One For Sorrow (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: mother wheeled, Christopher Barzak, Sugar Creek, Boy Scout (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Death forges a supernatural bond between two lonely teenage boys in Barzak's well-intentioned and morbid first novel. Fifteen-year-old Adam McCormick is haunted by the earthbound ghost of his murdered classmate, Jamie Marks. Boy and ghost are drawn to one another by their shared outsider status at school, with the ghost providing support (and a surprising homoerotic romance subplot) for Adam as he survives a disastrous relationship with the sexually predatory Gracie (the classmate who discovered Jamie's body), a scary encounter with the ghost of a murderess and a troubled home life with his older brother and constantly arguing parents. Adam and Jamie's ghost eventually run away and find shelter in an abandoned church, where Adam is tempted to join Jamie, and Jamie delays moving to the next level in the afterlife. Barzak admirably defies convention by not having the two boys search for Jamie's killer, but the replacement plot—one of a bizarre coming-of-age—doesn't always meld well with the narrative's fantastical elements (closets, called dead space, are portals between worlds; ghosts burn memories to keep warm). The macabre tone won't work for readers looking for another Lovely Bones, but the novel's approach to familiar material is refreshing. (Sept.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

Christopher Barzak’s One for Sorrow is a rare thing indeedâ€"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 the case of the latter, though, Barzak’s book is quite a bit edgier and focuses little on the search for Jamie’s killer. Instead, Barzak develops the adolescent relationships into "a coming-of-age story, more melancholy than morbid and, by the end, profoundly hopeful" (Washington Post).

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (August 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553384368
• ISBN-13: 978-0553384369
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #518,420 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant writing, but lacks a satisfying conclusion, October 3, 2007

By	Marc Wielage (Northridge, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found this to be one of the most unclassifiable, strangest books I've ever read. ONE FOR SORROW, is about a troubled 15-year-old teenage boy, Adam, who endures several tragedies in his life. First, his beloved grandmother, who lives with the family, passes away in her sleep (after predicting it several nights before, based on the suspicious cluster of crows near the house). A few days later, his mother is paralyzed in a car accident, the victim of a drunk-driving accident, leaving her confined to a wheelchair. And a week after that, Jamie "Moonie" Marks, a casual acquaintance at school who's an outcast loser, is murdered. The three events are enough to cause Adam to spiral down in the depths of depression. His situation isn't helped by an uncaring blue-collar father, and a belligerent, pothead older brother, neither of whom seem aware that Adam is perched at the edge of an emotional cliff.

Soon after investigating the place where Jamie's body was found, the boy's ghost haunts Adam and becomes a friend -- or so it seems. At different times in the story, the reader is convinced that the ghost may actually be trying to drive him insane, or could just be trying to have the living boy join him in the other world as a ghost. The dead boy is assumably gay, and the living boy is assumably straight, but their friendship is extraordinarily close, albeit more like brothers than lovers.

The plotline is made more complex by the appearance of Gracie, a slightly older, intellectual girl who was the one who originally found Jamie's dead body. Like Adam, Gracie can also sometimes see the spirits of the dead, but Adam isn't sure whether her warnings to stay away from the ghosts are honest, or whether Gracie has her own designs on the boy.

Set in a small contemporary town in Ohio, the story is an amazing picture of tragedy, interrupted with occasional moments of ironic humor, and though it's told entirely in first-person (from the living boy's point of view), the novel is rich in detail, thoroughly emotional, and yet rings true to the way a modern teenager thinks. Barzak's words are filled with beautiful images and metaphor, including the title phrase, which refers to the warning signs you can sometimes see just by watching flocks of crows. There's a little bit of sex in it, but it's very tasteful, almost chaste, as well as being a little off-center and emotional, yet at the same time, I found it very innocent and realistic.

Despite a gripping first half, I think the story meanders in the second, where Adam spends much of the book in isolation, running away (several times) from his uncaring family to spend more and more time with Jamie the ghost. We're never quite sure if the ghost is real or merely something conjured up from the depths of Adam's imagination; author Barzak comes up with several major riddles -- including the mystery of Jamie's disappearance and murder -- which have no satisfying payoff. And the months that go on while Adam becomes homeless are unrelentingly miserable, though readers may question how a young teenager could avoid being discovered for six months. And the details on Jamie's ghostlike presence seem almost deliberately ambiguous and vague, making the ending almost anti-climactic.

That having been said, this is a remarkable book, and Barzak's writing is sharp and cutting, and has an undeniable impact. Those looking for a Stephen King-esque horror story won't find it here; this is more a coming-of-age story about a neurotic teenager who eventually finds a way to cope with the cruelties of the world around him. Most of the horrors here are of the real-life variety -- poverty, indifference, insensitivity... and in their own way, wind up far more frightening than the creatures of the night.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YOU WON'T PUT THIS BOOK DOWN AND YOU WON'T FORGET IT, September 3, 2007

By	Richard Bowes (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"One for Sorrow" is the story of how fifteen year old Adam McCormack slips out of love with life in small town Ohio, how he runs away from home, finds friends, journeys with one to the Bridge of Death and what happens to him afterwards. The novel has been compared to "The Lovely Bones" and to "Catcher in the Rye". But it has none of the sentimentality of Bones: the teenage ghosts whom Adam encounters - a murdered boy and an abused girl who killed her parents - are real in all their sad and terrifying remnants of humanity. And it has none of the unearned cynicism of Catcher. Adam's working class childhood is ripped away from him and the insight he achieves as a result comes at a real cost. I'm in this book. And if you have ever, even for a day or an hour, felt that your soul had lost its light and your heart no longer beat with this world's, then you're in it too.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's all about location, October 6, 2007

By	N. M. Deniro - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was written by a local author. It was a total surprise to find out we actually had a local author around Youngstown, Ohio, so I was interested to read this and see what Christopher Barzak had to say about the place where I, too, grew up. I was taken with the imagery immediately, the way he captures the blend of Youngstown's urban decay along with the natural world of the surrounding countryside, the sunflowers are a particular real treat, as noted by another reviewer, I see. And the railroad tracks, I might add, the frightening feeling one gets out here on nights when you can go outside and feel as if you're the last soul left alive on earth, and all of the collisions in this book--between drunks, cars, souls, teenagers and adults, social workers and families, psychologists and kids who are too smart and suffer for it. I couldn't put this book down. At no time before in my life had I read a book that addressed this part of the country where I grew up. It was strange and breathtaking to see the foliage and surroundings, the mores and folkways and attitudes and beliefs of the people of this part of the rustbelt given voice. Adam is a rough but also tender narrator. His life is full of darkness and he's seeking the light we are all seeking. I didn't expect the ending to be what it was--somewhat happy, somewhat unresolved, the characters problems almost at the same place where they left off, but maybe with a little bit more hope than before--because usually books either tie everything up in a bow at the end or leave a ton of things unresolved. This felt like a realistic story for me, despite the ghosts and stone hearts that become soft and begin to beat. It reflected what I've seen of life so far, families struggling to stay together and managing to do it even if they get damaged in the process. I don't need or necessarily even want books to reflect the world I already know, but it was really nice to finally come across one that did.