Mary Rose, Geoffrey Girard
Rating: 7/10
Publishing: Adaptive Books
ISBN: 978-1-945293-36-8
Copyright: (C) 2017 by Adaptive Studios
To be honest, I had a hard time reading this novel at the beginning. The writing style was convoluted, though very unique. I praise the author, Geoffrey Girard for his different writing and the use of words.
The story began with the mentionings of ghosts and hauntings. I knew right away that this novel is about phantoms and at least one character is a ghost. It also mentioned Satanic rituals and human sacrifices, and I instantaneously knew that something horrifying would happen. Reading about hauntings and Satanic sacrifices has brought the chills down my spine and already, I didn’t want to put the book down.
To begin with, Simon Blake, the main protagonist of “Mary Rose” is a successful man with a money-making business. It’s revealed that he is engaged with a young woman named Mary Rose. Simon had an engagement party at his office with his co-workers and Mary Rose wasn’t seen until the party was over. When Simon went looking for Mary Rose, it turned out that she was hiding for an unknown reason.
When I first read about her character, I found out that Mary Rose has a childish personality despite being in her twenties. I thought, “Oh, she’s immature for her age.” Normally, I don’t like adult characters with childish personalities. I grew up being mature all my life and I always hated people who are immature for their ages. At first, I didn’t like Mary Rose, until I read ahead and learned that she had a dark history. I’ve been suppressing my hatred for the immaturity throughout the book. Although, one trait I like about Mary Rose is that she is an aspiring artist.
When they got home, Simon and Mary Rose agreed that they would travel to England, where Mary Rose was born and grew up in, to visit her parents to ask for their hand in marriage. When they got there, Simon meets her parents, James and Francine Morland. As Simon chats with his future parents-in-law, James and Francine brought up that they went to an island in Scotland called Mhoire’s Point, and Simon finds out that Mary Rose disappeared in that island for a month, thirty-three days specifically.
As the premise progresses, Simon had been noticing that Mary Rose suffers from night terrors and some symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. During their visit to Mary Rose’s homeland, Mary Rose wanted to go to Scotland and visit Mhoire’s Point. And so they did.
When they got to Mhoire’s Point, Simon realizes that Mary Rose was happy there. As she plays around the island, Simon learned from the boat captain that Mhoire’s Point is notable for performing Satanic rituals and sacrifices, and it was known as a hideaway for teens to get drunk and high. When Girard added about teens partying, drinking, and smoking marijuana on Mhoire’s Point, I truly hated it. I don’t tolerate teen delinquency, especially in fiction novels. It sent me bad vibes and it triggered my PTSD. I had to suppress my thoughts when I read about that.
As Simon learns more about Mhoire’s Point and its history, he and Mary Rose head back to England. From there, Simon goes as far as finding out about Mary Rose’s disappearance twenty years ago and how she ended up returning safe and sound after only thirty-three days.
I’m honestly not sure what I should say about this book. I mean, the suspense got to me and the plot was convoluted, though very vivid. I just hated the part about teens throwing drinking and marijuana parties and campfires on the island, especially having underaged sex. I didn’t like much about Mary Rose’s immature personality until I kept on reading it and learned something shocking about what happened to Mary Rose when she disappeared on that island. When I reached towards the end, it got me. It has brought me a lot of shocking twists.
There may be some things within the novel that I abhor, albeit I praise Geoffrey Girard for writing such a unique mystery thriller. There aren’t many other books that can compare with his writing.