Book Review – One for Sorrow by Amy McCulloch and Zoe Sugg
One For Sorrow by Amy McCulloch and Zoe Sugg (The Magpie Society #1)
Mystery and Thrillers | Young Adult | 329 pages
Published on 29 October 2020 by Penguin
Synopsis
Illumen Hall is an elite boarding school. Tragedy strikes when the body of a student is discovered at their exclusive summer party – on her back is an elaborate tattoo of a magpie.
When new girl Audrey arrives the following term, running from her own secrets back home in America, she is thrown into solving the case. Despite her best efforts to avoid any drama, her new roommate Ivy was close to the murdered girl, and the two of them can’t help but get pulled in.
The two can’t stand each other, but as they are drawn deeper into the mystery of this strange and terrible murder, they will discover that something dangerous is at the heart of their superficially perfect school.
Welcome to The Magpie Society.
My rating:
Review of One For Sorrow by Amy McCulloch and Zoe Sugg
This is a tricky one for me. I like the concept a lot, but the characters were hard to connect with at first for me – in fact, I only really started racing through it once the two leads became friends. Audrey is just off-puttingly American, and Ivy is too uptight. Once they both relax a bit it’s much better though.
The other reason I only gave it three stars is that there is zero resolution in this book. The only thing we find out is who Vee is, which happens maybe halfway through? So the ending is really unsatisfying and doesn’t feel like the end at all. There’s really no need to end there other than to drag it out to a second book. Given this isn’t that long, I’d have tried to make this one book not a series.
The writing is fairly engaging, especially when the mystery solving really kicks off, and it’s a fun and fairly easy read. I will probably pick up book 2 still, as I need answers!
Buy One For Sorrow by Amy McCulloch and Zoe Sugg from Waterstones or Blackwells.
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2 Comments
Becky
I *think* I may have stole a copy of this from Moon?? 🤔 I’m intrigued to read and try to figure out how much Zoe Sugg actually wrote or whether it was mostly Amy McCulloch…
Booksandlemonsquash
I think they did alternate viewpoints tbf