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.

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. 

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. 

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!!