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A review by slrtwps
One for Sorrow by Amy McCulloch, Zoe Sugg
3.0
I didn't realise the similarities between this book and Truly Devious—mysteries set in boarding schools that carry out over multiple books—until I started reading it so it was a funny coincidence that I picked this one up while I was struggling through TD. I also wasn't aware that this was going to be a series and I wouldn't have any answers by the end of the book, and I didn't love that.
I picked this up because I still occasionally watch Zoe on YouTube and was curious if I would like this one better than the Girl Online series. I did, but not as much as I'd hoped I might. One for Sorrow was easy to read and got me back into reading, compared to Truly Devious which only contributed to my slump, but the further into the book I got, the less I was enjoying it.
Things that bothered me:
→ Minor things like dialogue and word choices. The first page has the police all "Snap-facing or Insta-booking" but they know what a boomerang is. The use of the word "trackies" felt weird and didn't sound right in the context it was used.
→ They aren't allowed phones during the school week but freely admit to having all heard the podcast in which they would have needed phones to do so, and no one seems to notice or care.
→ The ridiculous confrontations that were almost always the result of Ivy jumping to conclusions and blaming someone without any proof.
→ The Mr Willis/Lola thing was obvious from chapter 19 (actually earlier but I didn't make a note of it until then) and it was so incredibly frustrating to read chapters 41-43 where they're trying to figure out who the older guy is, as if he hadn't just practically outed himself by asking to speak to Clover before the podcast where she talks about the older guy.
→ A teacher locked a student in her room and no one questioned it? I don't know if it would necessarily be illegal but it feels like that shouldn't be allowed.
→ The podcast transcripts weren't long enough for more than a few minutes of content and they rarely contained anything of substance. The one with an interview with Lola's brother is just a paragraph of him talking about who she was and then it's over. There was also no need to drag the whole thing out over multiple podcasts, especially when she thinks she knows who did it.
→ Seriously, Ivy jumping to conclusions drove me nuts and the fights and confrontations between these girls were absurd.
→ The friendship between Audrey and Ivy was platonic instalove. They hate each other for over half of the book, and then in one page and a few paragraphs they are best friends.
→ I didn't understand the big deal in Teddy texting them both (how was it "playing two girls off against each other"?) or why Audrey expected Ivy to want to "stab out her eye with a stiletto heel" for texting a guy she didn't know Ivy had a history with. The whole plan to set him up and blackmail him was silly.
→ So many conveniences to the discoveries. Clover just happened to leave sheet music (the one thing that could implicate her) in the yearbook she talked about in the podcast? A teacher slamming the door to lock a student in her room somehow magically dislodges a secret hidey-hole for Audrey to find?
→ In chapter 36 Audrey mispronounces Samhain but Araminta says it in chapter 28 when reminding them of the party, I don't recall any time she would have seen it written down in order to mispronounce it.
→ The "resolution" with Mr Willis made no sense. They confront him with a blurry photo and he agrees to leave the school. She then burns the photo as if that isn't the only thing they have to hold over him and make sure he actually goes. They just took his word that 1) he had an alibi and 2) he would actually leave the school. I didn't understand her confidence in the idea that he was just going to leave based on that and that he wouldn't teach anywhere else. I didn't understand why they were okay with letting a predator go, or why she burned the photo even if all of that was true. I wouldn't be surprised if he's back in some capacity in the next book(s) because it was all too easy.
→ The pacing was inconsistent, the story dragging at times and then everything happening all at once in the final two or three chapters.
→ The end was abrupt, ending in the middle of a scene. I didn't like the full-book-cut-into-parts-for-publishing feeling of Truly Devious and I didn't like it here either.
***END SPOILERS***
After saying all of that, I don't think it's necessarily a bad book and I probably would have liked it way more if I had read it when I was younger when certain things didn't bother me as they do now. I think it's a decent book for its audience, but it had the potential to be better. It kept me interested enough to finish it and I'll probably read the next one when it's out (I really wish I'd known it was going to be a series so I could have waited until they were all out to read them, I hate having to wait).
