The Mary Shelley Club

March 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-After a violent home invasion that leaves Rachel, who is Latina, with a traumatic secret, her mother takes a job at an elite Manhattan prep school where Rachel also enrolls-a fresh start for both of them. The teen immediately connects with bubbly classmate Saundra, but for the most part keeps to herself. When she uncovers, and is eventually invited to join, a secret club that revolves around horror movies and tropes, the contrived fear and catharsis that horror has brought her since her attack helps her feel at home with the club members, even as tensions she doesn't quite understand are always near the surface of the group's dynamic. As the group runs their Fear Tests-harmless horror scenarios each member is challenged to enact on their classmates-Rachel's past begins to catch up with her and she realizes the club might not be as harmless as she imagined. Loyalty, revenge, and the uses of fear are themes in this fast-moving thriller, and questions of how the plot does or does not add up in the end are eclipsed by fun horror references and a complex protagonist readers will root for. There is a minor love triangle among Rachel and two members of her group, but her friendship with enthusiastic, loyal Saundra is especially well developed. VERDICT A great choice for teens who enjoy horror and are looking for a quick read.-Beth McIntyre, formerly at Madison P.L., WI

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2021
Rachel, a 16-year-old trauma survivor, is initiated into her private school's secret society for horror fans. A year after surviving a violent attack, high school junior Rachel Chavez becomes the new girl at Manchester Prep on Manhattan's affluent Upper East Side. The middle-class daughter of a faculty member, Rachel feels invisible except for her one new friend, harmless school gossip Saundra Clairmont. After a school party ends in a ghost story, a s�ance, and screaming, Rachel--who immersed herself in horror movies as a coping device--notices a prankster amid the chaos. Soon, she is initiated into the Mary Shelley Club, a tightknit group that requires secrecy and rule-following from its members. She joins Freddie Martinez, a film geek on scholarship; hot-tempered, Stephen King-adoring Felicity Chu; charming Thayer Turner, whose political family is compared to the Obamas; and brooding golden boy Bram Wilding. Mostly the teens just watch all sorts of horror films--classics, slasher, zombie, psychological--but membership also involves more sinister activities. Moldavsky's tightly plotted tale weaves in dark humor, an impressive amount of horror trivia, and insightful references to Frankenstein. Readers will quickly become invested in Rachel's story even when she's making difficult-to-witness mistakes. The characters are notably diverse; issues of ethnicity and social class are naturally woven into the story. An atmospheric page-turner about loving scary movies, longing to belong, and uncovering the many masks people wear. (Horror. 14-18)

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