An impeccably rendered depiction of the strains of adolescence. . . . Broadly relevant to our present cultural moment . . . This is a beautifully written, humane, and extremely compelling book.” — Emily St. John Mandel, Book of the Month pick
“Rapturous. . . . Like a deft Texas two-step, Parssinen’s work swings through local terror and youthful awakening.” — Time Out New York
“Blend H.G. Bissinger’s “Friday Night Lights” and Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” with Laura Moriarty’s “The Center of Everything” and you would have the flavor of this atmospheric book.” — Kansas City Star
“The finest Salem-inspired novel since Esther Forbes’ 1928 A Mirror for Witches . . . . Parssinen keeps her plot tight (and increasingly unsettling, even creepy), she never lets her characters become mere chess pieces, and she is near perfect in portraying her swampy southeast Texas setting.” — Dallas Morning News
“Beautiful and awful, enraging and sad, atmospheric and page-turning: an accomplished novel.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“I devoured The Unraveling of Mercy Louis . It is everything I hope for in a book: beautifully written, loaded with suspense, and filled with characters I cared deeply about. A great novel that I will be recommending to everyone.” — Kathleen Grissom, New York Times Bestselling author of The Kitchen House
“Urgent, deliciously dark and sumptuously gothic. . . . Like the girls on Mercy’s basketball team, who ‘balance so perfectly between control and chaos,’ Parssinen has an intuitive grasp of language’s vital rhythms.” — New York Times Book Review
“Beautifully written and skillfully crafted, The Unraveling of Mercy Louis is a compelling tale of longing and loss that evocatively examines the harsh realities of female adolescence.” — Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia
“Past crimes run a dark thread through this coming-of-age fable that calls to mind Laura Lippman’s stand-alone novels and even The Scarlet Letter . Parssinen excels here at capturing the dueling emotions that rule teenage girls’ relationships, and the dire consequences of societal pressures.” — Booklist
“The Unraveling of Mercy Louis is the story of a Texas town that fears everything its girls offer. A deft and thoughtful novel of feints and dodges about a community brought to its knees by prejudice, disappointments, and a past that can’t be changed.” — Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet
“A mysterious murder sends a quiet townand a quiet girlinto turmoil.” — Cosmopolitan
“Parssinen is an incredible writer and storyteller. . . . She transports you to teenaged life in small town Texas, and presents the evangelical and psychic/psychological with nuance and thoughtfulness. . . . Keija’s storytelling grips, while dangling you beyond the precipice of comfort.” — Ann Imig, Founder & Editor, Listen to Your Mother
“The language is lyrical and the story beyond gripping. . . . This is a book you can truly get lost in, and trust me, you will not want to be found.” — Hello Giggles
“A page-turning oracle of a novel and a chilling reminder of the consequences rendered when young women are exalted as pillars of perfection and demonized for daring to be human.” — Ploughshares
“An intricate and suspenseful literary novel that makes you want to slow down to appreciate Parssinen’s rich prose. . . . A compelling, thought-provoking story.” — Bustle
“A propulsive, soulful novel about heat of all kinds: the sultry oppressiveness of a bayou summer, the searing power of first love and of religious fervor, the sweaty euphoria of sports, the unpredictable crackle of adolescence. Parssinen’s storytelling grabs, her characters haunt.” — Maggie Shipstead, author of Astonish Me and Seating Arrangements
“A powerful and profoundly haunting novelas explosive as a thriller, as wise as a myth, and as chilling as the news. . . Parssinen illuminates the dark heart of a modern hysteria and the complicated humanity of the people caught in its grip.” — Jennifer duBois, author of Cartwheel and A Partial History of Lost Causes
“This is the best work of fiction inspired by the Salem witch trials in decades.” — The Week
“Keija Parssinen’s novel is a pitch perfect look at where we so often go wrong in raising our girls, using religion as a weapon against female desire. With echoes of Megan Abbott and Stephen King, The Unraveling of Mercy Louis is bravely unsettling.” — Attica Locke, author of Pleasantville and Black Water Rising
“A lovely, thoughtful, disquieting story of the effects of small-town pressures on a remarkable young woman.” — Shelf Awareness
“The solid pacing and strong characters provide a captivating read with the same tension and pleasures of being caught up in a well-matched and high-energy basketball game.” — Library Journal
