Weekly Reader: Her Name is Mercie: A Short Story Collection By Chris Roy; Mixed Bag of Horror and Suspense Tales

 

Weekly Reader: Her Name is Mercie: A Short Story Collection By Chris Roy; Mixed Bag of Horror and Suspense Tales

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I love a good horror or suspense story. Nothing could bring more pleasure in October than a good creepy story to get one's mind off of the terrors of the real world. 

 Her Name is Mercie: A Short Story Collection by Chris Roy is a mixed bag of good and bad. Some of the stories are very good at capturing suspense with unforgettable terrifying and violent moments. Then there are other stories that are not as well written and are could use some fine tuning.

The stories are as follows:

"Her Name is Mercie"-The longest story in the book could just as well stand as its own publication. It is a fairly decent character study of a woman who lives solely for revenge. Mercie Hillbrook's parents were killed in one of those police confrontations that are unfortunately all too common these days. Mercie's father reached for his ID and the police thought he was reaching for a gun. The police shot them and poor Mercie was left an instant orphan. She is grief stricken and in financial debt. What's a girl to do but steal a car and rob a bank?

Mercie really makes this story because without her, it would be very dull. She is someone who commits crimes but does not do so to get a thrill. She has a sense of failed justice after her parents died and wants to punish the people who killed them.

 She interacts and argues with her cell mates and in some tense scenes fights with one. She also bonds with Kermit, becoming a second mother to him. This is a woman who had a bright future, obtaining a master's in biology and working as a clerk, but that comes crashing down after her parents' death. Her transformation into a hard cynical shell of lawlessness is believable as is her retention of her soft side in her bond with Kermit.

In fact, Mercie's strong characterization is what keeps the novella interesting especially when the plot gets repetitive and contrivances surround the story. The women's prison passages could have been condensed or cut and we wouldn't have missed anything in Mercie's revenge campaign.

Mercie's revenge campaign against the police and bankers mostly consists of her and Kermit either running towards them or hiding from the law. It's one long chase scene that is augmented thankfully by Mercie and Kermit's exchanges (such as Kermit calling a pink car, what else Miss Piggy). Mercie makes the story her own even though she could use a better plot.

"Re-Pete"-This story is a short violent one about how monsters can be found in one's own family. Pete lives with his mother and abusive stepfather. Pete suffers from flashbacks about the night that his father died and this increases his anger towards the abuse. His careless mother allows her husband to beat her son, so he doesn't go after her. It's a very sad haunting situation in which Pete is put.

The tension mounts as Pete gets his hand on a knife to cut a watermelon when his stepfather pushes him too far. Pete's confrontation with his stepfather and mother reveal that sometimes evil is created by the evil that others do.

"Hunger"-One of the oddest stories in the bunch starts out strong with a young woman possibly haunted by noises and relics on a mysterious island. Then the story gets too bizarre to figure out. Rebecca and Sammy are in mourning for their father. While taking their dog, Hunger, for a walk, mysterious things start to happen.

The atmosphere is perfect for this type of story. It is set on a mysterious island where you can't tell if the steps approaching you are a person, animal, or something else. Hunger's excitable at times violent behavior is a clue that all is not well. It could be a terrifying story with this set up and the work describing the setting.

Unfortunately, the payoff leaves something to be desired. What could be a pretty interesting person vs. the elements or the supernatural story gets confusing. For no apparent reason we are introduced to a Native tribe from what appears to be an earlier time period. Is this a time travel story? Is Rebecca a reincarnation of one of the women in the tribe? Are Rebecca and Sammy somehow connected to the same fate? What's with Rebecca's eating disorder and Sammy's drug addiction mentioned earlier? They seemed to lead to something (particularly since the dog is named Hunger) but just become character traits. No one knows and this story is too short to tell us.

"Libby's Hands"-The one is a genuinely creepy story along the lines of those old ghost stories and legends like "Bluebeard" where someone is required to do something and because they are an idiot in this type of story, they disobey and get the fright of their lives.

Dina learns that her dying grandmother put an illegitimate and disabled granddaughter, Libby, up for adoption. Well it's a sad story, one that Dina is fascinated by, but she isn't going to let that spoil her Halloween. Dina and her mother Tracie deck the halls with boughs of jack o' lanterns and scary music as they pass candy to trick or treaters. Grandma reminds her to decorate the tree by the pond. "The hands you see must be perfect," she says. 

Of course Dina is the aforementioned idiot and things happen.

This story is among the better ones in the anthology. The creepiness of the approaching curse contrasts with the Halloween traditions of kids in colorful costumes. Then an Amber Alert sounds on the phones and stuff gets real. The conclusion wraps up in a terrifying manner that forces those family secrets and the missing Libby out into the open.

"Marsh Madness"-This appears to be of a hunter stalking a family, but is filled with unbearable tension.

From the moment the hunter is peering at a mother and son through his scope and their dog barks in confusion reveals something is amiss. A young boy, Sam, and his mother are outside on this foggy day but they notice something isn't right. The tension builds as the hunter stalks his prey and the two unwittingly fall into his line of sight.

The story doesn't have much in the way of characterization. The hunter's name, his connections to the family, and his motives for going after them are never revealed. What it doesn't have, it makes up for in suspense as the Reader catches their breath waiting for the gun to fire.