Editorial Review:

Product Description:
“We understand what we want to understand.”

Leaving a life of privilege to strike out on her own, Lauren Durough breaks with convention and her family’s expectations by choosing a state college over Stanford and earning her own income over accepting her ample monthly allowance. She takes a part-time job from 83-year-old librarian Abigail Boyles, who asks Lauren to transcribe the journal entries of her ancestor Mercy Hayworth, a victim of the Salem witch trials.

Almost immediately, Lauren finds herself drawn to this girl who lived and died four centuries ago. As the fervor around the witch accusations increases, Mercy becomes trapped in the worldview of the day, unable to fight the overwhelming influence of snap judgments and superstition, and Lauren realizes that the secrets of Mercy’s story extend beyond the pages of her diary, living on in the mysterious, embittered Abigail.

The strength of her affinity with Mercy forces Lauren to take a startling new look at her own life, including her relationships with Abigail, her college roommate, and a young man named Raul. But on the way to the truth, will Lauren find herself playing the helpless defendant or the misguided judge? Can she break free from her own perceptions and see who she really is?

The story intrigued me -a young woman learning life lessons from a victim of the Salem Witch Trails. I really enjoyed this book. It's written in first person which helped to know the character more, and the twists and turns were fun to experience. It was a great read.

Average Rating:

Rating: - Does Not Let You Down
The story intrigued me -a young woman learning life lessons from a victim of the Salem Witch Trails. I really enjoyed this book. It's written in first person which helped to know the character more, and the twists and turns were fun to experience. It was a great read.

Rating: - An interesting story
The Shape of Mercy is a novel about a fictional woman's life during the Salem Witch Trials. The storyline was fascinating, and I found myself drawn into finding out what happened to Mercy, the young woman whose diary is, in the book, being transcribed hundreds of years after her death.

Though, for the most part, the words drew me in, towards the last third of the book I skimmed over most of the narrator's musings, which had become redundant. There are no deep insights brought up, only presented in story lines and half-exposed in someones thoughts or words. God is brought up when someone wants something from Him. Being in the Christian genre, for some reason I thought the issue of how these profoundly Godly people (the Puritans) had allowed themselves to be fooled into trying and condemning their own in such a way, how madness had reigned, and the question of Where was God in that? never seemed to seriously come up. We are only human, of course we don't have all the answers, but the best Christian novel I've ever read- My Hands Came Away Red- posed mostly questions and had few direct answers to some very hard situations. I had hoped for the same from this book, since it had great potential to bring up some heavy topics.

Few typos, all the loose ends seemed tied up.

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Rating: - Not sure who the intended audience is
I stay away from contemporary novels because almost no Christian authors can do them well -- they tend to overdo their characterizations and dialog to the point where I just want to tell everyone to take a tranquilizer and lie down for a while!

While there are parts of The Shape of Mercy where Susan Meissner does it well -- parts where I even agree with the reviewer who called her prose "exquisite" -- there are all too many passages where she falls into the above trap. For instance, when Lauren thinks that Abigail has lied to her about Mercy's fate. The only emotion this elicited from me was "You're making WAY too much of this! Get over it already!"

I'm really not sure who this book is intended for. The main themes of conflict with a roommate, angst over a new boyfriend, trying to adjust to parents' expectations and find one's place in the world, and learning not to judge people by superficialities are all themes most appropriate to a Young Adult audience. Had I known that I wouldn't have bought this book, since I am at least 25 years too old for a Young Adult novel.

However, I could never recommend this novel to any Young Adult because of its handling of the issue of suicide. At best, the book gives suicide a sympathetic treatment; at worst, it holds it up as an act of courage and mercy. There is enough problem with suicide among today's young people, they certainly don't need to be "encouraged" by reading a book that gives suicide by a teenager such a soft treatment.

Is this book intended for Christians? If so then the suicide thing is totally inappropriate. Actually, I'm very surprised that a Christian publisher would even publish such a book. Perhaps since most of the independent Christian publishers have been swallowed up by, and become mere imprints of, major secular publishing houses, they've let down their standards? I sure hope not.....

This book failed to touch any emotion in me, since its main themes as described above don't resonate with me. I couldn't find any common ground to identify with any of the three heroines, Lauren, Abigail, or Mercy. And the suicide issue was a serious enough one that I lowered my rating by one star based on that alone.

This was my first book by Susan Meissner, and will probably be my last.

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Rating: - CPID:Couldn't Put It Down!
Meissner had me on page one, and the weekend flew by. Her expert weaving of two stories ties together, and an intriguing event in America's history linked with a modern day woman took me away into both worlds. One of the best I've read in years. Well done, Susan.

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Rating: - Great read for women of all generations
A perfect blend of historical and contemporary fiction, The Shape of Mercy challenges readers to identify their own prejudices, snap judgments and relational weaknesses. It speaks loudly to the power of selfless love, even among conflicted hearts in less than ideal circumstances.

The Shape of Mercy is a Christian book, although it doesn't preach. Instead, it intertwines the lives of three women from different generations as each of them seeks to find out who she is, who she is willing to love, what's important to her and what type of legacy she wants to leave behind. Whether you prefer historical or contemporary fiction, this book will appeal to you.

I found myself thinking through the themes of this book long after I put it down. I'm a better person for knowing Lauren, Abigail and Mercy even though our time together was brief.


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