being thrown in the mix, this is for you. Semi-reminiscent of Ace of Spades in that respect where there is a middle-class main character experiencing some scary/tramautizing stuff while in a school full of rich kids. It also does switch POVs once in awhile but the main POV is from Rachel

our final girl

.
The ending is also kind of open and leaves room for potential sequels which I wouldn't hate because I still have SO MANY questions

like where the hell did Felicity go?? Girl got her head bashed and was able to still leave the scene. Is she going to try to avenge the club/Freddie??

and I enjoyed the writing a lot. Highly suggest reading content/trigger warnings because there are quite of few things in this book that could set off unpleasant feelings/memories for any reader with certain traumas/mental health issues.

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decklededgess's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

trigger warnings: murder, gore, anxiety, ptsd, home invasion, bullying, death

This book was absolutely phenomenal. This is a standard horror movie with all the classic horror tropes but it draws inspiration from Mary Shelley's life and her writing retreat with Lord Byron and the crew when she came up with Frankenstein.

The thriller/horror components were so well done and the audiobook really enhanced the atmospheric tension of the story. I was on the edge of my seat listening to this and was absolutely flabbergasted by some of the things that happened.

Incredible stuff.

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sm_moon's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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