I love this book so much, I already know I won't be able to do it justice in a review. If I listed out some of the things in this story you might be confused I even picked this up, let alone gave it 5 stars. All I can do is wave my hands around frantically and urge you, if you have any interest in stories of complicated family dynamics, to PLEASE read this. Are you a mom? Read this. Do you have a mom? Read this. Have her read this! Are you a sibling? Read this. Have your sibling read it. Do you know what a sibling IS? Read this! Live in a small town? Read it. Been to a small town? Been in a relationship? Been a person? Lived? Read!

"Mercury" is a multigenerational family saga that takes place in a small town in Pennsylvania in the 90s named--you guessed it--Mercury. The book follows multiple timelines, but starts in 1999 when a dead body is discovered in an unlikely place. The characters' reactions to the discovery make it clear there's a story there, before the book flashes back to 1990, to the beginning of said story.

Marley, the only daughter of a single mom, arrives the summer before her senior year of high school as the rarest commodity in Mercury: an unknown. She quickly meets the Joseph family: the oldest, bold and brash Baylor, who draws everyone in by keeping them at arms-length; thoughtful, articulate middle child Waylon, who takes on everyone's problems as his own; and (my favorite) the youngest, clever and wry Shay, who wishes others saw him as clearly as he sees them. But who fascinates Marley the most is their mother, Elise, graceful and removed, glamorous and collected, a paragon of the type of womanhood Marley has never encountered in her own family of two.

When Elise invites her to dinner, Marley feels like she's been accepted into some inner sanctum. She studies how the boys all move around one another, their power dynamics flexing and shifting, how Elise can soothe or motivate with a single word, and yet how despite that, the whole family is at the mercy of Mick Joseph's whims. Mick started Joseph & Sons Roofing, and while the business is their life, Mick's eccentricities are the real leader of the family, and they all strive to keep him complacent. It shocks Marley to witness Elise, someone she thought of as immovable, shape herself into someone unrecognizable for the benefit of the men in her life.

As the boys and Marley are ushered into adulthood sooner than expected, she begins to both fear and relish the idea that Elise's destiny of caring for the Joseph boys, sometimes at her own expense, may also be her own.

This is a fascinating exploration of how we treat mothers, how the expectations (or lack of) of a parent can shape someone, and how thin the line can be between love and hate. This story is emotional, nuanced, and driven by the kinds of characters that linger after you've finished reading. Their relationships with their senses of self and the shifting dynamics between all of them were complex and fascinating and left me achy. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time. Thank you to Celadon Books & the author for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.