Generations apart, Josey and Tara have more than just DNA and a family home in common: they’re both holders of a necklace with mystical powers that causes both torment and closure for their quests.

Intrigued? That’s the premise of Hope Larson’s new graphic novel Mercury. Told in alternating voices — depicted through panels set on a white page (Tara’s modern story) and panels set on a black page (Josey’s story a few generations in the past). Although jarring at first, this set up makes sense when one has read through a few pages of both. This method makes perfect sense.

Josey’s family is poor, and when a stranger named Asa Curry stumbles upon their Nova Scotia homestead claiming to have a power of prospecting, they are intrigued. When Asa really finds gold, well, things turn from exciting to downright ugly. Let’s just say there’s some death, some deception, and at the end, Josey is left with a very strange necklace.

Flash to the present, where we have Tara, who has lost everything because her house burnt down a few months ago. Mom is torn up by it and has relocated while Tara has reentered school after a few years of homeschooling. Tara’s Aunt Janice has found a box of old jewelry from her mother and she pulls out a strange necklace that seems to have a prospecting power to it. Of course, she doesn’t know this right away but instead becomes many poor students’ personal hero in the meantime.

Larson’s graphical style is very appealing, and her storytelling has a wonderful magical realistic to it. I thoroughly enjoyed the weaving of the past with the present, along with the tool of the necklace to tie the generations together in an unexpected manner. This was a well-paced book that begged me to reread, and reread I did. Because there’s the magical element, it was worthwhile going back to pick up the threads that lead to the exciting ending.

I found both Tara and Josey to be fully fleshed characters, and I found myself caring a lot about their individual stories. I didn’t, however, find myself connecting or investing much time into any other characters, though, including Tara’s love interest or Mr. Curry — that, I think, might be problematic for many readers, as he is an integral role in the story.

Mercury is appropriate for teens through adults, as anyone in those age groups will appreciate the art and the story. Language and graphics are appropriate, and I don’t think there’s anything surprising. This might be a good book to hand to your fans of magical realism, both in graphic novels and in traditional novels. You can feel comfortable giving this to those a little skeptical about the graphic novel format, as Larson’s a reputable author and illustrator and this book does not throw in those sometimes surprisingly revealing panels. We’re all clean here!