When seventeen-year-old Marley moves to the small rust belt town of Mercury, Pennsylvania in 1990 she soon becomes part of the Joseph family for better or worse.
Marley, an only child of a single mother, is enamored with the Josephs, a roofing family with three sons. She begins joining the family for dinner and eventually ends up dating one brother, marrying the other, and becoming something of a surrogate mother to the third. Years on a discovery in the church attic will test the bonds of this family like never before.
Mercury {#gifted @celadonbooks} is a small town family saga full of complex relationships, secrets, loyalty, perception, roles, and expectations, those prescribed by others and ourselves; a story of the complicated web of family dynamics, dynamics which both shape us and are shaped by us.
I just loved this story and truly fell in love with the characters as the story unfolded. The structure allows the reader to know several of the characters both as others perceive them and then shifts providing a more intimate perspective of how they see themselves. This dichotomy provides so much nuance and depth to the story and its characters. There’s love, mystery, coming-of-age, trauma, and quite a bit of reflection on women’s roles in family. Really a lot to chew on and appreciate.
Recommended for fans of Ann Napolitano’s Hello Beautiful and anyone who appreciates a good family drama.
That Bookish Life 