REVIEW for Mercy

Thank you to the wonderful Melissa at HarperCollins Canada for sending this book to me!


TITLE:            MERCY

AUTHOR:       REBECCA LIM

GENRE:           YA

RATING:          4 Stars

As a rule, I am not a big fan of books where the ‘main character’ inhabits another body. In fact, I don’t normally read books about angels and/or devils.




Having said that however, I have to admit that two things attracted me to the book Mercy. Firstly, I fell in love with the cover which I find to be whimsical and actually perfect for the storyline. Secondly, I have heard some very positive things about the book and it made me want to find out for myself just how good (or bad) it was.

While the basic storyline of the Angel Mercy who finds herself, from one second to the next, inhibiting the body of Carmen, an average teenager with one great sill – signing, might seem, at first glace a tad predictable, what really endeared me to the characters was the fact that Mercy now finds herself (for better or worse) having to live Carmen’s high school life – and it is really not as easy as one might think.

This makes the reading of this book fun and at times touching, with its funny moments and its less funny ones where Mercy/Carmen try to navigate through the sometimes difficult waters of being a teenager. If this wasn’t enough, the author chooses to add an odd plot twist – in which a missing person adds some intrigue to the plot (not sure this was actually all that necessary as I would have been happy reading about Mercy/Carmen’s daily interactions and struggles) but, nonetheless, it did add some “spice” to the storyline.

Overall, this book was quite good. I thought the author tended to go on longer than needed in some instances, which made me want to skip a few pages and, to be honest, although it was a fine read, I wasn’t quite sure what all the fuss was about in the end.

If you are looking for a book that is entertaining, with a message aimed at young adults, then you will want to pick this one.