Title: REVIEW: Mercy: A Memoir of Medical Trauma and True Crime Obsession | Hippocampus Magazine - Memorable Creative Nonfiction
Headings: REVIEW: Mercy: A Memoir of Medical Trauma and True Crime Obsession
REVIEW: Mercy: A Memoir of Medical Trauma and True Crime Obsession
July 7, 2020
Interview by Ariel M. Goldenthal
Meet the Contributor

Content: Fear is uncomfortable—and it’s fascinating. It is our most basic, most powerful emotion. It was something that was thrust upon me, but it’s mine now…I want to fully inhabit my fear, explore it, and know it. I want to understand the workings of my mind.” In chronological order, Trahan leads the reader through the procedures that she underwent for thyroid cancer. In between this framework narrative, she unpacks her fascination with true crime, bringing the reader along as she explores the darkest of criminal histories. Even when she details the crimes that the men committed against women, Trahan doesn’t waver in her commitment to precision. The cadence of Trahan’s sentences directs the reader where to breathe and how to feel. When she writes about her obsession with violent true crime television series, her short sentences focus on her external interests while the longer complex sentence reveals her internal scars: “ I love seeing criminals get caught.