Mercury Boys

More about the book

History and the speculative collide with the modern world when a group of high school girls forms a secret society after discovering they can communicate with boys from the past. Sixteen-year-old Saskia Brown, feeling like an outsider at her new school following her parents' divorce and a cross-country move, encounters a vial of liquid mercury and an old daguerreotype while visiting her friend at the library. This leads to a startling discovery: she can visit the man in the portrait, Robert Cornelius, a brilliant young inventor from the nineteenth century, but only in her dreams. Eager for connection, Saskia shares her revelation with classmates, and they embark on a risky experiment, stealing portraits of young men from a local college's collection. Each girl forms a bond with her own "Mercury Boy," ranging from an injured Union soldier to a charming pickpocket in New York City. As they meet in dreams and hold clandestine gatherings, the Mercury Boys Club initially serves as an exhilarating escape from their troubled lives. However, as jealousy, violence, and secrets emerge, the girls find their newfound friendships and the very fabric of their lives threatened.