TATTOO
Tattoo is Jenna Cosgrove’s hit debut YA novel. The book follows the journey of Mercy Daniels – teenage fugitive – and her obsessive search for her birth father, which takes her from 1960s Savannah to San Francisco to Mexico… and takes her innocence along the way.
FROM THE BACK COVER
“My mother named me Mercy, after the nuns who raised her, but my life has been anything but merciful.
My story starts in Savannah, the day I found my mother’s body after she’d chased two bottles of sleeping pills with a bottle of home-made moonshine. It’s the story of my unhinged stepfather, a devastating fire, and how I ended up on the run, wanted for murder.
It tells of my obsessive search for my birth father that I clung to like a life raft as I drifted—from the bright lights of a shady traveling carnival, where I was given my first tattoo by my older lover; to a biker gang falling apart at the seams, where I met the man who would torment me for years to come.
From the cream of high society in California, to the lonely beaches of Mexico where I finally found a type of peace—just not the one I expected.
You judge me because my tattoos make me look strange, dangerous. But there’s more to them than that. To understand the way I look, you need to know where I came from. To understand me, you need to know my story…”
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING
The back cover says this book has been described as “too raunchy for teens,” which means it has some realistic detail that teens can surely handle, but their parents and teachers can’t… it’s a rousing story that’s unlikely to leave the average reader bored.
PIERS ANTHONY
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
A rollicking pace, a unique and original plot, compelling characters, and non-stop action make Tattoo an absolute firecracker of a debut novel. It’s impossible to put down.
ALEX CATON
READER
OMG, I absolutely LOVED this book! My book arrived just in time for a long weekend get away with my husband. I’m a slow reader but it only took me 5 days to read. Whilst we were out and about sight seeing, all I wanted to do was go back to the hotel room and read. Hard to put down!
HELEN NORCROSS
READER
WATCH THE AWARD-WINNING BOOK TRAILER
The fire crackled behind me. I felt my way, my hands reaching out in front of me, and it seemed like hours before they finally found the rough wood of the banister.
I was on the second step when Rob’s voice cut through the air.
“Mercy! Get back here!”
I looked back, but smoke veiled everything. Then he was there, at the staircase, his face blackened and an angry cut on his head.
“You can’t run from me! I’ll find you, no matter which little hole you crawl into!”
I took the stairs two at a time, finally reaching the top. I slammed the door behind me and noticed the key still in the hole. Rob’s footsteps stomped closer.
I stared at the black key, just sitting there, waiting to either be turned or not. I felt I should know what to do, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea and in the end my hand made my decision for me.
I turned the key. The lock clicked.
Rob pounded on the door and screamed.
EXCERPT FROM TATTOO BY JENNA COSGROVE