Blogging for Books Review: The Shape of Mercy

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The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner



College sophomore Lauren Durough is trying to escape a life of privilege by attending a state school and living in the dorm like a "normal' person.  She decides to take a part-time job in order to prove that she can make it on her own.  She accepts a job transcribing a 300 year old diary into today's language.  The diary is of a teenage girl who lived during the Salem witch trials.  Mercy Hayworth, the diary's author, had been accused, tried and convicted of witchcraft and wrote about it all in her diary.  The diary's owner, 83-year-old Abigail Boyles, has her own secret motives for wanting the diary transcribed.  As the book progresses, Lauren is caught between the world of Salem in 1692 and today's world of social classes and preconceived notions.

This was an AWESOME read!  I thoroughly loved it.  This is the first book I have read by this author and it makes me want to read more.  She makes the characters so deep, so real and complex that you feel the turmoil within Lauren as she struggles to mix what she has been taught about money and social status and what she is learning in the real world.  You get caught up with Mercy and her plight to stop the witchcraft madness back in Salem, all the while knowing her fate is sealed and it can't be changed.  You feel frustration as well as sympathy for Abigail as she regrets choices she made in the past, choices that can't be changed and haven't been forgiven.  And through it all, God's hand is seen weaving the circumstances and changing these three woman's lives.  In the end, you are left with a book you just can't put down until you are done.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars!  Go buy it today!