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32nd out of 206 books
—
276 voters
One for Sorrow
by
Christopher Barzak (Goodreads Author)
Part thriller, part ghost tale, part love story, One for Sorrow is a novel as timeless as The Catcher in the Rye and as hauntingly lyrical as The Lovely Bones. Christopher Barzak’s stunning debut tells of a teenage boy’s coming-of-age that begins with a shocking murder and ends with a reason to hope.
Adam McCormick had just turned fifteen when the body was found in the wood...more
Adam McCormick had just turned fifteen when the body was found in the wood...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
August 28th 2007
by Bantam
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1-30
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576)
Jan 05, 2009
Cedony
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
No one.
Shelves:
2009,
books-i-gave-up-on,
contemporary-fiction,
gay,
reviewed,
slashy,
supernatural,
young-adult
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Barzak's debut novel is a heavy hitter. It's a story of being a teenager in a dysfunctional family, going through the trials of the teenage life, of falling in love and having one's heart ripped out, of being confused about the world and about where you're supposed to be. It's about the emotional roller coaster that is the teenage years, dead friends, first loves, and trying to understand one's place in the world. It's the story of Adam, a fifteen-year-old boy who becomes friends with Jamie, som...more
The one where a kid is murdered and Adam befriends his ghost. I gave it 65 pages.
I had two problems with it: style and motivation. The style is a little too true to the way a fifteen-year-old might tell a story -- which is to say, meandering, repetitive, and trite. (In fact, all the actual fifteen-year-olds I know would probably do a better job than this, though maybe not on the first draft, which is what it reads like.)
And I couldn't make sense of why any of the characters made the choices the...more
I had two problems with it: style and motivation. The style is a little too true to the way a fifteen-year-old might tell a story -- which is to say, meandering, repetitive, and trite. (In fact, all the actual fifteen-year-olds I know would probably do a better job than this, though maybe not on the first draft, which is what it reads like.)
And I couldn't make sense of why any of the characters made the choices the...more
Everyone needs to read this book.
Every once in a while, I let myself get talked into thinking I need to read some "real" literature and just pick something, and generally I feel completely apathetic about it at best, or downright hate it at worst (Frangipani, Everything Is Illuminated). Sometimes however, a non-fantasy book will catch my eye. I'll just instinctively know that I need to read it. I was walking out of the bookstore, and One For Sorrow was on the very end of the shelf; I glanced it...more
Every once in a while, I let myself get talked into thinking I need to read some "real" literature and just pick something, and generally I feel completely apathetic about it at best, or downright hate it at worst (Frangipani, Everything Is Illuminated). Sometimes however, a non-fantasy book will catch my eye. I'll just instinctively know that I need to read it. I was walking out of the bookstore, and One For Sorrow was on the very end of the shelf; I glanced it...more
One for Sorrow is a unique ghost story that goes in some unexpected directions. When Adam McCormick's classmate, Jamie, is killed, Adam finds himself obsessed with Jamie's death and the friendship that the two of them could have shared if they hadn't both been so hesitant. When Adam learns that Gracie, the girl who found Jamie's body, has been seeing Jamie's ghost, he purposefully seeks her out. What follows is a strange almost-love-triangle, as Adam is torn between his loyalty to Jamie and his...more
When Adam's classmate and almost-friend Jamie is murdered, his ghost comes to Adam for comfort and acknowledgement. Adam too needs comfort, as his family breaks apart and he slides from his high-school niche of nobody-much to outcast status. Even though Jamie's ghost-world is cold and dangerous, with skinless men lurking by the gates, it is a place where Adam seems to have purpose, and for a time living companionship with the girl who found Jamie's body and is also haunted by him.
One for Sorrow...more
One for Sorrow...more
One For Sorrow. Christopher Barzak. 2007. Bantam. 306 pages. ISBN 9780553384369.
One For Sorrow is Christopher Barzak's debut novel, about a teenage boy named Adam who forges an odd bond with a reclusive boy from his school named Jamie. When Jamie's body is discovered near train-tracks in the nearby woods, he appears in the form of a ghost to Adam, who then decides to embark on building a deeper friendship with him.
According to the synopsis for One For Sorrow, the novel is comparable to Salinger'...more
One For Sorrow is Christopher Barzak's debut novel, about a teenage boy named Adam who forges an odd bond with a reclusive boy from his school named Jamie. When Jamie's body is discovered near train-tracks in the nearby woods, he appears in the form of a ghost to Adam, who then decides to embark on building a deeper friendship with him.
According to the synopsis for One For Sorrow, the novel is comparable to Salinger'...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
A gloriously complicated novel that makes you give up on trite, wrap-it-up solutions.
