Mercury Boys
Aug 2021 · Soho Press
3.0star
1 reviewreport
eBook
360
Pages
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About this eBook
History and the speculative collide with the modern world when a group of high school girls form a secret society after discovering they can communicate with boys from the past, in this powerful look at female desire, jealousy, and the shifting lines between friendship and rivalry.
After her life is upended by divorce and a cross-country move, 16-year-old Saskia Brown feels like an outsider at her new school—not only is she a transplant, but she’s also biracial in a population of mostly white students. One day while visiting her only friend at her part-time library job, Saskia encounters a vial of liquid mercury, then touches an old daguerreotype—the precursor of the modern-day photograph—and makes a startling discovery. She is somehow able to visit the man in the portrait: Robert Cornelius, a brilliant young inventor from the nineteenth century. The hitch: she can see him only in her dreams.
Saskia shares her revelation with some classmates, hoping to find connection and friendship among strangers. Under her guidance, the other girls steal portraits of young men from a local college’s daguerreotype collection and try the dangerous experiment for themselves. Soon, they each form a bond with their own “Mercury Boy,” from an injured Union soldier to a charming pickpocket in New York City.
At night, the girls visit the boys in their dreams. During the day, they hold clandestine meetings of their new secret society. At first, the Mercury Boys Club is a thrilling diversion from their troubled everyday lives, but it’s not long before jealousy, violence and secrets threaten everything the girls hold dear.
After her life is upended by divorce and a cross-country move, 16-year-old Saskia Brown feels like an outsider at her new school—not only is she a transplant, but she’s also biracial in a population of mostly white students. One day while visiting her only friend at her part-time library job, Saskia encounters a vial of liquid mercury, then touches an old daguerreotype—the precursor of the modern-day photograph—and makes a startling discovery. She is somehow able to visit the man in the portrait: Robert Cornelius, a brilliant young inventor from the nineteenth century. The hitch: she can see him only in her dreams.
Saskia shares her revelation with some classmates, hoping to find connection and friendship among strangers. Under her guidance, the other girls steal portraits of young men from a local college’s daguerreotype collection and try the dangerous experiment for themselves. Soon, they each form a bond with their own “Mercury Boy,” from an injured Union soldier to a charming pickpocket in New York City.
At night, the girls visit the boys in their dreams. During the day, they hold clandestine meetings of their new secret society. At first, the Mercury Boys Club is a thrilling diversion from their troubled everyday lives, but it’s not long before jealousy, violence and secrets threaten everything the girls hold dear.
Ratings and reviews
3.0
1 review
Penny Olson
- Flag inappropriate
8 November 2021
Rating is 3 1/2 stars. Mercury Boys is the story of Saskia who has moved from Arizona to Connecticut with her father because of her mother's affair and her parents subsequent separation. She and her father have been traumatized by her mother's behavior and are trying to recover and start anew. Saskia befriends Lila, a classmate who works in a university library which contains early photographs called daguerreotypes. Saskia accidentally discovers that if she touches mercury, she can travel back in time to meet the man in the picture. This information is shared with some other girls and a secret society is formed with the girls choosing a daguerreotype illicitly from Lila's library. The original concept, creativity and writing is excellent in Mercury Boys. The time travel and historical elements are fascinating and could have been further explored. The focus seemed to be more on the toxic friendships and bullying within the group of girls. I did not like any of the characters with the exception of Lila who demonstrated some responsibility and paid a price for caving to pressure from the other girls. Overall, there was a disjointed feel to the story and the reader is left wanting more. However, I will definitely look for future books from this author as she is a talented writer. #BooksForwardFriends
About the author
Chandra Prasad is the author of the critically acclaimed novels On Borrowed Wings, Death of a Circus, Breathe the Sky, and Damselfly, a female-driven young adult text used in classrooms in parallel with Lord of the Flies. Prasad is also the editor of—and a contributor to—Mixed, the first-ever anthology of short stories on the multiracial experience. Her shorter works have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Week, New Haven Noir, and Teen Voices, among others.
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