Review: Mary, Will I Die by Shawn Sarles

Author: Shawn Sarles
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 2021

It starts innocently enough. Four kids - three girls, one boy - are at one of their houses, playing games. One of them has read about "Bloody Mary" and the idea that if you look into a mirror and say her name thirteen times, she will show you the future. Some legends say she'll show you your one true love or a skull to mark your death within five years. Others say that conjuring Bloody Mary will bring her into your world.

Both sets of legends are true. The kids go through with the act, saying her name thirteen times. One girl looks in the mirror and sees her longtime crush. One girl looks in the mirror and sees the boy in the group. But she pretends to see something else. One girl looks in the mirror and sees a girl she's never seen before but can't get out of her mind. And the boy . . . he sees a skull. But he pretends to see something else. They try to laugh it off. And mostly they forget about it. Or at least they don't talk about it. Yes, over the next few years, whenever they look into a mirror, it's like there's always another figure standing in the background, getting closer.

Just short of five years later, the four of them are no longer friends, having gone on separate paths. The girl whose house it was has always tried to avoid the mirror they used - because she always sensed someone in the background. One morning as she's passing by, she sees much more than her own reflection - it's a scary figure taunting her. She startles and breaks the mirror. When the pieces are put back together (barely), the figure is gone.

Mary, Will I Die? is a YA Horror involving 4 kids and the Bloody Mary legend.  This has it's own twist on the legend.  Rumor has it that if you say "Bloody Mary" 13 times while looking in a mirror, you will see your future.  You may even see your soul mate.  When these four were in middle school, they played the game and each one saw something different. What they saw has affected their lives 5 years later. 

I thought this was a fun YA horror.  It was definitely creepy.  I liked all of the characters.  Each one showed a lot of growth by the end of the book.  Which is a rare thing these days.  There was a great twist regarding the mirror and the demon.  I do think that this would be a good horror for upper middle school readers who want to dip their toes into the horror genre.  I do recommend this one and think it would be a good addition to any middle grade/YA library.

Review: Campfire by Shawn Sarles

Author:  Shawn Sarles
Publisher: jimmy patterson
Date of publication: July 2018

While camping in a remote location, Maddie Davenport gathers around the fire with her friends and family to tell scary stories. Caleb, the handsome young guide, shares the local legend of the ferocious Mountain Men who hunt unsuspecting campers and leave their mark by carving grisly antlers into their victims' foreheads.

The next day, the story comes true. 

Now Maddie and her family are lost in the deep woods--with no way out--being stalked by their worst nightmares. Because there were other, more horrifying stories told that night--and Maddie's about to find out just how they end...


Campfire had the potential to be a really good horror story. Yeah, it wasn't. The story takes place on a camping trip.  Maddie, along with her family and some family friends are camping for a week as one last goodbye before her brother and friends go off to college.  After two nights of campfire ghost stories, some of them start to come true.

This book was just plain bad.  I'm not even sure that I can find something I liked about it.  It was fairly short, so it had that going for it.  The campfire stories were more interesting than the overall story.  However, the rest of the book involving Maddie and the other characters was dull until about the last third of the book. 

The characters were fairly forgettable.  There were so many that is was hard to keep them and their relationship to each other straight.  Once they started dying, I found I really didn't care.  The teens' dialogue was forced and unbelievable.  The author clearly has not spent time around teenagers lately. Oh, and did you know that Chelsea is Maddie's best friend?  Because just in case you didn't, Maddie will remind you about 6 millions times throughout the story.   

I thought the reveal was going to go one way because there is some foreshadowing thrown out there a few times.  But the author decided to ignore that and go in a incompletely different direction.  While the one I was expecting is fairly cliche as well, I was almost disappointed I didn't get that ending.  I'll spare you any spoiler in case you decide you want to pick this one up.   But, I wouldn't recommend this one.