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.

April 1, 2011
From Australia, a series opener in the relatively new fallen-angel subgenre of paranormal romance. Mercy is a disembodied soul in limbo between Heaven and Earth, except when she awakens in a human body—in essence, "soul-jacking" them. Here, Mercy inhabits Carmen, who, Mercy slowly pieces together, is a shy, awkward teen with a show-stopping soprano on her way to a regional high-school concert. She's about to meet the family that will host her during her stay. From the moment Mercy meets the Daleys, her supernatural senses signal something is wrong, and she quickly learns that their teenage daughter, Lauren, also a soprano, was abducted several years before. Soon Mercy finds herself torn between helping Carmen find her voice and solving Lauren's mystery with the missing girl's twin brother, Ryan. Interwoven throughout are visits to Mercy from otherworldly spirits, who warn her of danger in her dreams. This component feels hokey and distracts from the otherwise satisfyingly frenetic pace of the main mystery. Mercy's present-tense narration bounces back and forth between colloquial ("I chugalugged eight bourbon-spiked colas in one sitting") and overwrought ("sweat breaks out upon [Carmen's] skin, drenching the pristine white sheets on which we lie"). This thriller has a creepiness that keeps the pages turning, but it also manages to avoid graphic details, leaving much to readers' imaginations. In the end, it doesn't really elevate itself from the pack. (Paranormal thriller. 13-16)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2011

Gr 7-9-Mercy, a fallen angel, is doomed to inhabit various bodies on Earth. She takes over the soul of Carmen Zappacosta, a scrawny, eczema-covered teen with the voice of an angel, while she is on a bus headed to the small town of Paradise, where Carmen is supposed to participate in a multi-school choral program. In town, she stays with the parents and "spectacular" brother of Lauren, a teen who also has an angelic voice and mysteriously disappeared two years earlier. Only Ryan believes that his sister is alive. He becomes a romantic interest for Mercy, although she has a lost love who visits her in her dreams and tells her he does not want her to investigate Lauren's disappearance. Then another teen disappears and Mercy realizes that her true purpose as Carmen is to discover what has happened to the missing girls. With Ryan's help, she locates them but not without putting herself, or at least Carmen's body, in grave danger. The conclusion has a great twist that will satisfy readers' need for a neat ending. Unfortunately, Mercy is still doomed to settle in different bodies, never knowing when she will be reunited with her lost love. Mercy is the only female character who is truly fleshed out, and her sarcasm, courage, and determination will hook readers.-Julie Shatterly, W.A. Bess Elementary School, Gastonia, NC

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011
Grades 8-10 She calls herself Mercy but has no memory of who or what she is except that she keeps awakening in other girls' bodies in a kind of temporary soul-jacking. In this first installment in Australian author Lim's new paranormal series, Mercy awakens in Carmen, an insecure 16-year-old with a star-quality voice. Carmen's school choral group is visiting the town of Paradise to perform a joint concert, and she is billeted with a family whose teen daughter, Lauren, mysteriously disappeared two years earlier. Lauren's hunky twin brother, Ryan, still senses his sister, and Mercy is drawn into the mystery. The story veers between an effective, suspenseful mystery and overwrought dream encounters with two celestial hotties who dramatically hint at Mercy's identity. The mystery provides the real tension, but in an angel ex machina moment, Mercy has to rely on her superpowers to thwart the villain. As Mercy moves on, she realizes that she may eventually have a chance to find her true self. Paranormal fans will rapturously await the next installment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)