Adam is a 15 year old about to discover how troubled he is. For Adam, trouble comes in threes - his classmate Jamie is murdered, his mother is paralyzed in a car accident, and his grandmother dies. Bothered by Jamie's death in ways he cannot define, Adam befriends Jamie - Jamie's ghost, that is. Adam's world begins to deteriorate further, and he runs away with Jamie to Youngstown.
Barzak lets the details of the...more
Adam is a 15 year old about to discover how troubled he is. For Adam, trouble comes in threes - his classmate Jamie is murdered, his mother is paralyzed in a car accident, and his grandmother dies. Bothered by Jamie's death in ways he cannot define, Adam befriends Jamie - Jamie's ghost, that is. Adam's world begins to deteriorate further, and he runs away with Jamie to Youngstown.
Barzak lets the details of the...more
This story started with such an interesting premise and some really interesting and unexpected phrasing. My hopes were high for a little bit, but then the whole thing crashed into a muddle. The writer could have cut lots and lots out of this story. It seems like he just didn't know where to go with it after a certain point.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Nov 07, 2009
g
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommended to g by:
Laura Whitcomb's blog
Shelves:
vampires-werewolves-ghosts-etc,
midwest
I wanted to like this book; the premise sounded like something I might enjoy. But it was a thoroughly disappointing and tedious tale, and I was skipping whole pages by the second half, though I should not have bothered doing even that. The whole thing felt grossly self-indulgent. I couldn't relate to any of the characters or their absurd choices, and there was an emotional flatness to the tale that was off-putting in the extreme. This book has nothing on
The Catcher in the Rye
or even
The Love...more
Nicely written blend of magic realism and sort of cathartic mysticism. I seem to accidentally be finding myself choosing such books from my backlog lately, getting into them and finding the lines between worlds are blurred by the authors - which is fine with me when done with consistency. I am perfectly willing to accept "other" orders than those in which we normally live, to accept other versions of reality, when they are done well with a sort of intact cosmology - which this book has; and the...more
Esto... Vale, reconozco que en gran parte es cosa mía y de las condiciones ambientales, pues me he tragado más de la mitad de este libro en el ambulatorio, en paciente espera de más de dos horas, pero lo cierto es que no me ha llegado a enganchar y se me ha hecho un poco pesadito a ratos.
Malo no es, desde luego, pero para mí le falta chispa, y el elemento sobrenatural, en este caso, no ayuda demasiado. Se lo compara con 'El Guardián entre el Centeno' y 'Desde Mi cielo', y es fácil ver porqué, p...more
Malo no es, desde luego, pero para mí le falta chispa, y el elemento sobrenatural, en este caso, no ayuda demasiado. Se lo compara con 'El Guardián entre el Centeno' y 'Desde Mi cielo', y es fácil ver porqué, p...more
This book moved me. I believed it. I believe in the characters. It was so sad and beautiful and _honest._
It was also an incredibly creepy and interesting view of life and death. His ideas about what/where ghosts go, and their interactions with people . . . I believed Adam, and I believed _in_ him, and I believed his family and his town and his
random angry desperate wandering.
He is a lost boy in a town that everyone else has forgotten, and his family is unhappy and confused, but this is still a b...more
It was also an incredibly creepy and interesting view of life and death. His ideas about what/where ghosts go, and their interactions with people . . . I believed Adam, and I believed _in_ him, and I believed his family and his town and his
random angry desperate wandering.
He is a lost boy in a town that everyone else has forgotten, and his family is unhappy and confused, but this is still a b...more
l'ho finito in treno... oddio che libro strano.. però gli ho messo quattro stellette lo stesso... perchè adam se le merita per il viaggio che ha fatto e perchè non ha abbandonato jamie, non l'ha dimenticato ma è riuscito ad andare avanti, e perchè girasole è una parola bellissima *-*
cmq... di cosa parla questo libro? della morte, della speranza, dell'amicizia, dell'amore, della famiglia, del fatto che si può sempre correre e di un viaggio; un viaggio che il protagonista fa sia materialmente che
...more
I have to agree with Justin on this book...best described as a "homo-erotic ghost story". While I found the book entertaining and perfect for a 3 hour flight, I wouldn't recommend it unless you have nothing else that you want to read. The main character is frustrating because you never learn the real motives behind his actions or why he's okay getting so close and personal with the ghost of a boy he barely knew. And the true story behind the ghost is never revealed...simply too many unanswered q...more
I think the best summary of this book I've read so far described it as a "homo-erotic ghost story". While that may be an overly simplified description, if that doesn't pique your interest, you should probably just avoid this read. Barzak starts off with a premise that has worked well in other stories, such as The Body by Stephen King. It's basically a coming of age/loss of innocence tale involving a teenager's reaction to the murder of a boy at his school. Then it all goes down the crapper.
What...more
What...more
Res gave this one a thumbs-down and I really should have listened to her. But I was like, “It’s a homoerotic ghost story! There’s gotta be something in there I’ll like!” Uh, yeah. No. There really isn’t.
