Latinx. check. dark acedamia. check. I've been waiting or something like this for too long! I loved this book. perfect spooky season read.

“I’m just trying to say that fear is kind of this important thing in our lives. It’ll always be there. And if you let it, fear will hold you back.”⁣
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𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘚𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘊𝘭𝘶𝘣 by 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐚𝐯𝐬𝐤𝐲⁣
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I do not like thrillers, but if you give me a thriller in a cool book box, I will force myself to read it, and this is the very sad but very true outcome.⁣
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Our protagonist lacks intrigue of any sort, and the plot is incredibly predictable. I often found myself asking, “This is supposed to be scary?” I guess I just have a very hard time finding teens frightening. 😳 The fact that it’s a YA thriller certainly did not aid in luring me into the story. I honestly cannot say that I was surprised by anything that happened and ultimately resorted to skimming. 🤷🏻‍♀️

What a amazing book! I feel in love with this one. The story is spectacular, all the characters are super vivid. I recommend with my heart.

okay i honestly saw so many things in this book coming but I absolutely loved it...and that ENDING? wow

Ohh nooo - I had such huge expectations for this thriller and was expecting so much out of this, but unfortunately I did not like this book. I felt like it was too dull and nothing happened.

Sharply written, witty and disturbing, all of the things I wanted from a Goldy Moldavsky book! I absolutely loved KILL THE BOY BAND, so was delighted when THE MARY SHELLEY CLUB lived up to all my expectations, and more.

An excellent YA suspenseful mystery thriller! A gripping read that kept me hooked the whole way through. I highly recommend this one for horror fans not all horror is created equal it takes a special talent to mix in humor.with horror GoldyMoldavsky nails it in this book.

Mary: Hello and welcome back to YA Book Club! Today we’re talking about The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky. The novel follows Rachel Chavez, who starts school at an exclusive prep school, only to fall in with a group of horror-loving teens called The Mary Shelley Club. Soon, Rachel discovers that things with the club aren’t as they seem, and her own terrifying ordeal begins. Be warned that from here on out, there will be spoilers for the novel!

We picked this book because, obviously, we are also horror fans, and as we all know Halloween season begins on September 1. We should say up front that Emily and I both received free copies of this book (Emily, an ARC from the publisher and me, a lovely treat from Once Upon a Book Club). However, we are going to talk about the book honestly, so buckle up.

Emily: Yes, I was actually really excited about reading this book because I love a good horror novel, and I love the idea of YA horror. Why do I love the idea of YA horror? I think, traditionally, people think that young adult fiction has to hold back from covering really dark subject matter. In reality, horror is a genre that caters to youths and teens in a lot of ways. Just think about who stars in most mainstream horror films. And think about the fact that a lot of Stephen King novels—while they are written for adults—feature children and young people as main characters. YA and horror are a natural fit, I think. Why do I say “the idea” of YA horror? Because, as we’ve seen with some of our past YA Book Club entries, YA horror doesn’t always work. But when it does, it’s great! Anyway, let’s see how this one did for us.

Mary: Also, what’s more horrifying than actually being a young person? Few things, I say. In a way, even puberty itself is like becoming monstrous. I definitely wrote a paper about this in a grad class one time. But anyways. Lol.

Yes, being young is scary
Yes, being young is scary

One thing that really stuck out to me about this novel was its length. It’s 450 or so pages long (in hardback), but I don’t think that its length held it back at all. It took me a little while to get into the meat of the plot, but once Rachel teams up with the Mary Shelley Club, I was all in. The pacing of the novel really worked for me and kept me interested. What did you think of the pacing/length? It’s definitely not our typical YA read.

Emily: Yeah, it was definitely long, and I agree it was a little slow at first, but I think once the story got going, it was paced really well. One thing I think could have helped in the beginning? I’m not really sure why Rachel’s backstory was kept a secret for so long. Like, why not just start off with the break-in where she almost kills someone? I don’t think that bit of mystery added anything, especially since we’re in Rachel’s head. And it would be such a nice nod to traditional slasher films to have the book open with a violent scene where someone dies and then shift the timeline forward to months later after Rachel and her mother move and she transfers schools.

