Mercury

A Novel

By: Amy Jo Burns

Narrated by: Maria Liatis

Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

A roofing family’s bonds of loyalty are tested when they uncover a long-hidden secret at the heart of their blue-collar town—from Amy Jo Burns, author of the critically acclaimed novel Shiner

It’s 1990 and seventeen-year-old Marley West is blazing into the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. A perpetual loner, she seeks a place at someone’s table and a family of her own. The first thing she sees when she arrives in town is three men standing on a rooftop. Their silhouettes blot out the sun.

The Joseph brothers become Marley’s whole world before she can blink. Soon, she is young wife to one, The One Who Got Away to another, and adopted mother to them all. As their own mother fades away and their roofing business crumbles under the weight of their unwieldy father’s inflated ego, Marley steps in to shepherd these unruly men. Years later, an eerie discovery in the church attic causes old wounds to resurface and suddenly the family’s survival hangs in the balance. With Marley as their light, the Joseph brothers must decide whether they can save the family they’ve always known—or whether together they can build something stronger in its place.

A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books.

©2024 Amy Jo Burns (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Mercury shimmers with authenticity. Amy Jo Burns is a big-time talent whose beautiful and honest prose elevates love, even when plumbing the darker realities of family. Equal parts gripping page-turner and wise character study. Tears streamed down my face as I turned the last page. An instant favorite.”—Matthew Quick, New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook and We Are the Light

"Mercury is that rare and marvelous novel that offers us the combination of unforgettable characters, tender prose, page-turning narrative, and the escape of an immersive world. Burns has gifted us with a family saga replete with the subtle moments that make us human, that take our breath away, and that gut us with feeling. Among many, Burns asks the important question—how does one become oneself while also living in a family that consumes? When we meet the Joseph family, we, just as Marley, want to sit at the dinner table with the matriarch and four complicated men without yet understanding the consequences of joining them. With textured and lush prose, Burns exposes the private desires and secrets living below the roofline of their collective lives. When a leak appears in the town’s church bell tower, what has been hidden is exposed in a breath-holding unfolding. I am in love with Marley and the Joseph family, and I miss them already."—Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times best-selling author The Secret Life of Flora Lea

"It just doesn’t get any better than this when it comes to a story about what it means to be family, whether it’s the one you’re born into or the one you create. From the moment I started Amy Jo Burns’s new book I couldn’t put it down—even though I didn’t want it to end. You will fall in love with these beautifully drawn, unforgettable characters, who remind us of the strength of family bonds, and the importance of grace and forgiveness."—Tracey Lange, the New York Times bestselling author of We Are the Brennans

Enjoyable

This story was different but addicting . A unlikely family bond with answers revealed the entire book.

I loved this book

Beautiful story about real life situations. Completely relatable. Ups and downs and struggles. You can identify with Marley every step of the way but the author brings you close to all the characters and builds relationships between the reader and the cast. Excellent performance too!

Another excellent novel

I read this in one sitting! Amy Jo Burns has a way of writing that is so compelling and irresistible! She draws you in! This is a great coming of age and family drama with a hint of mystery!

Complicated Family Dynamics

Great character development and love the different points of view. Brought depth and understanding to real and flawed characters. My heart ached for all of them while I was cheering them on to grow and change.

decent story, narrator needed more research

narrator pronounces some words wrong, kind of unprofessional, seems like you'd research musicians names, but nice voice and decent story

Expecting More

The story is ok, the writing is ok, and the narration is ok. Given the hype and good reviews, I was expecting more. I felt "written down to," if that makes sense, because the book felt like a Hallmark or Lifetime Channel implausible story. The attractive girl saves a family of self-centered but handsome men.
As for the narration, the performer is capable but grated on my nerves after awhile (not her fault). However, I wish someone had briefed her on the local lingo. I understand the setting (Western Pennsylvania) so it was troubling that the narrator mispronounced Allegheny (a river, a county and more!).
It's not a bad book, it will appeal to many, particularly YA fans. I think my expectations were way too high. I am a self-confessed picky reader, so this was not my cup of tea.
By the final 1/4 of the book, I was so sick of Marley (the Mary figure) that I couldn't finish the book! I'd have preferred to hear Rose's story (Marley's mother) but in that version, the daughter would have been smart enough to stay away from the men in this story.

Forgiveness, Love

This book was so good! Definitely worth your time. Well developed & unexpected at times, Excellent

Character Development and Depth

This book went deeper with its characters than most other “family drama” books, the connections between family, the roles we play and the roles we have to break out of to become our true selves.

Meh Story, HORRIBLE NARRATION

The tone of Maria Liatis's voice is fine, but there are so many words she simply can't pronounce. At the simplest level, it's saying "thEE" when "tha/e" is called for words that start with a consonant ("thEE house"). Chicken die-van for the dish chicken divan. Maybe worse, there are place specific words like the town Aliquippa, Allegheny--the county, the river that runs through Pittsburgh--that you'd think she'd research to how pronounce correctly (Al-i-QUIP-pa; Al-li-GAY-Nee). It often sounds like she didn't read the book before recording it. Every ten minutes or so, there's something, which makes for an annoying listen, especially for listeners like me who are natives of the region.

The story itself is just meh, which is surprising given the favorable reviews of the book. It's often predictable, perhaps in a way that the reviewer from the New York Times would expect in a story set in a Western Pennsylvania town possibly modeled on one-stoplight towns like Mercer (where there was a Mellon Bank branch across from the court house in the 1990s) or Zelienople (where the police station and the library shared the same building, though not as late as the 1990s). There are leaps in logic throughout. How does a teenage girl get licensed to open a hair salon before she graduates high school? How could the smell of a deteriorating body be muted for years? Lots of loose threads that don't get woven into much.

Perhaps for a teenager?

Yuck…. NY Times recommendation let me down. Gosh… this was pretty sophomoric… a good idea turned dull ….