History and the speculative collide with the modern world when a group
of high school girls form a secret society after discovering they can
communicate with boys from the past, in this powerful look at female
desire, jealousy, and the shifting lines between friendship and
rivalry.
After her life is upended by divorce and a cross-country move,
16-year-old Saskia Brown feels like an outsider at her new school--not
only is she a transplant, but she's also biracial in a population of
mostly white students. One day while visiting her only friend at her
part-time library job, Saskia encounters a vial of liquid mercury, then
touches an old daguerreotype--the precursor of the modern-day
photograph--and makes a startling discovery. She is somehow able to
visit the man in the portrait: Robert Cornelius, a brilliant young
inventor from the nineteenth century. The hitch: she can see him only in
her dreams.
Saskia shares her revelation with some classmates, hoping to find
connection and friendship among strangers. Under her guidance, the other
girls steal portraits of young men from a local college's daguerreotype
collection and try the dangerous experiment for themselves. Soon, they
each form a bond with their own "Mercury Boy," from an injured Union
soldier to a charming pickpocket in New York City.
At night, the girls visit the boys in their dreams. During the day, they
hold clandestine meetings of their new secret society. At first, the
Mercury Boys Club is a thrilling diversion from their troubled everyday
lives, but it's not long before jealousy, violence and secrets threaten
everything the girls hold dear.
