Mary's made a career out of making herself invisible. As a child, she was bullied relentlessly at school. Her parents died in a fire when she was young, and she was sent to live with her crotchety old aunt. As an adult, she now lives alone with her little porcelain Loved Ones, works in the basement of a local bookstore, and generally tries to Be Good. Though there's more to Mary than meets the eye. And now she's starting to worry that she might be losing her mind.
Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, strange things are happening to her. The sight of her reflection in the mirror terrorizes her. If she looks for more than a second, her face starts to bubble and ooze and rot. And if she happens to look other woman her age in the eyes, their faces do the same. She's suffering from horrible nightmares, and the undervoice, a dark and nasty voice inside her head, is encouraging her to Be Bad. To do Very Bad Things. The doctor at the clinic chalks it up to menopause, but Mary doesn't buy it for a second. Something is very very wrong.
One panicked phone call from her estranged aunt seems to offer the perfect distraction, at the moment she most needs it, and she willingly heads back to her hometown. Though when she arrives, long forgotten memories begin to surface, and the mysterious Cross House begins to beckon her for reasons she will soon wish she never knew.
The perfect read if you enjoy unreliable narrators, small towns with dark secrets, and possession stories!