Until Death - by Mary Berman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

In this fresh, darkly funny horror debut, a woman finally agrees to marry the man of her mother's dreams . . . only to discover that wedding planning eats 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 even worse. So when she meets Luke, the handsome heir to a local vineyard, dating him makes sense. And when he asks her to marry him, well. It's what her mother always wanted.

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 so worried about every single detail, right down to the color scheme? Why does it feel like Ophelia is losing track of days, weeks, even months? Why is Luke's family so eager to host the wedding in the vineyard's ancient chapel -- and why does it feel, sometimes, like the chapel has a heartbeat?

This wedding is supposed to be the thing that saves Ophelia from a lifetime of loneliness. So how is it that the more Ophelia sacrifices, the more alone she is?

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

Review Quotes

"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.