Mary Hades by Sarah Dalton

Published: May 4th 2014

Not many seventeen year old girls have a best friend who’s a ghost, but then Mary Hades isn’t your average teenager.

Scarred physically and mentally from a fire, her parents decide a holiday to an idyllic village in North Yorkshire will help her recover. Nestled in the middle of five moors, Mary expects to have a boring week stuck in a caravan with her parents. Little does she know, evil lurks in the campsite…

Seth Lockwood—a local fairground worker with a dark secret—might be the key to uncovering the murky history that has blighted Nettleby. But Mary is drawn to him in a way that has her questioning her judgement.

Helped by her dead best friend and a quirky gay Goth couple, Mary must stop the unusual deaths occurring in Nettleby. But can she prevent her heart from being broken?

The first in a series of dark YA novels, Mary Hades follows on from the bestselling Kindle Single ‘My Daylight Monsters’. A spine-tingling tale with romance, readers will be shocked and entertained in equal measure.

A YA Brit ghost story? Yes please!

Very cool story.

I liked that the horror was actually horror and delivered real chills. Something I have been lusting for since I last read an Andrew Pyper book! (If you haven’t read any of his work, I insist you check out The Damned)

This book is best read at bedtime, I promise it will send chills up your spine and make you question if you locked your doors!

Our protagonist lives in a nightmare. Her best friend is a ghost, she may or may not be mentally sick. Where she travels death follows. Her life is hell, literally.

This was a very dark story.There is an abundance of sadness, angst and a perpetual feeling of fear.

The world crafted is so fantastical and vivid.

The entire family are prominent characters in the novel, which is a rarity in the YA genre. Often we just read about the protagonist and their love interests/friends, it was refreshing to read about a real family dynamic.  The comedic relief her parents supply is just so very real and authentic. Parents are embarrassing. We love them, but yep, they love embarrassing us. This humour works wonders on pushing the story through some of it’s very dark and gritty parts.

This is one I will definitely pull out again in the season of spooks!