Barzak, Christopher: One for Sorrow
One for Sorrow
Writer: Christopher Barzak
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 306
I've got John Scalzi to thank for this book. Not that he put it in my hands in person or anything, but he runs a feature on his blog called "The Big Idea" where he asks other authors to talk about their work. And Scalzi's smart too: he doesn't rely on name recognition either: HE POSTS BOOK COVERS.
Now look at that book cover and imagine it's bigger. It's beautiful. How can it NOT capture my attention?
So I picked it up and let it waste away on my shelves for a while (cause that's what I do), and then remembered it while I was eyeing the various mountain ranges of books on my floor, looking for October-appropriate books to read. A love story about a boy falling in love with the ghost of another boy? Score.
The premise: it's more than a love story about a boy falling in love with the ghost of another boy. It's a love story about life itself: Adam's shocked by the murder of Jamie, a classmate he barely knew but wished he knew better, and that murder brings Adam all kinds of lessons in life: in love (with the girl who found Jamie's body), in family (let's say things are not well on the home front), and of course, death. It isn't long before Jamie seeks Adam out, clinging to every last bit of life possible. But the more Adam tries to help, the more he loses himself, and it's not going to be long before he too becomes a ghost.
Spoilers to follow.
So I'll get one thing out of the way: if I hadn't already known this book was written by a guy? I would've wondered. I mean REALLY wondered.
Sometimes the details didn't quite click for me. Graphic examples to follow: Adam going down on Gracie and staying down until she orgasms. He doesn't know it happens until he notices the tension leak out of her and her breathing change, and let me just say: he should've known when it happened, or little Gracie was faking it.
And then there's the whole dynamic between Jamie and Adam. When Adam first sees Jamie, the ghost is nude (yet tangible) and Jamie orders him into the hole Jamie was buried in and demands Adam get naked. Adam complies without a single protest, and when Jamie crawls into the hole with Adam to cling to him, there's no real sense of discomfort. I might've been told, because through out the book, any time Jamie touches Adam we're told it didn't make Adam shudder the way it used to, but you know what? I don't remember Adam having an adverse reaction to begin with.
One of the things I really liked about this premise was the fact it was a boy/ghost-boy love story. That's just got beautiful potential, so I was really looking forward to seeing how it played out. Pre-death, things seemed to click: Jamie's attention paid to Adam, and Adam's way of responding to Jamie. Not awkward, but not comfortable, but two boys trying to overcome their own insecurities to at least broach friendship (and in Jamie's case, clearly more). I don't mind at all the idea of Adam being bi-sexual or confused about his sexuality or gay for that matter. But all through the book, we just got this whole non-reaction out of Adam when it came to Jamie, and all the time, I kept thinking this was something a woman would write, a woman who didn't stop to think just what it might mean for a teenage boy to deal with a ghost who is clearly, if anything, very physical with his affections (cuddling and sharing a bed is physical, even if there's no kissing or intimate touching involved).
I mean, how would a teenage boy react? How has this kid been raised? Clearly, he's in a house full of manly men (his father, who's a verbal abuser, and his brother, who's a druggie) in a small town in Ohio. What kind of stigmas are attached to homosexuality there, and how does Adam feel about them. How does he feel about the pure physicality of Jamie's ghost: the nudity, the clinging. I mean, if a boy, let alone a ghost boy, tells you to get naked, are you? Maybe if you're in shock, but at some point, the naked ghost boy getting into a dirt hole with the naked alive boy and cuddling him has GOT to illicit a reaction. Maybe not then, but maybe after when the shock wears off. SOMETIME. I wanted Adam to acknowledge how he felt about Jamie, not just as a ghost to keep around, but as something more, something Jamie obviously wanted, and something that by the end, Adam clearly doesn't mind giving.
The kiss, in the church? That was beautiful. I just wish there was a better pay-off for it.
But what do I know? Maybe Adam's beyond caring (highly possible), or maybe Adam's just so comfortable with his body and sexuality that Jamie's need for physical closeness just doesn't faze him. After all, the author IS a man, so surely, he would know how a teenage boy might react in such a situation.
I'm ragging on this, and I promise you, it's really a little thing. If anything, it was the number one problem I had with a book that I couldn't put down and really enjoyed reading for so many reasons, which I'll get to.
But I have to tell you the number two problem I had: we never learn who murdered Jamie, or why, or how, for that matter. Now I'll give the author this: that's life. There are some things we'll NEVER know and never will. And it makes sense that Jamie would've burned that as his first memory, but I was disappointed by the end, because I wanted more than I got, even if I wasn't meant to have all the answers. And there was a part of me that kept wondering if maybe it was ANDY, Adam's brother, who was the murderer all along. :)
Now, let's talk about the good: I was fascinated by how Barzak created these characters and home-life for Adam so that by the end of the book, I didn't know where the story was going and I didn't even know what I wanted Adam to do. There were points in the book that I felt it probably WAS in Adam's best interests to lay down and die. Sure as hell hated his family for most of the book and I wanted Adam to turn them into the social worker, but family's complicated, and if there's one thing that Barzak gets perfect in this book, it's the resolution to Adam's trouble at home. I loved how Lucy finally made a pass at Adam's dad (something I saw coming from the moment the woman stepped into their lives), and how Adam's dad, the completely and total asshole that he was through-out the entire book, pushes Lucy back and says no, he's married. That was awesome. And I loved how Adam's mom had to throw him out of the house anyway so that she could learn to get control again, so she could learn how to lead the family again, so she could learn to be happy. That was fantastic, and such a realistic touch.
So despite not learning why and how Jamie died, the ending is solid. I really liked how Adam was able to reconnect with Gracie after all that'd happened. Another lovely touch.
And what about all the parts before the end? Barzak does a good job showing us Adam's downward spiral, and the supernatural details are nice, like Adam projecting out of his body, the Dead Space, the talking shadows and how those shadows could reveal secrets, though while the shadows were my favorite, I did wonder how Adam suddenly just got the ability, though I suspect it has something to do with the first time he went through the Dead Space. The idea that it's words that can give a ghost its physical form was also fascinating, and how appropriate that Adam was collecting, in his own way, words.
My Rating
Must Have: despite my particular issues, I really loved this book and plan on getting Barzak's next novel, which comes out November of this year (I can't wait). The writing is solid, the details lovely, and the characterization and portrayal of family life mostly very honest. This book may remind readers of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, but the two stories are very different: Barzak has a rather complex love story with a boy, a girl, a ghost, life, and death, all wrapped into one package of a book. The ending is solid, good, hopeful in its own way, but by no means does Barzak tidy up this story and wrap it with a pretty bow. It's well worth the read, especially if you can't resist ghost stories.
Next up:
The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong