✨Mercury by Amy Jo Burns✨

Genre: Fiction
Pages: 336

📚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.

📝If you’re looking for a character driven story about a dysfunctional family, then this is the book for you.

The Joseph family has a whole host of issues and Marley finds herself in the middle of all of them. The parents, Elise and Mick, have a troubled relationship and that ultimately has an impact on their boys: Waylon, Baylor and Shay.

My only complaint is that the characters seemed to be very self-aware and introspective (once we got to read their side of the story). This made the character analysis interesting, but a little unbelievable.

💫Thank you @netgalley @celadonbooks for my egalley 💫

Families are complex and this book is a great example of this. It was intriguing with a little bit of mystery, but ultimately centers around complicated family dynamics. It’s very character-driven and the layers of the characters delivered a deep, impactful story of family and the “beautiful and messy” ways they show up for each other. This was a great read and I’d definitely recommend it!

When Marley arrives in the small town of Mercury, Pennsylvania, she doesn't realize how profound an effect she will have on the Joseph family in Mercury by Amy Jo Burns. She's a teenager and moves to the town with her mom who never stays in one place for long. She craves the structure and comfort of a solid family and thinks she's found it with the Josephs who consist of brothers Baylor, Waylon, and Shay. After getting involved with the family, she also inherits their secrets and makes some of her own.

I really loved this book. The spare yet descriptive prose, the subtle twists and turns of the story, and the intricately woven plotlines won me over. I would compare this author to some of my favorites, including Anna Quindlen, Ann Patchett, and Tracey Lange. Incidentally, Tracey Lange is thanked in the acknowledgements. If you like any of these authors, put this author on your list.

The author's portrayals of these characters go into character study mode with the sensitively drawn portraits of every one from the father damaged by the Vietnam war to the youngest brother who cannot be himself. I felt like I really knew the characters by the middle of the book yet they still surprised me with their actions. They're all flawed in their own ways, and it was interesting how they reconciled those flaws with their stronger attributes.

Another star of the story is the town of Mercury. You get to know the town and how it operates and how the Joseph family fits in. The small town atmosphere feels perfectly rendered. You know the streets and the people and what's important. It's just as much of a character as Marley and the Joseph family.

Although I cannot see a sequel for this book because things feel pretty wrapped up at the end, I would love to revisit this family or another one within town. By "wrapped up," I don't even mean that the characters are not in a place of contentment with everything going their ways. I just felt satisfied with the trajectories of their characters.

So, this leads me to say that I hope the author revisits the town or invents another one with an equally intriguing family. This book stayed with me, and I look forward to reading her other books and any subsequent ones that she publishes.

Such a deep, fascinating, well written story. I’ll be thinking about this novel for a while! A drama filled family story that really puts life in perspective.

I really enjoyed this story. I love stories set in small towns, as well as, family dramas. I liked following the female character's life and the bit of mystery.

3.5 rounded up

Thanks for the ARC Netgalley! I was really excited for this one after seeing it everywhere. While well written and pretty compelling, I didn’t fully love this one - but admit that it may have been my timing in reading it.

Marley’s an outsider to Mercury, PA and immediately gets caught up in the drama and allure of the Joseph family. The men of this family are infamous because of their closeness, troublemaking, and their roofing business. Each brother means something different to Marley. She’s judgmental of the patriarch and has a complicated alliance with the matriarch of the family. Decades later, a body is found in the town’s church which has ramifications for the Joseph family and Marley.

I found the mystery of this book compelling (especially with the timelines and multiple viewpoints.) I love messy, complicated family dramas but there were A LOT of similar themes to Ann Napolitano’s “Hello Beautiful,” which I read right before this and it worked much better for me. This was a bit dragged out and the brothers blended a bit too much for my taste. I think if I read this at a different time it probably would have been a 4⭐️ read for me, but it didn’t quite get there at this time.

