When Juliet Sunday goes to stay with her grandmother in a hundred-year-old cottage, she uncovers clues to a terrible tragedy. Who are the ghosts of Rose Cottage? And why has Juliet been chosen to tell their story? Trying to forget her forbidden relationship with Mario, Juliet buries herself in the mystery of the old house.
A wooden box of letters, a sorrowful chant by an unknown voice... slowly, more and more clues are revealed. Juliet feels compelled to uncover the tragedy of Rose Cottage. It's almost as if her life - and her relationship with Mario - depend on it...
Enid Mary Blyton (1897–1968) was an English author of children's books.
Born in South London, Blyton was the eldest of three children, and showed an early interest in music and reading. She was educated at St. Christopher's School, Beckenham, and - having decided not to pursue her music - at Ipswich High School, where she trained as a kindergarten teacher. She taught for five years before her 1924 marriage to editor Hugh Pollock, with whom she had two daughters. This marriage ended in divorce, and Blyton remarried in 1943, to surgeon Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters. She died in 1968, one year after her second husband.
Blyton was a prolific author of children's books, who penned an estimated 800 books over about 40 years. Her stories were often either children's adventure and mystery stories, or fantasies involving magic. Notable series include: The Famous Five, The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers, Noddy, The Wishing Chair, Mallory Towers, and St. Clare's.
According to the Index Translationum, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world in 2007, coming after Lenin but ahead of Shakespeare.
Gee whiz! Golly gee! Everything in this! Was just so exciting! That it required! An exclamation mark!!!
The romance did absolutely nothing for me, mainly because I don’t like Mario. As far as I can tell all he does is make Juliet unhappy. Also that ending was a let down for me. It was just such a sucky cliffhanger that could have been a good end of a chapter, but not a book.
I did like the diary and email entries, those was pretty cool. Other than that though, it was a pretty meh book.
I could not tell you when I last reread these books but I can tell you the phone number I have listed in the front of my omnibus copy is over twenty years out of date. I'm going to say maybe I was a teen the last time I actually read this. Did the individual copies have like... photos? I vaguely remember the individual copies having photos that went with the story. My copy doesn't have these. Sadly. I think they contributed to my love of these books.
Double Sorrow is a story told in a narrative format but also in diary entires, letters, emails and fragments of time. Juliet Sunday has decided to stay with her Nan in Sydney instead of travelling to France with her sister and father. This mostly has to do with Mario, her boyfriend, who her father does not like. Mario's father isn't a fan of Juliet either. Juliet's nan had just moved into a historical cottage that has been abandoned for some time and needs help cleaning it up. There's rumours of ghosts. But there's mystery too. A love story that might echo Juliet's own.
I was surprised in revisiting this at how simplistic the language was. I don't know if it's cause I haven't read YA for awhile or if YA was always like this? (No... I reread Tamora Pierce recently the language wasn't as plain in her novels? Maybe this was targeting a younger audience? But the love story?) And the plot... is not deep. In fact at the end of this novel there isn't too much plot. Just... a hint of a mystery and a couple of melodramatic seventeen year olds that like to hang out in cemeteries.
And maybe that was what I loved about this series. It's heavy on aesthetic. Juliet is living in an old cottage with a mysteriously locked attic with hidden keys. She takes baths with candles. Writes in her journal with an old fashioned fountain pen. Her and Mario quoting poetry to each other. It's a very romanticised idea of what a seventeen year old's life might be like. At my grown age I would still take the historic house with the overgrown garden.
Anyway. Revised my rating down. I did love this as a teen but it's very so-so upon reread. Kept at three for the warm nostalgia. We'll see how the rest goes. But wilding out at Goodreads having this listed as an Enid Blyton book. How'd that happen??
I LOVED this series!!! ive read it twice already, and know that ive seen it on goodreads and i reviewing it, i might just read them again!!! I love the mystery throughout the book. it leaves you guessing the whole way. Which ghost is which? Which one is the bad ghost? definately a must read!
The book had a great old fashion story about a girl who visits her grandma in France in an old creepy cottage. She only visits France because she doesn't want to stay too far away from Mario. The second she reaches the old cottage she realises that weird things are happening as if supernatural, this is evident through messages behind pictures, and in locked treasure boxes. Later on, she sees a ghost in the bathroom mirror and a more frightening ghost at the window. If I had to say something about this book I would say that adding a more scary aspect would definitely make the story better, as I realised that the ghosts weren't scary enough for me. The book is quite short and could have definitely been one book instead of 3, this is because the book is moderately long and is annoying that you have to read another book straight after to even see what happens after the cliff hangers. I have to say I did like the writing style and picture of letters throughout the storyline as it puts you in the perspective of the main character, being able to read the letters. It also adds some fun storyline.
I thought this book was fine, but no better than that. Libby Hathorn’s writing was really good but the plot could be boring and confusing. Juliette wines a lot and when she isn’t solving the mystery of the ghosts all she tends to think about is her boyfriend. This series isn’t bad but I wouldn’t recommend it.
It's an intriguing story in that it features not one but two ghosts and a double sorrow at a house the main character's grandmother has bought.
I'm not sure I was convinced by Mario and Juliet's relationship - it seems to have developed quite quickly and for two young people who are swearing undying love to one another, they do act quite childishly at times.
However, getting to the nitty gritty details of what happened to the two ghosts, what they want and how Juliet can help is keeping me reading.
As an adult, there are just too many things that don't add up for me to really enjoy the book, but I suspect younger readers will like it better.