I waited to read this until I had read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which I had never read until just recently. I was surprised at how different that was from the several movies and the musical which I have seen. So I was anxious to read this retelling of Jekyll and Hyde shortly after reading the original. I was very pleased with how very closely this novel follows the original. This story has been fascinating people for over a century and it is still fascinating to me after readi...

It's been a while since I read this. I remember thinking that it was an interssting take on Jekyll and Hyde. It was pretty tragic, not only the original story as such, but also Mary's life in general. It was not the most gripping read, but a solid read at the time.

I loved the chances Martin took with this plot and the characters. Most don't realize she's one of the writers who sparked the trend to write about fringe characters in famous novels.

While I enjoyed the suspense and the playful intertextuality of this novel to the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I find Mary's character to be incredibly flat and self deprecating at times. What should have been a subversive shift from the original narrative which is told by an upper class male (Mr. Utterson) to a servant class maid, is limited by Mary's lack of agency and arc. There are a few exciting moments where Mary rejects class status and critiques her "Master" Dr. Jekyll, like when sh...

I could hear his low laugh, and then his horrid, whispering voice. “Don’t you know who I am, Mary?” he said. Mary Reilly is a modern retelling of the 1886 classic, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror from the perspective of the housemaid. The cover and premise caught my attention and I decide to add this to my seasonal reading because of the horror elements. One might not guess this is a 1990 book judging by its classically designed cover. The writing, social c...

This is written like a reader insert fanfiction and believe me that is one of the highest compliments I could ever bestow upon a book.

I recently read this one back-to-back with the original "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". I was halfway through "Jekyll" when the Boston Marathon bombings took place so until I finished the book, it carried with it for me a heavier internalization of the good/evil duality of man - especially when interviews of friends on the news played the same stories over and over about how they were "nice guys" and everyone was so surprised that they could do such a thing. "Mary Reilly" ended up bei...

As much as I love the story of Jekyll & Hyde, I've never actually read the source material. I've heard variations of the story for years, from the Wishbone version when I was a kid to the Wildhorn/Bricusse musical and now this retelling. Every version seems to fill in a new space and add something new to the whole mythos, and I love that. Mary's voice is very distinct, not in the least thanks to her imperfect (and sometimes inconsistent) speech and writing patterns. Early on in the book she was

What fun! One of the joys of my Little Free Library is coming across gems like this. I love novels that retell famous stories from a minor character's perspective (like Longbourn), and this was a page-turner.

I liked this slim novel told from the perspective of the maid in Dr. Jekyll's house. I loved the descriptions of Mary's work (for some reason I enjoy descriptions of housework -- which is funny because I certainly don't like doing it) and Mary's voice was very distinct -- I feel as if I can still hear it in my head (part of the reason I plan to avoid the movie). The period details were really interesting, especially about funerals (my only complaint historically is that at one point, Jekyll asks...

The classic story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is retold through the journal writings of the housemaid, Mary Reilly. Mary was physically and emotionally abused by her father as a child, which has left scars on both her person and her psyche. She appreciates that she is very lucky to have her position in the Jekyll household and is a very loyal and hard-working servant who understands her station in life. If she should forget, the butler, Mr Poole, is always there to remind her. She is therefore rath...

A bit hampered in terms of suspense by its nature as a variation on an existing text, but a compelling book nonetheless. I re-read recently (looking forward to Martin's January release of a novel about the doomed ship Mary Celeste) and enjoyed it even more the second time around.Most powerful of Martin's novel's many strengths is its voice, which is compelling, consistent and convincing. It can be tricky to narrate a book through the "journals," which can be hard to make at once novelistically e...

This is a wonderful illumination of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, told from the perspective of the housemaid. Valerie Martin somehow inhabits the original at the same time she makes it new, and the result is a fresh gothic tale that's steeped in the original horror. Martin is an incredibly sure-handed writer, and her prose sings.

I read this book because I liked the movie so much and figured there would be details not revealed on the screen. The movie is fairly faithful, so there weren't that many surprises, but I still recommend the book for a lot of reasons.First, it paints such a rich picture of the times. I could tell that Ms. Martin had done her research. Particularly fascinating to me were the details of a life in service to others. Mary, a maid in Dr. Jekyl's house (yes, that Dr. Jekyl) stays busy from dawn until

”Are you afraid of yourself, Mary?” Master said.The room was silent about us, but for the clock ticking, which seemed to me loud of a sudden. I thought a long time might pass before I answered but Master and I would not know it, for we was both of us waiting to hear what I would say. At first I thought I would say no, for it seemed a strange thing to be afraid of myself, but then I thought he must mean afraid of what I might do, or might say, rather than what I am and what I see in the mirror. A...

"Mary Reilly" approaches the hoary tale of "Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde" from a different angle: the story is told from behind the scenes, as it were, through the eyes of Henry Jeckyll's intelligent, devoted servant girl.This novel is a fascinating mixture of historical fiction and literary extrapolation, and it works far better than any book of it's type that I have ever read (Including Geraldine Brooks' "March", which was a Pulitzer Prize winner"). From the beginning, Martin drew me in with her s...

Found this story quite drawn out and rather repetitive. Enjoyed the first part of the book, then it dragged in the middle only picking up again in the final pages. If Mary cleaned one fireplace out she must have cleaned a hundred! Very tedious. Not quite what I was hoping for and certainly can’t be called ‘horror’ in my opinion.

Are you ever afraid of yourself? Sometimes the things that scare us the most are the things living within our own minds. Henry Jekyll lives in the silence between words spoken and unspoken, the same place desire, lust, and contempt live and the place where Mary finds herself. The original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story was about the anxiety of man giving birth to a future they could never understand nor control and therefore feared, much like our own modern fears concerning artificial intelligenc...

A retelling of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde from the housemaid's point of view. I was hunting for a historical film to watch when I was feeling unwell recently and came across the film. The reviews said it was awful, so I didn't bother, but that the book was wonderful. Mary Reilly is an emotionally scarred, intelligent young woman who develops a bond with her 'master' through their interactions, and begins to fall in love with him. It's beautifully written and very faithful to the original. There a...

It's not a bad book. There is just too much that you have to not question.