Review Date: November 18, 2020
I picked this up because I still occasionally watch Zoe on YouTube and was curious if I would like this one better than the Girl Online series. I did, but not as much as I'd hoped I might. One for Sorrow was easy to read and got me back into reading, compared to Truly Devious which only contributed to my slump, but the further into the book I got, the less I was enjoying it.
Things that bothered me:
→ Minor things like dialogue and word choices. The first page has the police all "Snap-facing or Insta-booking" but they know what a boomerang is. The use of the word "trackies" felt weird and didn't sound right in the context it was used.
→ They aren't allowed phones during the school week but freely admit to having all heard the podcast in which they would have needed phones to do so, and no one seems to notice or care.
→ The ridiculous confrontations that were almost always the result of Ivy jumping to conclusions and blaming someone without any proof.
Spoiler
***SPOILERS***→ The Mr Willis/Lola thing was obvious from chapter 19 (actually earlier but I didn't make a note of it until then) and it was so incredibly frustrating to read chapters 41-43 where they're trying to figure out who the older guy is, as if he hadn't just practically outed himself by asking to speak to Clover before the podcast where she talks about the older guy.
→ A teacher locked a student in her room and no one questioned it? I don't know if it would necessarily be illegal but it feels like that shouldn't be allowed.
→ The podcast transcripts weren't long enough for more than a few minutes of content and they rarely contained anything of substance. The one with an interview with Lola's brother is just a paragraph of him talking about who she was and then it's over. There was also no need to drag the whole thing out over multiple podcasts, especially when she thinks she knows who did it.
→ Seriously, Ivy jumping to conclusions drove me nuts and the fights and confrontations between these girls were absurd.
→ The friendship between Audrey and Ivy was platonic instalove. They hate each other for over half of the book, and then in one page and a few paragraphs they are best friends.
→ I didn't understand the big deal in Teddy texting them both (how was it "playing two girls off against each other"?) or why Audrey expected Ivy to want to "stab out her eye with a stiletto heel" for texting a guy she didn't know Ivy had a history with. The whole plan to set him up and blackmail him was silly.
→ So many conveniences to the discoveries. Clover just happened to leave sheet music (the one thing that could implicate her) in the yearbook she talked about in the podcast? A teacher slamming the door to lock a student in her room somehow magically dislodges a secret hidey-hole for Audrey to find?
→ In chapter 36 Audrey mispronounces Samhain but Araminta says it in chapter 28 when reminding them of the party, I don't recall any time she would have seen it written down in order to mispronounce it.
→ The "resolution" with Mr Willis made no sense. They confront him with a blurry photo and he agrees to leave the school. She then burns the photo as if that isn't the only thing they have to hold over him and make sure he actually goes. They just took his word that 1) he had an alibi and 2) he would actually leave the school. I didn't understand her confidence in the idea that he was just going to leave based on that and that he wouldn't teach anywhere else. I didn't understand why they were okay with letting a predator go, or why she burned the photo even if all of that was true. I wouldn't be surprised if he's back in some capacity in the next book(s) because it was all too easy.
→ The pacing was inconsistent, the story dragging at times and then everything happening all at once in the final two or three chapters.
→ The end was abrupt, ending in the middle of a scene. I didn't like the full-book-cut-into-parts-for-publishing feeling of Truly Devious and I didn't like it here either.
***END SPOILERS***
After saying all of that, I don't think it's necessarily a bad book and I probably would have liked it way more if I had read it when I was younger when certain things didn't bother me as they do now. I think it's a decent book for its audience, but it had the potential to be better. It kept me interested enough to finish it and I'll probably read the next one when it's out (I really wish I'd known it was going to be a series so I could have waited until they were all out to read them, I hate having to wait).
Review Date: November 18, 2020