Mary: I wondered that, too! I don’t think that there’s anything she did that’s bad, per se. I mean, I understand how she feels traumatized and I think I’d feel the same way, BUT she thought she was protecting herself. It’s not like Rachel thought, hahaha, yes, let me kill someone tonight! For all she knew, she had to act or die herself. I don’t know why she felt like she had to keep that a secret at all costs, and you bring up a great point about how it’s especially odd since it’s in the first person. Rachel wouldn’t think about her own life as something she had to keep a secret from herself.

I really enjoyed all the nods to horror films throughout the novel. Not only does the Mary Shelley Club watch a wide array of movies, but they also reference them constantly in conversation. They all dress up as horror icons for Halloween, they have witty banter (that they’re entirely self aware of) referencing favorite films–it’s all very on the nose in a way that didn’t bother me for once. How’d you feel about all the horror references? I know we both can go either way on stuff like this.

Emily: See, I liked it and I didn’t. I really don’t like it when teens don’t sound like teens in books (and movies). Some of the references and some of the ways they were talking about the movies (and the movies they talked about) just didn’t feel like real teen references and teen commentary to me. The newer movie references worked better for me. But when they’re big fans of Evil Dead 2? Like, I wish, but I don’t think a lot of teens are watching Evil Dead 2. It sort of took me out of it.

Are the kids watching this?
Are the kids watching this?

Mary: That’s fair. When they talked about stuff like Us, that sounds right to me. Even something like Halloween makes sense because it’s an absolute classic. But other times...nah.

My favorite favorite nod to horror came near the end of the novel, when the final big twist gets revealed. Readers find out that the club has been manipulating Rachel throughout the entire novel in one big epic Fear Test. Freddie and Felicity are the most committed to the mission, though, and attempt to kill (?) Rachel by the end of the book. I couldn’t help but think of Scream here, where there always has to be two killers working together. I think at one point someone even mentions the iconic duo of Billy and Stu from the first Scream. Maybe I’ve just got Scream on the mind since we all just watched it, but this reference really tickled me.

Emily: No, I think the Scream referencing was intentional, and I definitely got a Scream vibe from the book as a whole, which I really enjoyed. I liked this twist at the end, too, because it really did seem like these people never really liked Rachel to begin with. Even Freddie was suspect to me. And Felicity was just terrible the whole way through. And it made sense why Bram acted the way he did the whole time when you get to the end and figure out what’s really happening. I also like that you find out that this is just one chapter of the club, that there are actually Mary Shelley Clubs all over the place. To me, that had some interesting implications.

But since I mentioned Bram and Felicity and Freddie, how did you feel about the members of the Mary Shelley Club? Did you at any point like them? Or the idea of the club? There’s a lot of moral gray area that the author is playing with here.

Mary: It’s hard to say! I liked them for the most part, not because I thought they were good people, but because they were interesting characters. Bram was mysterious and hiding something; Felicity had that too-cool-for-school mentality (before she went full sociopath); Freddie seemed to connect with Rachel on the level of Class and not fitting in at the prep school. I also loved how nervous Thayer always seemed, especially after things started happening. Throughout the whole novel I wanted to learn more about the characters, and I really liked that it all came together in the end. I think this is the rare book that might benefit from a second read because you could really see how everything fits together.

Emily: Speaking of Scream, Thayer kind of gave me Matthew Lillard in Scream vibes, and I’m not sure I mean that in a good way. Like I think he was supposed to be the comedic relief at times, but it didn’t really land with me.

scream-matthew-lillard.gif
Mary: That makes total sense to me, too. Towards the end, especially, he had this manic, panicked energy about him that felt like Matthew Lillard (who absolutely steals the show at the end of Scream). I didn’t think he was that funny, honestly, just weird, and I love a weird kid. He’s the one that made me think something was up that Rachel didn’t know about.

Emily: I definitely agree with you that this is the type of book that really would benefit from a second read, because the whole time I was reading it, I was thinking, like, “ugh, why would you even want to hang out with these people?” Not only did they seem morally bankrupt, but they also just like… weren’t really even friends with each other? Like I feel like if you refuse to hang out with each other outside of sanctioned “club meetings,” are you even friends? But then you learn more about what’s actually going on, and you realize that’s kind of the whole point the author was trying to make in the first place.

Which really got me thinking about Rachel’s motivations in all this. I feel like she wanted so badly to belong to a group that she didn’t even stop and wonder if that group was worth being a part of in the first place. Like she wanted so badly to be liked by these people she didn’t stop to wonder, “Do I even like them?” Which, honestly, as a Libra, I found that totally relatable, especially from a teen’s perspective. Like younger me would do this.

