The Formation of Calcium

by M.S. Coe

A horror story of one woman's awful reinvention, M. S. Coe's The Formation of Calcium is disturbingly funny and completely unexpected. Middle-aged Mary Ellen Washie has finally freed herself of her stultified past life in western New York state and moved to Florida. With the husband she's grown to hate firmly in her rearview mirror, and all ties to her family cut off, she changes her name, bleaches her hair, and befriends Natalie, a seemingly kind, martini-loving woman whom she promptly begins to manipulate. As her machinations propel her beyond the brink of who she used to be, Mary Ellen seeks to unburden herself--but not one to sit down with pen and paper, she narrates the events of her new life into a cassette tape recorder, giving each tape an innocuous name to keep the curious away. A riveting account of one woman's awful reinvention, M. S. Coe's new novel is disturbingly funny and completely unexpected. With elements of pulp noir and confessional literature, The Formation of Calcium depicts the bland misery of modern American life as one woman seeks her own ill-fated transformation. " The Formation of Calcium is a dark comedy, a horror story, and the sad tale of a marginalized woman."--Karen Mulvahill, Foreword Reviews "The more Mary Ellen tries to reinvent herself, the more lies she tells and the more risks she's forced to take, and her recordings veer from understandable desperation to myopic self-assuredness, making for a vibrant character study ('It's like exhilaration and anticipation colliding down in your stomach, where everything real is felt,' she says about her gambits). It's a wild, rewarding ride."--Publishers Weekly Fiction.

234 pages, Paperback

Published March 29, 2023

Reviews

[Sabrina Ljesnjanin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was delectableeeee. I love reading about crazy unhinged women.
It felt witty, fast paced. Reese Witherspoon would soooo eat this up and buy the rights to a hulu series adaptation.

[Renata Baiocco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting at all but I loved it. Refreshing writing style and storytelling. Intelligent, comedic and dark in all the best ways. I was hooked from the beginning. I really think this would be an amazing movie!

[Jessica Aurell · Rating 5 out of 5]

what i expected than not then was than not and i also feel like more of a witch (but a less murderous kind)

[Raylynn Boston · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5- this was crazy

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to begin a review on this book... it is a masterclass in unreliable narrators.

The insanity of it takes the form of just being entirely predictable and unpredictable all at once. It just is full of "omg she didn't, but of course she DID". The pacing is phenomenal and the descent into madness palpable. I am actually obsessed with it.

bonus points for witchy

[Emma Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my fav books this year, a really creative story

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is wild. Loved it. Great writing/style. Excited to read more / everything from this author.

[Melody Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe the best unhinged female character I’ve ever encountered? I think about this book on the daily

[Megan Graber · Rating 5 out of 5]

So effective. So raw. Obsessed. Will be reading again. Just for the thrill of being scared and paranoid with her

[heidi is reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting

[Osame Osayande · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

This book started out strong, but around the middle, the whole story fell apart for me. The idea of two women who look almost exactly the same, living together and slowly blending into each other, is interesting, and it’s why I bought the book. However, after Natalie is killed, I felt like the author was forcing us to believe that Marie was becoming Natalie, but it didn’t feel natural. If the book had shown Marie naturally picking up Natalie’s gestures while living with her, and then deciding she wanted to become her, it would have been more effective for me. Instead, before Natalie dies, Marie seems to feel only disdain for her. So, in my head, there’s no real reason—outside of the fact that she can use Natalie’s identity—for Marie to want “to become” Natalie. That means a full transformation didn’t feel necessary. Also, the passages where Marie talks to her daughter using Natalie’s Facebook account felt really corny to me. The dialogue in those parts, and elsewhere, got really cheesy as well. I don’t know—this book started off good but went off the rails somewhere. That said, the premise of Marie recording everything into a tape recorder was interesting.

[p · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOMENS!!!! WRONGS!!!!!

[Denna Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be like a loose flowing art novel by the cover, not a beach read book about murder, Bingo and Florida. But I'm not mad about it.