Beautiful Books And Reviews

89) Records of Mercy

Title: Records of Mercy
Author: BreMcFarland
What is 'Records of Mercy'?
          - It is a heart wrenching, absolutely beautiful, completed, teen fiction/young adult.

Rating:
        9.2/10

EBI:
- Don't be afraid to draw the chapters out a little longer, they seem a little short
- There's a lot of breaks (maybe they could be shorter)
- Detail the audience's reactions in more depth (rather than just shocks and gasps, maybe identify certain family members and their expressions, thoughts, feelings, actions, relationship to others)
- Maybe consider adding a related or sentimental song to each part, or a video to keep with the covers on each chapter theme

Review:
       'Records of Mercy' details the letters of a dead bestfriend, but it's so much more than that. Love and loss, grief and friendship, family and loneliness...but also, life. There's life and there's longing and there's a sense of compassion, but also so much else that remains in between the lines, in the silences to which you read this story to. At first, I wasn't sure what to expect but I hoped that this was going to be a good story. I can tell you with 100% honesty (one of my finest faults) that I wasn't let down in the slightest, but this story even went above and beyond my expectations...but oh, do I love it when this happens. The emotions coursing through this story and lighting up a million memories is not only cathartic, but it's like a drug. I'd be lying if I said this book wasn't heavy and crucially dark, because it is. But it gives you a certain appreciation that everyone should feel when reading, an appreciation for life...for moments, for happiness, for the good people. I cry easily and deeply and so, naturally, I try to avoid films or stories I know will make me cry. I hadn't even made it to the third chapter before tears were spilling down my cheeks, but I just couldn't stop reading. For some weird reason, additionally, it was incredibly hard to find anything to improve on in this story. So if I haven't made it clear enough, you should read this story not for the sadness it implores but the life and the lessons and the values and a million other things so important and so vital.

Blurb:

'Fifteen, almost sixteen, year old, Marlee Stoklosa, never imagined that the day her best friend died would come so soon. Mercy is dead and now Marlee is standing in front of everyone at her funeral reading the letters that Mercy wrote specifically for this occassion.

Marlee knew Mercy was going to die, everyone did, but you can never fully prepare yourself when someone dies.'

If you don't read this story...you're going to miss class memories, beautiful personalities, tears and smiles, friends and goodbyes...you'll miss so, so much.

Records of Mercy will now be found in the Beautiful/Reviewed Books library on my profile or on the profile of the above beautiful writer.

Thank-you darlings, happy reading!