Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Book Review - The Mercury Fountain by Eliza Factor

How did I come into possession of this book?
This book came from the LibraryThing Early reviews program (Which by the way, I love.  I find that I receive way more book from here than its equivalent on Goodreads, which I have yet to receive a book from.)


First Lines:
“The scream must have come from Casa Grande.  There were no other houses, no trees or huts, no jackals, only the bone-white road, the dusty scrub.”  (Factor 9)

What is it about?
The book takes place near the Mexico, Texas boarder in the early 1900s.  The story centers on the Scraperton family who have made the town of Pristina very prosperous because of the mercury there.  However, as with any Utopian society, things don’t stay perfect and the book follows all of trials and conflicts the family has to endure.

What did I think?
This was not the book I expected when I read the blurb on the early reviewers page.  I am a huge dystopian/utopian society fan, but I think most of those sorts of books I read are in the young adult genre and therefore I wasn’t prepared for such a heavy book.  This is not an easy quick read; in fact, I will be reading it again to get the full idea of all that happened.  By the time I got to the end I finally had in my mind who everyone was and how the town fit together and I just felt like I had missed so much while reading the rest of the book and trying to place where all the characters were.  I did really enjoy this book, it is wonderfully written and the characters are quite interesting and unique.

Who would I recommend it to?
As long as you don’t go into this thinking it’s going to be a light, easy read you will enjoy this book.  I can see it being a great book to discuss in a book club or similar situation.  And it really is just a great piece of literature, I highly recommend it!

No comments:

Post a Comment