Mercury by Hope Larson

Mercury is the tale of two girls, Josey and Tara Faser, relatives separated by 150 years. The girls both live out their lives in Nova Scotia as the graphic novel flips back and forth between their teenage girl lives. They each have crushes, parental issues, mean spirited associations and the same face.

 The story starts out like a regular coming of age/moving to a new high school story. Tara, our modern day character is sweet and kind hearted, and people think she looks like a boy. This is where I felt a connection with the character, since in my senior year I went through a phase of pixie cut black hair and no make up. I also had light green eyes, was a skinny pole, and had just transferred to a new high school, so in a way, I sympathized with Tara immediately.

 Josey is also a sweet spirited teen girl looking for love. She is an incredibly innocent pioneer, in that Little House on the Prairie kind of way.

The two girls stories feel very independent of one another until some plot twists at the end.  The stories also feel fairly believable and realistic until the same said plot twist sprinkle in some magic realism. I love magic realism, and those were my favorite parts of the book, but because of the events placement and scarcity, they felt very odd and out of sync with the rest of the book. the story turns from a regular story of girls and their crushes to a treasure hunting ghost story in the last few pages. Still, the magic realism images are truly fantastic and haunting. It felt a bit unfinished, but I still really enjoyed it and would recommend it for sitting next to a sunny window on a lazy Saturday afternoon. It's a quick read on a easy reading level and a very lovely way to pass some free time.