“Sumptuous and thoughtful.” — Missouri Life
“A suspenseful novel about a Texas town’s golden girl and the mysterious condition that takes her down.” — popsugar.com
“This small oil refinery town is the perfect setting for Keija Parssinen’s winning Southern gothic novel about high school basketball star Mercy Louis. . . . This book may keep you up at night, but it’s worth it.” — Bookish
“Parssinen weaves romance, mystery and fantasy with contemporary issues. Mercy’s story depicts what happens when girls are expected to be perfect and end up being human.” — Vox Magazine
“Parssinen’s work is a cry from the heart against the merciless manner in which young women are raised in ultra-conservative communities.” — Iron Mountain Daily News
“A powerful novel that beautifully demonstrates how we grow and change. . . . Parssinen is an author to keep in our sights.” — Cedar Rapids Gazette
“A thrilling mystery that combines the power of Stephen King’s CARRIE with those same accusatory girls from the Salem Witch trials . . . A rich and compelling novel.” — TeenReads.com
“Vivid imagery…mysteries swirl about the town…Like the best-seller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, the ending is not neatly wrapped up with all questions answered. That’s life. There is always uncertainty. Unlike Flynn, Parssinen offers hope that better days lie ahead.” — Tulsa World
“Parssinen has created fully realized teen characters in a small, religious Southern town straight out of a Carson McCullers short story.” — School Library Journal
An impeccably rendered depiction of the strains of adolescence. . . . Broadly relevant to our present cultural moment . . . This is a beautifully written, humane, and extremely compelling book.
The Unraveling of Mercy Louis is the story of a Texas town that fears everything its girls offer. A deft and thoughtful novel of feints and dodges about a community brought to its knees by prejudice, disappointments, and a past that can’t be changed.
Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
I devoured The Unraveling of Mercy Louis . It is everything I hope for in a book: beautifully written, loaded with suspense, and filled with characters I cared deeply about. A great novel that I will be recommending to everyone.
Past crimes run a dark thread through this coming-of-age fable that calls to mind Laura Lippman’s stand-alone novels and even The Scarlet Letter . Parssinen excels here at capturing the dueling emotions that rule teenage girls’ relationships, and the dire consequences of societal pressures.
Blend H.G. Bissinger’s “Friday Night Lights” and Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” with Laura Moriarty’s “The Center of Everything” and you would have the flavor of this atmospheric book.
Beautifully written and skillfully crafted, The Unraveling of Mercy Louis is a compelling tale of longing and loss that evocatively examines the harsh realities of female adolescence.
A thrilling mystery that combines the power of Stephen King’s CARRIE with those same accusatory girls from the Salem Witch trials . . . A rich and compelling novel.
This is the best work of fiction inspired by the Salem witch trials in decades.
Parssinen’s work is a cry from the heart against the merciless manner in which young women are raised in ultra-conservative communities.
A powerful and profoundly haunting novelas explosive as a thriller, as wise as a myth, and as chilling as the news. . . Parssinen illuminates the dark heart of a modern hysteria and the complicated humanity of the people caught in its grip.
A page-turning oracle of a novel and a chilling reminder of the consequences rendered when young women are exalted as pillars of perfection and demonized for daring to be human.
Parssinen weaves romance, mystery and fantasy with contemporary issues. Mercy’s story depicts what happens when girls are expected to be perfect and end up being human.
Sumptuous and thoughtful.
A lovely, thoughtful, disquieting story of the effects of small-town pressures on a remarkable young woman.
Parssinen is an incredible writer and storyteller. . . . She transports you to teenaged life in small town Texas, and presents the evangelical and psychic/psychological with nuance and thoughtfulness. . . . Keija’s storytelling grips, while dangling you beyond the precipice of comfort.
A powerful novel that beautifully demonstrates how we grow and change. . . . Parssinen is an author to keep in our sights.
Keija Parssinen’s novel is a pitch perfect look at where we so often go wrong in raising our girls, using religion as a weapon against female desire. With echoes of Megan Abbott and Stephen King, The Unraveling of Mercy Louis is bravely unsettling.
