Until Death - by Mary Berman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Say Yes to the Dress meets Rosemary's Baby" (Margie Sarsfield) in this fresh, darkly funny horror novel in which a woman finally agrees to marry the man of her mother's dreams. . . only to discover that wedding planning will eat you alive.

If Ophelia Cohen learned one thing from her parents, it's that getting married is a bad idea. But if she's learning anything from her widowed mother's dementia, it's that dying alone is worse. So when she meets Luke--the man of her mother's dreams--marriage suddenly doesn't seem so crazy.

But none of Ophelia's obsessive scrolling on wedding forums can prepare her for the nightmare of planning her own. Why is her mother-in-law going crazy over every detail? Why is Luke's family so eager to host the wedding in their vineyard's ancient chapel? And what exactly will Ophelia have to sacrifice if she and her mother both hope to survive her special day?

Shot through with wicked humor, pitch-black horror, and unexpected romance, Until Death is a deliciously dark and funny send-up of the wedding industrial complex--and a mother-daughter story unlike any you've read before.

"Recognizes the Gothic horror inherent to planning a wedding and creates from it a painfully incisive and genuinely haunting fever dream." --Kay Chronister, author of The Bog Wife

"Completely unique, deeply unnerving, and deviously funny." --Samantha Allen, author of Patricia Wants to Cuddle

"Grabbed me like a creeping vine and wouldn't let go." --Kerry Cullen, author of House of Beth

"Glistens with humor and horror. An electrifying and affecting debut." --Samantha Hunt, author of The Seas

Review Quotes

"Berman's debut excels by infusing supernatural horror into the story of an exhausted woman who responds to bizarre and uncanny circumstances with tragically realistic self-sacrifice and resignation. The dynamic between Ophelia and her unwell mother, full of sorrow and pain but also lingering love, is gut-wrenching. Creepy, bloody horror all the more effective for its firm grounding in the realities of women's lives."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Berman mixes humor and horror, creating an atmosphere filled with unsettling scenes and even more unsettling characters. This is a great read for those looking to shift from thriller to horror or those who enjoy setting as a character. Debut author Berman is one to watch."--Booklist

"Perfectly disorienting and disarmingly funny, this uncanny, incisive novel finds horror in intimate and surprising places--from the ritualistic banality of wedding planning to the costs of daughterhood. Driven by a voice that is witty, dark, and fully in command, Until Death is an assured and striking debut from Mary Berman."--Margie Sarsfield, author of Beta Vulgaris

"Snarky and wry, eerie and suffocating, this novel is part devastating examination of daughterhood, part horrifying, outrageous ride into doom. Berman's eye for complicated human relationships is sharp and the scope of her imagination is stunning. Until Death grabbed me like a creeping vine and wouldn't let go."--Kerry Cullen, author of House of Beth

"Completely unique, deeply unnerving, and deviously funny. Mary Berman understands that blending horror and comedy isn't like mixing oil with vinegar; it's like drowning fruit in wine. I've never read a debut quite so assured of its own strangeness as Until Death and I'm not sure I will again."--Samantha Allen, author of Patricia Wants to Cuddle

"Mary Berman's hilariously dark portrait of the weird world of wedding planning glistens with humor and horror. An electrifying and affecting debut, Until Death serves up terror in the ties that bind."--Samantha Hunt, author of The Seas and Mr. Splitfoot

"Until Death transforms the familiar rituals of marriage into a Gothic nightmare of devotion and decay. With unflinching precision, Berman delivers a haunting, visceral tale where tenderness curdles into terror and every promise carries the weight of a curse."--Noah Ashley Blooms, author of Every Bone a Prayer

"Until Death is a surreal and haunting novel about the scariest things in existence: dating, aging mothers, and trying to write a book. The novel resides in the uncanny valley where nothing and no one can be trusted to be real. It was completely unsettling and I couldn't stop reading."--Tasha Coryell, author of Love Letters to a Serial Killer and Matchmaking for Psychopaths

"Emotionally honest and brutally funny, Until Death explores the contradictions of love, family, adulthood, and all the other dark forces that can pressure us to get married. Mary Berman's debut novel is gleefully macabre and unflinching. This is an author who's willing to go there and drag you with her--and you will love her for it."--Mat Johnson, author of Invisible Things

"A slow-burn slide into insanity that left me gasping. Identity, burden, and expectation are explored with an unsettling, creeping dread that lingers long after the final chapter."--Emma C. Wells, author of This Girl's A Killer

"Grabs you from its shocking first line and holds on until its stunningly tense conclusion. Propulsive, suspenseful, and true horror, Berman proves she is a fantastic new voice that can blend heart-pounding moments with real emotional depth."--Sian Gilbert, author of She Started It

"If an Ottessa Moshfegh meet-cute stumbled into the eco-horror gardens of Jeff Vandermeer, you still wouldn't quite pin down this haunting debut. By turns wryly humorous and progressively horrific, Berman serves up an exploration of how far we'll go to care for our families with a reveal that will wrap around your body and worm its way under your skin."--Sequoia Nagamatsu, author of How High We Go in the Dark

"Mary Berman is my favorite kind of writer, one who delivers a great story with great sentences. She's an exciting new voice, one to watch."--Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

"Recognizes the Gothic horror inherent to planning a wedding and creates from it a darkly hilarious, painfully incisive, and genuinely haunting fever dream of identity, love, and the binding power of family obligation. A compulsively readable debut that vividly captures the ways we contort ourselves to be what others need."--Kay Chronister, author of The Bog Wife

About the Author

Mary Berman is a Philadelphia-based writer. She earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Mississippi, where she was a Graduate Excellence Fellow, and she also holds a BA in writing seminars from Johns Hopkins University. Her short works have been published in Cicada, PseudoPod, Fireside Magazine, and elsewhere. Until Death is her debut novel.