Book Review: Say Her Name

Title: Say Her Name
Author: James Dawson
Genre/s: Young Adult, Horror, Mystery,
Released Date: June 5, 2014
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Synopsis:

Roberta 'Bobbie' Rowe is not the kind of person who believes in ghosts. A Halloween dare at her ridiculously spooky boarding school is no big deal, especially when her best friend Naya and cute local boy Caine agree to join in too. They are ordered to summon the legendary ghost of 'Bloody Mary': say her name five times in front of a candlelit mirror, and she shall appear... But, surprise surprise, nothing happens. Or does it?

Next morning, Bobbie finds a message on her bathroom mirror... five days... but what does it mean? And who left it there? Things get increasingly weird and more terrifying for Bobbie and Naya, until it becomes all too clear that Bloody Mary was indeed called from the afterlife that night, and she is definitely not a friendly ghost. Bobbie, Naya and Caine are now in a race against time before their five days are up and Mary comes for them, as she has come for countless others before... A truly spine-chilling yet witty horror from shortlisted 'Queen of Teen' author James Dawson.

My Thoughts:

I consider myself tough when it comes to reading horror books, that I even read it during the witching hours at night, unafraid of all the spooky stuff that is happening in the dark. I have never been that scared with ghost stories before, until I read, Say Her Name. That’s why I’m warning you, to not make the same mistake I did. You might think you’re brave enough that you can take whatever horror is in this book but trust me, you can’t. So don’t even try. Mary is watching you.

Telling ghost stories and doing scary stuff are the usual happenings on the night of Halloween. So the girls of Piper’s Hall and two Ridley guys, didn’t see anything wrong when they went into the bathroom and made a dare to say “Bloody Mary” five times in front of the mirror. Bobbie wasn’t usually the type of person to join shenanigans like this, but she’s feeling a little bit brave that time because her best friend Naya was with her and also because, she wanted to impress the cute boy named Caine who also wanted to do the dare. After they repeated “Bloody Mary” the fifth time, they waited but no Bloody Mary came. Well, that’s what they thought.

Seriously, this book was drip, drip, dripping with malice and spookiness. It actually made me paranoid about mirrors for a week or so, because I feel like BM is watching me too. This book exceeded my expectations and the ending gave me goosebumps every time I think about it. It was BLOODY AMAZING!!!

The only thing I didn’t like about this is Bobbie and Caine’s 5-day love story. It’s like “we’re going to die in 5 days so let’s speed things up between us and tell each other “I love you” even if we only knew each other for only a day or so.” Their romance annoys me but I am willing to ignore it because I love this book.

Overall, Say Her Name will satisfy your horror cravings and then some. I will recommend it to all the lovers of horror, mystery and urban legends out there. Trust me guys, you will love this.

My Rating