An intricate and suspenseful literary novel that makes you want to slow down to appreciate Parssinen’s rich prose. . . . A compelling, thought-provoking story.
The language is lyrical and the story beyond gripping. . . . This is a book you can truly get lost in, and trust me, you will not want to be found.
A mysterious murder sends a quiet townand a quiet girlinto turmoil.
Past crimes run a dark thread through this coming-of-age fable that calls to mind Laura Lippman’s stand-alone novels and even The Scarlet Letter . Parssinen excels here at capturing the dueling emotions that rule teenage girls’ relationships, and the dire consequences of societal pressures.
Blend H.G. Bissinger’s “Friday Night Lights” and Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” with Laura Moriarty’s “The Center of Everything” and you would have the flavor of this atmospheric book.
As Mercy and Port Sabine "unravel," the novel's tone grows urgent, deliciously dark and sumptuously gothic. The book is sustained by a sense of crisis that frightens and fascinates us…[The Unraveling of Mercy Louis ] is for the most part executed with the instinctive elegance of an athletic maneuver. Like the girls on Mercy's basketball team, who "balance so perfectly between control and chaos," Parssinen has an intuitive grasp of language's vital rhythms. And there is something appealing about writing that places such high emotional demands on its readers…we admire Parssinen's novel for having the audacity to take itself so seriously, evoking the fumbling, adolescent overeagerness that's so much less afraid than adults know how to be.
The New York Times Book Review - Becca Rothfeld
01/12/2015 Parssinen follows up The Ruins of Us, her debut, a portrait of a Saudia Arabian family in turmoil, with a less-nuanced tale of extremism, this time in Port Sabine, a Gulf Coast town redolent of “swamp rot and refinery gas.” Contributing to the miasma-like atmosphere are factors environmental and moral. As Port Sabine’s refinery spews noxious fumes into the air, the discovery of a baby’s corpse in a dumpster unleashes a pervasive sense of unease. Soon the town finds itself in the grips of religious fundamentalism, witch hunts, misogyny, and a “mass psychogenic disorder” in which girls lose control of their bodies. At the center of it all is Mercy Louis, a seventh-generation Cajun and star basketball player who was abandoned by her teenaged mother as an infant. She is raised by her grandmother, Maw Maw, a zealot who demands that Mercy, tainted by her supposed “weak blood,” be “twice as good as other girls.” Enamored of Mercy is Illa Stark, a shy photographer whose mother has never recovered from injuries sustained in a devastating refinery explosion. Mercy’s and Illa’s respective family dramas and sexual awakenings are nicely drawn, but the surrounding characters—fanatics, slimy energy executives, and poetry-spouting boyfriends—tend to be two-dimensional and the dialogue occasionally melodramatic. Despite some beautifully eerie touches, Parssinen’s combustible mix of Bayou gothic, morality tale, and coming-of-age story never quite ignites. (Mar.)
The finest Salem-inspired novel since Esther Forbes’ 1928 A Mirror for Witches . . . . Parssinen keeps her plot tight (and increasingly unsettling, even creepy), she never lets her characters become mere chess pieces, and she is near perfect in portraying her swampy southeast Texas setting.
Urgent, deliciously dark and sumptuously gothic. . . . Like the girls on Mercy’s basketball team, who ‘balance so perfectly between control and chaos,’ Parssinen has an intuitive grasp of language’s vital rhythms.
New York Times Book Review
Rapturous. . . . Like a deft Texas two-step, Parssinen’s work swings through local terror and youthful awakening.
Vivid imagery…mysteries swirl about the town…Like the best-seller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, the ending is not neatly wrapped up with all questions answered. That’s life. There is always uncertainty. Unlike Flynn, Parssinen offers hope that better days lie ahead.
This small oil refinery town is the perfect setting for Keija Parssinen’s winning Southern gothic novel about high school basketball star Mercy Louis. . . . This book may keep you up at night, but it’s worth it.
A mysterious murder sends a quiet townand a quiet girlinto turmoil.
