Bestselling author Shawn Sarles' most terrifying YA horror yet . . . 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. That day in school, a new girl arrives. Her name is Mary . . . .

Gr 7 Up-It was only a game. At least that's what nine-year-old Elena believed when she invited classmates Grace, Steph, and Calvin to her late grandmother's room and challenged them to say the name Bloody Mary 13 times into the mysterious, ornate mirror. The two potential outcomes: either your soul mate's face will appear in the mirror or the horrible face of Bloody Mary, promising an imminent death. Three of them saw a person's face. The other was marked for death. Five years later, the teenagers have all gone their separate ways, when near tragedies start surrounding them, tragedies that Calvin is able to sketch before they occur. Elena is haunted by a figure in the mirror, and the four classmates are forced to come back together and face the truth when a new girl named Mary shows up at school. Sarles presents a simplistic tale that will please fans of horror and the supernatural. The story offers some nostalgia, taking the classic urban legend game played at countless grade school sleepovers and bringing it to life in a menacing and insidious way. The protagonists are well-developed and genuine characters who are easy to care about, in particular the timid and monster-movie-obsessed Grace who innocently wants this talk of soul mates to be true. After a slow, ominous buildup and a handful of surprising twists, this novel will have readers believing that not all scary stories are make-believe. VERDICT Fans of classic monster movies and chilling Grimm's fairy tales will be interested in checking this one out.-Amanda Harding, Elmwood Elementary School, Wauconda, ILα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.