Leanne Olson

by Nat Cassidy

Releasing July 19, 2022 from Tor Nightfire

I struggled with Mary, and wound up deciding it’s just not for me.

The opening scene was fantastic: intriguing, creepy, and visceral. A small town sheriff is investigating a mansion full of murdered women, and the killer is found to be in the walls. I felt like the author put me in the sheriff’s head and filled me with dread. Similarly, the next scene six year later with the little girl (who I assume becomes Mary) eating bugs was intriguing and gross in the best way.

Unfortunately, after that the novel lost me. Once we come to focus on Mary, the protagonist, I really detached from the story. Mary is 49 and female, and that seems to be most of her personality — we spend a lot of time with her inner monologue about how old and useless she is. I don’t know if that’s something intended to be specific to this character, or if that’s how the author believes middle aged women in general think? It really frustrated me, and I needed more to her character, beyond just her fantasies (and realities) of extreme violence.

I wound up deciding not to finish reading this one, I just wasn’t enjoying it. There are some strong elements so I think this was just a book-reader mismatch.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for my review copy of this book.