Mercy

March 14, 2011
Every time Mercy "wakes," most of her memory is gone and she's in a new body, sharing it with her host but in control. This time she's Carmen, a choral singer visiting a small town for a multischool concert. The family she's staying with has suffered a heartbreaking loss: a daughter, Lauren, was abducted from her bedroom two years earlier. Uncertain of her origin and why she keeps leaping from life to life, Mercy's only clue is her lost love, Luc, who appears in her dreams. Despite Luc's warnings about getting involved, Mercy decides to help Lauren's twin, Ryan, who is obsessed with finding his sister, certain she's still alive. In her U.S. debut, Australian author Lim opens her planned series with a dark and chilling mystery, where the supernatural meets every parent's nightmare. Vivid prose highlighting Mercy's sense of isolation will draw readers in ("I occupy rented space... never wholly comfortable inside a skin that is not mine"), while dramatic tension and the mystery of Mercy's Quantum Leapâstyle body-hopping ought to keep their attention. Ages 12âup.