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Title details for Mercury Boys by Chandra Prasad - Available

Mercury Boys

by Chandra Prasad
Channie Waites
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
After her life is upended by divorce and a cross-country move, 16-year-old Saskia Brown feels like an outsider at her new school—not only is she a transplant, but she's also biracial in a population of mostly white students. One day while visiting
her only friend at her part-time library job, Saskia encounters a vial of liquid mercury, then touches an old daguerreotype—the precursor of the modern-day photograph—and makes a startling discovery. She is somehow able to visit the
man in the portrait: Robert Cornelius, a brilliant young inventor from the nineteenth century. The hitch: she can see him only in her dreams.
Saskia shares her revelation with some classmates, hoping to find connection and friendship among strangers. Under her guidance, the other girls steal portraits of young men from a local college's daguerreotype collection and try the dangerous
experiment for themselves. Soon, they each form a bond with their own "Mercury Boy," from an injured Union soldier to a charming pickpocket in New York City.
At night, the girls visit the boys in their dreams. During the day, they hold clandestine meetings of their new secret society. At first, the Mercury Boys Club is a thrilling diversion from their troubled everyday lives, but it's not long before
jealousy, violence and secrets threaten everything the girls hold dear.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 3, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781705010839
      • File size: 382577 KB
      • Duration: 13:17:02

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 23, 2021
      Newly arrived with her white father in Coventon, Conn., in the aftermath of her Black mother’s affair with a younger man back home in Arizona, Saskia Brown, 16, tries hard to fit in her new high school and put the past behind her. While researching 19th-century photography pioneer Robert Cornelius and daguerreotypes for a class project, Saskia’s new friend Lila Defensor, who is Latinx, introduces her to liquid mercury, which allows Saskia to teleport herself to the past in her dreams. As Saskia’s dream life takes a vivid turn, allowing her to meet Cornelius, her daytime life serves as an engagingly normal parallel with familial drama. Soon, Saskia introduces Lila—plus Adrienne Arch and the two popular Sampras sisters, all white—to mercury and its side effects, and they each secure a daguerreotype, and a long-dead romantic interest, of their own, navigating the consequences of surreal time travel as their contemporary lives unravel. While the novel’s abrupt conclusion doesn’t fully service its fascinating concept, this well-researched speculative narrative by Prasad (Damselfly) centering history, romance, and toxic friendships will appeal. Ages 14–17.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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