✨Trigger Warnings: Miscarriage, Death of a Parent, Murder, Dementia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Suicide Attempt

I loved that this novel revolves around a family of roofers, although their passion for their work was hard to understand until I read that the author grew up in such a family. There is the mystery of the dead body found in a church attic at the beginning of the story, and there is the relationship of Marley to three brothers, and the tension of a tyrannical patriarch and strong-willed (adulterous) matriarch. The author moves around in time to develop the characters and plot. There is much to empathize and situations to identify with in this book, and I hope the author's style becomes more polished in time.

This is for you if you enjoy a character-driven story about a dysfunctional family. I really enjoyed this one, although it didn't fully capture me enough for a full five stars.

I was very excited for this read! I did love the twisted family elements and I was guessing towards the end!

I did find the story to drag a bit at parts. But there was lots that kept me reading.

Thanks for the ARC!!

3.5⭐️

I have never read a book by this author previously. I thought this book was very intense and deep. Not bad, just deep.

I received an advanced copy of Mercury by Amy Jo Burns from the publisher Celadon via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What It’s About: In 1990, seventeen-year-old Marley West moves to a small river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania with her mother. Constantly moving and often lonely when her single mother is working, Marley becomes enchanted with the Joseph family, and becomes entwined with the brothers and constantly working to prove herself to the matriarch Elise. Now it’s ten years later and Marley’s life has changed. She is a young wife to one, The-One-Who-Got-Away, and an adopted mother to all, helping to keep the business running. But when a discovery is made, everything is threatened to fall apart.

Shiner is one of my favorite reads, so I had really high expectations for this one. I can tell you write now, my favorite part of this is the writing. I know it sounds a bit high browed to say that the writing was my favorite part, but I swear I love the way that she uses her words and her style, it kept me going even when I wasn’t necessarily in love with the story. In this book, Burns writes the story of women behind the men and the cost that go into supporting the men they love and helping them achieve their success. Burns captures the feel of rural Pennsylvania to a T and I thoroughly enjoyed the character of Marley. She is flawed but strong and determined.

This book is for people who love family sagas and thoughtful writing. I don’t know that it was my favorite, I am honestly a bit surprised by my reflection, because I didn’t always enjoy my reading. This book stands as an excellent character study and family saga. The mystery for me wasn’t very intriguing but was needed to kind of provide us the story. Overall, this is a strong sophomore novel and I will continue to read Burn’s work.

I think if you enjoyed Shiner, you will appreciate this book.

What a lovely novel.

Marley moves to Mercury, PA with her mom at 17 years old, and immediately falls into the Joseph boys. Between her relationships with th, and her parents - through trials and scandals. She grows up.

This story was very charming and enjoyable. I loved the style and pace of the book, the small town feel, and the depth of the characters. Simply put, it’s the story of family. Definitely recommend!

A heart wrenching small town drama; family saga. Well written and engaging; rich characters, tension, and secrets. A memorable page turner that was difficult to put down. Great read

Amy Jo Burns’s Mercury is a compelling and emotional story about the conflicting loyalties in a small Pennsylvania town. Set in a blue collar town where secrets don’t stay buried forever, this novel is a story that is powerful in its quietness.

Mercury is a small, working town near Pittsburg. The Josephs family own a local roofing company. Mick is the father of three boys, expecting his sons to continue the roofing business. Elise is his wife and mother to their three children, beloved in Mercury and later going on to develop dementia.

It’s 1990 when Marley West and her mother arrive in Mercury, leaving behind their old town and a Blockbuster card with nine punches, almost ready to be redeemed. The two oldest Joseph brothers are about to begin their senior year of high school. It’s at a baseball game not long after Marley arrives that she sees Baylor and Waylon Joseph. Unbeknownst to everyone, their fates change forever that day that Marley hurries down the bleachers towards the two Joseph brothers.

“Being forgotten is sometimes safer than being seen.”

