One for Sorrow
Christopher Barzak

Contrary to popular belief, mothers can easily miss early warning signs of problems concerning their children.

It's hard to define a book such as this. There's this ordinary, unassuming, not-popular boy, Adam McCormick who has a bully for a brother and bickering parents in the house. There's a girl who calls herself Igneous Girl in Ohio online. There's a ghost in it yes, but it doesn't haunt you the way Hollywood portrays what they should be. The ghost is that of Jamie Marks, a boy found murdered and hastily buried near the old train tracks and discovered by Gracie Highsmith while searching for rocks to add to her collection. Adam is Jamie's seatmate in computer class but they're not exactly friends. After Jamie's death, their worlds collide like those tiny, little particles attracted to and repelled by each other under a microscope.

Surprisingly though it doesn't turn out to be a hunt for the killer. Instead, Barzak manipulates the reader inwardly; creates tension and affinity between Adam and Gracie, turning the ghostly Jamie into Adam's sometimes tangible friend from the afterlife. But is he really a friend? Or will he pull Adam with him in limbo as well?

There is something about coming-of-age stories that both pulls and pushes you away from the memories of long ago, when you yourself were in the throes of adolescence and nothing you say or do matters that much to people around you. Rebellious acts of long ago are remembered with clarity and you find yourself pausing for a moment from the book and taking deep breaths to assure yourself you're in the now and, unfortunately or otherwise, not in the past. Such is the power of this book, the voice it uses clearly evokes those times of our (lost) adolescence so we feel all the more Adam's conflicted life and Gracie's rebellious streak. Then we read on, waiting for that moment when the two rise above the challenges and yet, dread fills us up with every page turned.

And lest you think it simply evokes adolescence in HD, hahaha, it doesn't end there. There's a ghost needing to cross over, whether or not you believe in that idea, because by this time you have to believe lest Adam suffers all the more for it. Oops, is that a spoiler? Sorry, sorry!!! Then again this is Adam's story.

And while I already featured one of my favorite passages from the book in my Weekly Geek #17 Quote #1 I'll share this another line, taken from Adam's list of Things I Know About the Dead and Other Observations:

When you run a lot, you don't get into trouble because you're always in motion. And if you're fast enough, when you do fuck up, no one can catch you.

Such a touching story I urge you all to read this. Even if you were a bully way, way back like Adam's brother.

I won this book from Nymeth's anniversary giveaway. Can I just say that she reads and posts about really lovely books and again I have to thank her not just for my copy of this but of putting out good books out there for everyone to read. I probably would not have noticed this one if she never mentioned it in her anniversary post. So thank you again dear!

Other interesting point of view:

Things Mean A Lot