A propulsive, soulful novel about heat of all kinds: the sultry oppressiveness of a bayou summer, the searing power of first love and of religious fervor, the sweaty euphoria of sports, the unpredictable crackle of adolescence. Parssinen’s storytelling grabs, her characters haunt.
A suspenseful novel about a Texas town’s golden girl and the mysterious condition that takes her down.
02/15/2015 More is poisoned than just the air in the small refinery town of Port Sabine, TX. The discovery of a dead newborn in a dumpster brings out the worst of the community, firing up small-minded politicians and launching a witch hunt to find and punish the mother. It is no wonder that Mercy Louis and her fellow high school seniors are scrambling for passports out of town. As a basketball standout Mercy should have it made. An athletic scholarship is on the cards until the pressures from home, the town, and her own fears cause her body to crumble. Mercy's spasms affect those around her, including her rigidly fundamentalist grandmother, her best friend, Annie, who uses sex to compensate for unloving parents, and Illa, the self-effacing team manager trapped into caring for a bitter mother. They will betray one another before finding ways to face fears, uncover secrets, and offer forgiveness. VERDICT The solid pacing and strong characters in the author's second novel (after The Ruins of Us) provide a captivating read with the same tension and pleasures of being caught up in a well-matched and high-energy basketball game. [See Prepub Alert, 9/29/14.]—Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll. Lib., NC
12/01/2015 An adult title that could have easily been published as YA. The teen protagonists are complicated and damaged, and the adults around them are clueless and sometimes cruel. At the heart of the story is Mercy Louis, a basketball star with a lifelong streak of control and perfection. She is at the end of her junior year in high school and coming off a devastating loss at the State basketball championship. What was supposed to be a triumph for her, her team, and her small Texas town, Port Sabine, has her numb with embarrassment. Like a harbinger of bad news, the team's loss begins a downward spiral for both Mercy and the town itself. The body of a newborn baby is found in a dumpster, and Port Sabine becomes a place that looks at its teenage girls with suspicion and contempt as police search for the child's mother. Along with the heat, tensions rise throughout the summer at home and in town. Mercy's long-lost mother reappears in her life, and the teen falls in love. Mercy finds herself wondering if being perfect and staying in control for God and basketball is what she wants after all. Her doubts will resonate with teens, especially those who have become disenchanted with authority figures and adult hypocrisy. Port Sabine's obsession with both Mercy and the virtues she represents make this dark coming-of-age story a compelling read. VERDICT Parssinen has created fully realized teen characters in a religious Southern small town straight out of a Carson McCullers short story.—Meghan Cirrito, formerly at Brooklyn Public Library
★ 2015-01-08 A modern Southern gothic with a feminist edge and the tense pacing of a thriller.Port Sabine, Texas: an economically depressed oil refinery town on the Gulf, heavy with gossip and religious superstition. With a fatal explosion at the refinery still lingering in the residents' collective memory, they turn their focus to Mercy Louis, the star of the high school girls basketball team. Mercy knows how good she is, and in her private way, basketball is her religion, but she must hide this from her caretaker grandmother, Evelia, a fierce evangelical. Evelia's vision for, and of, her granddaughter is narrow; Mercy knows she has to be twice as pious as any other girl to make up for her absentee, crack-addict mother and be saved with her grandmother in the approaching rapture. In another corner of town, Illa Stark chafes in the ongoing role of nurse to her mother, a badly burned victim of the refinery explosion who has since mostly given up on life. Illa is more at peace as the manager of the girls basketball team, and she watches Mercy from afar with a hopeful tenderness. Meanwhile, the discovery of a fetus in a town dumpster has emotions in Port Sabine running hot and especially emphasizes the disempowerment of the town's young women. "Around here, you'd think being a girl was the fucking crime," a minor character says. It's interesting to watch these moments of heightened awareness play up against the gothic structure. Mercy is every bit the innocent, blindly reliant on her grandmother and her basketball coach as pressures pile up on her, summer wears on and her relationships shift in distressing ways. There is a slight disconnect between Parssinen's piercing narrative style and Mercy's willful ignorance, but Illa's ability to see the bigger pictures is, in story and style, a balancing grace. Beautiful and awful, enraging and sad, atmospheric and page-turning: an accomplished novel.