GCBA Shortlist, Book #2: 'Say Her Name' by James Dawson

(For information on what the Grampian Children's Book Award is and why I am spending time reading and reviewing books aimed at 12-14 year olds, check out my previous post here!

To read the first review in my GCBA series, click here)


I picked this book as my next GCBA read because all the children in the first-year class I help out with were telling me that it was really scary! Plus, I knew I'd manage one over the Christmas holidays, and finished it last Sunday (January 4th).

'Say My Name' begins with some pupils of a private girls school taking part in a dare to 'summon' the Bloody Mary, a ghost rumoured to be of a former student of their school who committed suicide.


The action begins typically, when the group involved think it's just

a joke and then slowly begin to believe as weird things start happening to them.

What was more interesting was the sub-story of the three victims of the ghost's torment racing against time to discover Mary's 'unfinished business' and stop her from causing them to disappear forever.

If you read into it enough, you can identify underlying themes of not knowing when your life could suddenly end, acting under pressure etc.

There is also a very clear (and cute!) romance involved for the principle character, which I could understand being viewed as some by unnecessarily soppiness. However, I think the budding relationship (while it annoyingly follows the unrealistic pattern of 'hottest guy in town suddenly falls for plain geek school girl') con tributes to the story by strengthening the bond between the characters that begins with their shared fear, and in giving them incentive to keep going.

As for being scary, it begins with the odd scene intended to make you jump, then has a large section without, and then returns for one of the creepiest, most bizarre (and, in my opinion, unsatisfactory!) endings ever!

Overall, I think it's well written and I cannot deny that it had me hooked and desperate to get back to reading it. However, the last few chapters (more short chapters, hurrah!) seemed to rush events a bit, and the last 2 pages were not as I would have ended it. Probably not my genre but really glad I read it! I always did like a book set in a school!