All the characters in this book make incredibly irrational decisions, which is especially annoying in the case of the narrator, whose head we’re supposed to be in. Yet we never get to see any of his thought processes. It’s a really baffling way to tell a story—I felt so disconnected from what was...more
All the characters in this book make incredibly irrational decisions, which is especially annoying in the case of the narrator, whose head we’re supposed to be in. Yet we never get to see any of his thought processes. It’s a really baffling way to tell a story—I felt so disconnected from what was...more
This adult debut novel could have been published as a young adult title. But as I read it, I kept feeling like I had read it before and it's nagging at me to realize what books this reminds me off. I'm not sure. But it really feels like I've read something just like this before.[return][return]Adam is a 15 year old messed-up kid already. Then a kid in his class is murdered and his mother is involved in a hit-and-run and is paralyzed. This drives him over the edge. He sees the dead kid's ghost an...more
Skip it. Any comparisons to The Lovely Bones are wildly unfounded- with an unsympathetic, sullen, and deadened protagonist helping a ghost he knows he shouldn’t for no real reason, One for Sorrow’s few good elements (good female characters, interesting supernatural elements, and a definite handle on teenagers) drown amid the awful pacing and lack of any real tension.
Sometimes it was hard to read this book. It was so sad and depressing. But nonetheless, I really enjoyed it because I thought it was really different from any other story line I've read and an interesting look at dealing with grief. I myself was grieving when I read this and it gave me a small push toward moving on.
Aug 23, 2012
Bookmarks Magazine
added it
Christopher Barzak's One for Sorrow is a rare thing indeed--a horror novel with heart. It's not often that such a book, particularly a debut (Barzak's reputation comes from his short fiction), is described as "lovely, melancholy" (Village Voice). But Barzak balances his story's supernatural aspects, which he delivers with simple assuredness, with the uncertainties and complexities of adolescence. One for Sorrow has been compared to The Catcher in the Rye and Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones. In t
...more
1 like · like · see review
I liked this one, but it was definitely more of an atmospheric one that would have benefited from a simmering read, not one that was you know, two sittings, one of which was the exercise bike...
Categories: YA aged protagonists in a not YA style book, authors who have lived in my home town
Categories: YA aged protagonists in a not YA style book, authors who have lived in my home town
I picked this up in the library. It was rated "one of the best books of 2007." I would say that rating is too generous. It is a story about a boy on his way to dying after his friend dies. Very strange relationship between the boy and his friend. Skip this book.
Dec 12, 2007
Hilary
marked it as to-read
When Jamie Marks is murdered outside of Youngstown, Ohio, the boy’s ghost appears to Gracie Highsmith, the classmate who discovered his body. Adam McCormick, a dysfunctional child and one of Jamie’s few friends in life, discovers that he can see the spirit. In short order, the adolescent-ghost relationship blossoms—as does Adam’s relationship with Gracie—forming a bond among the three that they never shared when Jamie was alive. Traveling with Jamie into the "dead spaces" that hold wondrous and...more
Just when you thought nothing interesting, moving and enjoyable could be done with the ghost story, Christopher Barzak comes up with One for Sorrow. Read this years ago and I still think of some of the images. Very evocative
Excellent coming of age novel with a supernatural twist. Captures "bleak" and makes it resonate. Lots of truth inside fine writing.
Post scriptum: also a protagonist who shares my opinion of Holden Caulfield!
Post scriptum: also a protagonist who shares my opinion of Holden Caulfield!
Ugh. Judging from other folks' reviews, people either loved or hated this book. I just got bored, and skimmed through about a 100 pages in the middle. A weird mash-up of Dream Boy and The Lovely Bones, except not as willing to own its gayness and more vague and boring.
this story was a bit confusing at first, but i was completely stuck on reading it. it;s so detailed i felt like i could picture everything that was going one. it's a reeeeeally good book(:
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Endicott Mythic F...: One for Sorrow: A Novel - Q&A with Christopher Barzak | 18 | 68 | Jan 12, 2010 07:38pm |
Christopher Barzak grew up in rural Ohio, went to university in Youngstown, Ohio, and has lived in a Southern California beach town (Carlsbad), the capital of Michigan (Lansing), and in the suburbs of Tokyo, Japan (Ami), where he taught English in rural junior high and elementary schools. His stories have appeared in many venues, including Nerve, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Strange Horizon...more
More about Christopher Barzak...
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“Sometimes you've got to be able to listen to yourself and be okay with no one else understanding.”
—
30 people liked it
“I tried. I tried to burn that memory of my regret. But I wasn’t dead yet, I was just on my way to dying, and it’s harder to burn memories when you’ve still got life left. When you’re alive you have to learn how to live with things like regret.”
—
6 people liked it
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Aug 10, 2009 06:55pm