Synopses & Reviews
In this intricate novel of psychological suspense, a fatal discovery
near the high school ignites a witch-hunt in a Southeast Texas refinery
town, unearthing communal and family secrets that threaten the lives of
the town’s girls.
In Port Sabine, the air is thick with oil,
superstition reigns, and dreams hang on making a winning play. All eyes
are on Mercy Louis, the star of the championship girls’ basketball team.
Mercy seems destined for greatness, but the road out of town is riddled
with obstacles. There is her grandmother, Evelia, a strict evangelical
who has visions of an imminent Rapture and sees herself as the keeper of
Mercy’s virtue. There are the cryptic letters from Charmaine, the
mother who abandoned Mercy at birth. And then there’s Travis, the boy
who shakes the foundation of her faith.
At the periphery of
Mercy’s world floats team manager Illa Stark, a lonely wallflower whose
days are spent caring for a depressed mother crippled in a refinery
accident. Like the rest of the town, Illa is spellbound by Mercy’s
beauty and talent, but a note discovered in Mercy’s gym locker reveals
that her life may not be as perfect as it appears.
The last day of
school brings the disturbing discovery, and as summer unfolds and the
police investigate, every girl becomes a suspect. When Mercy collapses
on the opening night of the season, Evelia prophesies that she is only
the first to fall, and soon, other girls are afflicted by the mysterious
condition, sending the town into a tailspin, and bringing Illa and
Mercy together in an unexpected way.
Evocative and unsettling, The Unraveling of Mercy Louis charts the downfall of one town’s golden girl while exploring the brutality and anxieties of girlhood in America.
Review
“Urgent, deliciously dark and sumptuously gothic. . . . Like the girls on Mercy's basketball team, who ‘balance so perfectly between control and chaos, Parssinen has an intuitive grasp of languages vital rhythms.” New York Times Book Review
Review
“Beautiful and awful, enraging and sad, atmospheric and page-turning: an accomplished novel.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Review
“Past crimes run a dark thread through this coming-of-age fable that calls to mind Laura Lippman's stand-alone novels and even The Scarlet Letter. Parssinen excels here at capturing the dueling emotions that rule teenage girls relationships, and the dire consequences of societal pressures.” Booklist
Review
“A lovely, thoughtful, disquieting story of the effects of small-town pressures on a remarkable young woman.” Shelf Awareness
Review
“The solid pacing and strong characters provide a captivating read with the same tension and pleasures of being caught up in a well-matched and high-energy basketball game.” Library Journal
About the Author
Keija Parssinen is the author of The Ruins of Us, which won a Michener-Copernicus Award. Raised in Saudi Arabia and Texas, she is a graduate of Princeton University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow. Parssinen directs the Quarry Heights Writers' Workshop and lives in Missouri with her husband and son.