Mary: Oh for sure. She really does just want to fit in, and for some reason her friend Saundra isn’t enough for her in that respect. Does she just not think that Saundra was “weird” enough? It seemed like Rachel wanted friends that would watch horror movies with her and share her love of traditionally “dark” things, which hey, I was ALSO that kid in high school, so I get it. Still, it made me sad that she sort of took Saundra for granted sometimes, just to spend time with a group that clearly didn’t care about her.

I will say that the ending seemed like it was keeping the lines open for a potential sequel or spinoff series, and I do NOT want that. We talk about this a lot, but I just don’t read series that often, and I think the book ended in a nice spot.

Emily: I agree. I’m not big on series, and if there was a second one of these, I don’t know how compelled I would be to read it. The twist has already been revealed, after all. What more is there to do?

Mary: Do we want to talk about how we rated the book? I gave The Mary Shelley Club 4 stars. It wasn’t a perfect book by any means, but I really enjoyed it and it kept me guessing up to the end. For me, it was the perfect book to read with a mug of tea, in a sweater, while getting ready for Halloween.

Emily: I gave it a 3. I think it’s probably, like, a 3.5, but I rounded down. It was interesting enough, but for the things I mentioned earlier (the slow beginning, the weird reveal of Rachel’s past, the too-witty teen dialogue with tons of dated references, the funny character who wasn’t funny), I had to knock it down a bit. Also, the ties to Mary Shelley were… looser than I was hoping they would be. But, you know, they tried to mention her every now and then.

Mary: I think that Mary Shelley was supposed to be a through-line (Bram and Rachel wrote a term paper on her and had to grapple with wHo iS tHe mOnStEr), but it didn’t fully work out in my opinion either. I think it’s cool to name the club after a horror icon–and Shelley definitely is–but it felt like a weird pick. Also, like you said, for a group of kids really into Shelley, she didn’t come up much. Then again, maybe this group didn’t even name it, since there are chapters everywhere...

Next time, we’re going to read Mercury Boys by Chandra Prasad. I’m super pumped for this book because it has so many things I like: a group of secretive girls, supernatural stuff, a high school! Plus, the cover is gorgeous. Very pleased we’re doing this one next, and it continues our spooky vibe as we move closer to Halloween!

Emily: Yes, let’s keep the scary books coming!!

The Mary Shelley Club is a superb novel that easily became one of my favorite reads of 2021! This page-turning read immerses you from the very beginning with a one-of-a-kind plot following Rachel Chavez who has an obsession with horror films and soon learns about the secretive Mary Shelley Club that orchestrate "fear tests" across campus. The characters are fantastic as is the writing, themes and how Moldavsky uses the genres of thriller and horror so perfectly throughout this novel .

Rachel Chavez is a fantastic main character and readers will no doubt become immersed in her journey across each chapter. In addition, the main cast of characters are all super well-developed and Moldavsky's skill with pacing and plotting leave you wanting to know more about this dark academia / horror setting she's crafted.

Written in a first-person perspective, it evokes the feeling of a classic horror flick and you find yourself captivated as the mystery unravels! A masterfully crafted novel that pays homage to the horror genre!
[Originally read April 2021]

3.5/5 stars. It’s kinda like if Christopher Pike wrote Scream and set it in Gossip Girl’s New York. It was gripping and I couldn’t stop reading but the group being so horrible to the main character about her PTSD throughout the book was rough. Her self talk too, though it felt painfully realistic - especially for a teenager. I wanted to yell “Just leave! Get away from them! Real friends don’t use the worst experience of someone’s life as a joke! It’s not entertainment!” The fact that they kept bringing it up and forcing her to relive it got old REAL fast. It was definitely a love letter to the teen pulp horror fiction genre and horror movies and their tropes so if you’re into any of those and like YA I’d check it out ASAP.

The premise and cover will definitely pull readers to this book. It screams suspense, horror, and a good read. While the cat and mouse game reenacting vintage horror movie themes, the book lacked any real suspense. The challenges, scenarios, and delivery were subpar and will not keep readers on the edge of their seats. Instead, the delivery of the club's purpose falls flat and not all of the loose ends are neatly explained by the end of the book.

