“Mercury” by Hope Larson

Although we can often times get pretty raunchy and foul on our podcast, we do appreciate books that do not stray into that territory. Case in point is this wonderful tale from Hope Larson about two canadian girls, one in the mid 1800’s and the other in present day. Tara, in present day, is trying to deal with the fallout from her mother losing her house in a fire and trying to fit back into an old school. Then back in the olden days, Josey is hopelessly falling for a gold prospector that has approached her family with a hell of a deal that may not be as sweet as it looks.

These stories can be described as standard coming of age tales for sure, but I think they succeed so much further than that. Both stories are engaging and thoughtful and would be strong enough to stand on their own, but are beautifully interwoven with each other, and even tied together in a very charming way (although most readers will see it a mile away long before it is fully revealed).

Hope Larson has delivered a great tale that has a bit of mysticism and magic(very small element in the overall story) interwoven with very likable protagonists you want to see succeed and prosper, and engages them with more clever and fun characters. It is also curious to me that I have gotten this far into talking about the book without pointing out the artwork is gorgeous!

Bottom Line: I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you have a younger reader in mind who happens to be a 10-15 year old girl, but at the same time, read it yourself. Hell, even if you don’t have a kid, check out this book. Hope Larson has impressed me enough I will be checking out more of her books very soon. I do suggest that if your only draw into comics is spandex and capes, this is definitely not the book for you, but if you are looking for something different with beautiful artwork, then Mercury is well worth your time and money.