Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - One for Sorrow

Boarding schools and murder mysteries are two of my favorite topics in YA books, so naturally I was interested in reading One for Sorrow. Both of those elements were executed well, and the rest of the story was good, but there was not much more to it.

The story is told from two POVs: Audrey’s, the new girl, and Ivy’s, the old girl. The beginning of the story where we get to know them was already a bit cliché: Audrey arrives at the boarding school which she enters without her dad because of their bad relationship and meets the headmistress. We are introduced to Ivy as well who shares the room with Audrey. Audrey quickly learns that an unsolved murder happened at the school and that she lives in the room that was once the room of the victim. This constellation with a new and an old girl that first don’t like each other is nothing new; I’ve recently read about the exact same constellation in The Ravens. I liked the execution here a bit more though since the old girl is not too mean to the new girl like it was the case with The Ravens.

Nevertheless, I found the plot around the podcast about Lola’s death interesting. It was especially interesting to see what effects it had on the students and how distrustful they became of each other. You probably could’ve guessed who the producer was, but I didn’t. The mystery itself was okay; I guessed from the beginning that

Mr Willis had something to do with it, while I was surprised that he wasn’t the murderer. It took our main characters a bit too long until they figured out that something was going on with him and Lola. I wonder though if Lola is actually dead or living in the caves that they found towards the end

. It annoyed me a bit how irrational Ivy became

about her teacher. It was firstly dangerous that they talked to him alone and secondly, I hated how she burned the picture and only evidence of him and Lola at the end, leading to the teacher not getting the punishment he deserves

. In general, towards the end, the story became a bit too melodramatic, and the ending was weird as well.

The writing style itself was okay; it was able to portray an interesting vibe together with the boarding school setting, even though it felt like I’ve seen this one before as well (a forest surrounding the school, an old chapel etc.). What annoyed be about the writing though were the many pop-cultural references, the try-hard teenage language and the random capslocks.

I also generally liked the characters, and it was so nice to see Audrey’s and Ivy’s development and how they slowly become friends. Just like with The Ravens though, I wish we got a romance between those two. Sadly, we’re instead presented with an insta love and a teacher crush. The teacher crush was obviously terrible and it’s implied that it’s two sided, but luckily, nothing more happens. Another thing about the romances that annoyed me was the fact that it was so obvious that

Theodore is Teddy but none of our characters notice this

Besides those aspects, I liked One for Sorrow and was entertained by it. There’s still much potential for the sequel, especially around the name giving Magpie Society, so I’ll hope that we will learn more about it and figure out the mystery around Lola.

Content Warnings

norwegianforestreader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Content Warnings

beth_reads's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

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