A fun, suspense story for teens that enjoy horror and thrillers. I missed Moldavsky's signature dry humor & wit that added so much to her previous novels "No Good Deed" and "Kill the Boy Band," this book will still have reader's turning pages.

I read this entire book in one day, I couldn't put it down! It was a very quick read. I wasn't very fond of the main character or any of the people she hung out with but I was so invested in their lives. I liked the horror movie references and it made me smile every time, and it never felt forced. The idea of the Mary Shelley Club is amazing and I would have LOVED to be a part of something like that when I was in high school.

Content Warnings: Home invasion, murder, stalking, underage drinking & drug use, depictions of anxiety and panic attacks and grief.

I wanted to like this more than I did, I think. I went into this with really high hopes, because the premise sounded really, really intriguing. But in the end, it just fell a bit flat for me. I had to sit on it for a day after finishing it, but I think maybe I can explain why now.

First of all: it was just way, way too predictable. If I'm reading a thriller or mystery, I want to be trying to figure out who's behind everything, but I feel like usually I have to work at it a bit more than this. Just under halfway through this book, I had the whole thing figure out. That's not bragging or anything - it just... was that obvious. Already having clearly seen the twist coming, I wasn't super motivated to want to finish the book, honestly. I pushed through and listened to most of the audiobook in one day, partly because I just wanted to get it done, but also some part of me wanted to be proven wrong. I wanted there to be some last second surprise that really got me. There just ultimately wasn't, sadly.

Second, I just didn't really like our main character? I'm not sure if we were supposed to, truthfully - she even constantly called herself a monster and said something was wrong with her (though I think we're supposed to chalk that mostly up to survivor's guilt) - but man, I just... wasn't rooting for her really. Quite a few of the main cast of characters were heavily unlikeable, actually. I liked Thayer, and in the end, I liked Bram. But other than that? Not... not really.

One character that I felt especially frustrated with was Rachel's mom. She just didn't seem to care about or notice anything. You're telling me your daughter was attacked in your home while home alone and theoretically almost died and you'd just let her do... pretty much whatever? That she never would've noticed her sneaking out - not even once? I know a lot of YA parents are fairly absent, but in a case like this it just felt particularly noticeable and unrealistic.

I will say that all the movie and classic horror trope references in this book were fun. It had that going for it. It also was an incredibly fast read in the end, which really helped me to power through it, but I just expected more. I think I went into this with expectations too high unfortunately. But if you need a fast, somewhat spooky read around Halloween time, then I'd still say it's worth picking up to pad out a reading challenge or something! Just don't go into it expecting an amazing mystery or anything and you'll probably have a fairly good time.

I love a good slasher book and this one did not disappoint. I haven't read a lot of young adult thrillers but I will now. I was completely sucked into this story and couldn't put this book down. There were so many great twist and turns that kept me guessing.

This book eas not what I was expecting, I did not finish it. But, it is not badly written and I think it reads appropriately for young adults.

Here's what I really liked, the pacing was phenomenal and I essentially listened to the entire book in one day. The story was interesting enough and reminds me of a slasher movie from the early 2000's, which is clearly its intent. I loved that. What I didn't like was how obvious the red herrings were and who the actual big bad was in the story. I had it pretty much figured out at 50%.. Knowing who the actual bad guy was kind of took away my enjoyment of the book. But then, I think about it as a campy romp so I didn't hate the book, it just wasn't a favorite.

Goldy Moldavsky’s “The Mary Shelley Club” was a superb thriller that was reminiscent of pop culture aware films like “Scream.” The book did an excellent job of weaving in typical horror tropes while allowing for a finale that had twists which made sense within the plot line of the book. This would be an excellent book for high school students to read, especially those who are interested in horror and pop culture. There are important representations of diverse cultures as well as a clear level of showing class consciousness. Overall, this book was thrilling to read and I would highly recommend it.

This is one of the best books I have read in 2021,, It was full of twists! I have never read a YA thriller and this made me want to pick up more. The book felt like I was watching a movie and I absolutely loved that. I enjoyed all the horror movie references and the intertextuality between film and literature. The characters were so unique and interesting. I was not able to guess what happened AT ALL. This book was a wonderful balance of horror elements with humor like the Scream movies.

A creepy book that will suck you right in! I could not put this book down. Awesome work. Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for an ARC.