Marley falls in love with the Joseph’s family almost immediately. The daughter of a single mother who works long hours as a nurse, Marley yearns to be part of a happy family. She thinks being part of the Josephs may be what she wants most. Initially she is swooped up by Baylor Joseph, the muscular, strapping athlete of the family. But it isn’t long before Baylor dumps her, and she falls for the sweeter Joseph brother, Waylon. Waylon and Marley will go on to get pregnant and married, living in a tiny apartment at the top of the Josephs’ old Victorian house.

The story opens with a disturbing discovery in the attic of the old Presbyterian church—a dead body decomposing beneath a pile of choir robes. The mystery of this is both central to and irrelevant to the story told in Mercury. The book spans nine years and it’s a story about love, loyalty, family, and secrets that can tear them apart or hold them together. This is a deeply character-driven novel—the events of the story don’t matter in the end, it’s the relationships between the characters that do.

Something about the novel feels epic, though it takes place within a decade rather than centuries. The mystery of the story pulled me in, but the characters themselves are what kept me turning the pages. Each character has their own flaws and challenges. The Joseph family seemed so perfect to Marley, but they are as dysfunctional as any family is—flawed but ultimately stronger together.

Marrying into a family doesn’t always mean you are part of the family, at least not all the way. This is the sad and poignant lesson Marley teaches the reader throughout the novel. The prose felt lyrical and at times reminded me of a good southern gothic with its imagery. There is a quietness to the story that creeps up on the reader with its power.

“The arc of a mother’s life shouldn’t have self-sacrifice as it’s inevitable pinnacle.”

Marley spends much of her early years with the Josephs wanting to become Elise. Beautiful, impeccably dressed, and seemingly effortless with perfection—Elise had a coolness to her and an authority that commanded attention. Eventually she learns that Elise’s life isn’t as perfect as it seems, and she doesn’t necessarily want to become the type of mother Elise is. The women are the backbone of the family and the story.

I always know a book has struck me when I am able to feel frustration with the characters as well as empathy. These felt like real people and I was so invested in their stories. Full of moments of happiness, heartbreak, and somber reality, this is a story about resilience and loyalty.

Tense, gripping, and poignant.

Thank you to Celadon Books for my copy. Opinions are my own.

Mercury is a character driven book but it was a quick read. I wanted to know the outcome of the characters & where they ended up. I loved following Marley's story & her relationship with the Joseph family. The story felt so real and honest. It gave us a look at women who give up their autonomy to care for others. Each character was so unique & we got to experience their own personal turmoil. I am looking forward to reading more by the author.

This family saga is one that I couldn’t stop thinking about long after turning the last page. The author did a great job with characterization development.

I’m sad to say I did not enjoy this one. I usually like character driven, family drama ,literary fiction, but for some reason this one fell flat for me. I found it boring and slow and I didn’t care so much about the characters or what happened to them. No one was very likable. Almost none of the relationships were worth rooting for or salvaging. I don’t even know what the overall takeaway was. Nothing very hopeful. Nothing really changed. They barely even grew. Mercury left me wondering: What was the point of this whole book?

Mercury by Amy Jo Burns is one of those books you have to keep reading for a while to get invested into the story. I felt for Marley and Waylon, but this book is mostly about relationships and not a whole lot of plot. Still, an interesting read if you like slow burn stories that come together in the end.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publishers for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Amy Jo Burns's Mercury takes readers on a journey through the lives of the Joseph family in the blue-collar town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. Marley, a young woman yearning for a place to belong, becomes intertwined with the Josephs, especially the three brothers: Baylor, Waylon, and the younger Shay.
This book is a slow burn that focuses on deep character development. You really get to know and feel for each character as your follow them along their journey and secrets are revealed. If you love a family drama and really get into characters then this book is for you! Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon books for this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I appreciated the premise of this book, but in execution it wasn't for me. Our MC is loyal and seeking family/found family, meanwhile everyone in her life either treats her badly or neglects her. It was frustrating to see her keep trying to make those connections. I found the writing overdone in a lot of places, which pulled me out of the story. The ending seemed to full circle to the beginning and I didn't see the point of that.

A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.