The Mary Shelley Club

I just finished an amazing book, and I need everyone to know about it! The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky (published 2021) is a YA psychological horror novel that gave me (a 36-year-old grown-up) chills.

I listened to this 10-hour book on the Libby app; in print, it is 468 pages. Told in first person, this book opens with Rachel Chavez as she is the victim of a home invasion in the prologue. In the first chapter, it’s a new school year, and she has just transferred from her public school on Long Island to an elite prep school, Manhattan Manchester Prep. She is befriended by Saundra, a gregarious wannabe who drags her to a party on a school night.

At the party, someone plays a prank that goes awry, and Rachel gets blamed for it by the most popular girl in school. She thinks she saw who did it, and pesters him until he admits to being in an underground club - The Mary Shelley Club.

The club plays pranks inspired by horror movie tropes to get petty revenge on their classmates, but soon enough the pranks turn bitter and deadly. Rachel believes that there is someone out there messing up and amping up their pranks; someone who bares a startling resemblance to one of the people who were a part of her home invasion.

What follows is a series of twists and turns that made my head spin and my stomach drop. The final twist confirmed my worst fears as I was reading and blew my mind at the same time. I could see the ending coming, but that didn’t make it any less impactful.

5/5 Stars!