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The Unraveling of Mercy Louis by Keija Parssinen

Young adult

The Unraveling of Mercy Louis

by Keija Parssinen

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Quick take

An impeccably rendered depiction of the strains of adolescence.

Why I love it

The Unraveling of Mercy Louis is both a study of a milieu that we rarely encounter in fiction — a devoutly religious refinery town on the Texas coast — and an impeccably rendered depiction of the strains of adolescence and the complications of family and friendship.

The novel opens with a gruesome discovery that becomes an overnight scandal. As local police and politicians contend with increasing public pressure to find the perpetrator, suspicion turns on the girls in the local high school, who quickly find themselves under an intolerable microscope.

The story moves back and forth between two girls, Mercy and Illa, who occupy vastly different social strata at the school. Mercy is the star of the high school basketball team, in a town where high school basketball is a very, very big deal. There are times when she seems to carry the weight of the struggling town on her shoulders. But the pressures in her life extend well beyond the court. She is being raised by her grandmother, a woman gripped by spells of violent prophesying, who is convinced that end times are upon us. Mercy is torn between her secular and religious worlds.

Illa, meanwhile, is nearly invisible. She is awkwardly, secretly in love with Mercy, but goes unnoticed at school. She lives a tense, solitary life, taking care of her mother, who is wheelchair-bound and in poor health. The girls are drawn together when Mercy — and eventually the rest of the girls in Port Sabine — begins to unravel.

I found this novel to be a lovely discovery. As a reader, there are few things I enjoy more than coming across excellent work by an author who I hadn't previously heard of, and I admired the way the novel seemed specific to the individual lives of the characters, and yet at the same time broadly relevant to our present cultural moment. This is a beautifully written, humane, and extremely compelling book.

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Young adult
View all
The Wild Huntress
Ruthless Vows
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
Dragonfruit
The Thirteenth Child
The Reappearance of Rachel Price
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love
Check & Mate
Divine Rivals
Foul Lady Fortune
Anna K Away
I Must Betray You
A Wilderness of Stars
Warrior Girl Unearthed
Bloodmarked
Instructions for Dancing
The Boy in the Red Dress
Color Me In
Not So Pure and Simple
Throw Like a Girl
Frankly in Love
Wayward Son
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
Anna K
Patron Saints of Nothing
The Kingdom of Back
Yes No Maybe So
Permanent Record
Full Disclosure
Oasis
Where the World Ends
I Have No Secrets
Song of the Crimson Flower
When the Stars Lead to You
All the Bright Places
Saving Zoë
Symptoms of a Heartbreak
All of Us with Wings
The Boy and Girl Who Broke the World
Past Perfect Life
There's Something About Sweetie
Again, But Better
Sky Without Stars
How (Not) to Ask a Boy to Prom
Night Music
Shout
The Deceivers
Top Ten
A Million Junes
And We're Off
Salt to the Sea