Six of Sorrow

[cornerofmadness]

Six of Sorrow by Amanda Linsmeier

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was one of my Netgalley YA horror arcs and while I did have a few reservations I enjoyed this one a lot. Content Warning: alcoholic parents, underaged drinking, smoking, body horror.

Let me start with one of the reservations as it sets the stage Isabeau (Iz) is one of six girls in Sorrow (a small island off the coast of Louisiana) named for a local witch a few hundred years back, and these six girls are all turning sixteen on the same night (where we drop into the action). Only something happened that broke them apart three years ago leaving Iz with only Reuel still talking to her.

As you might expect there is plenty of angst about this that goes on for a big chunk of the book. It gets a bit overwhelming and slows the action but not terribly slow. Iz and Reuel are still bffs celebrating in Sorrow's cemetery (because a) they're both the tortured artists types Iz is graphic art and Reuel a poet) b) the whole town has a Sorrow ritual on this day as well) Afterward, they go home to Reuel's for a while before Iz goes home to her alcoholic mother (This is something that did work for me, how Iz is torn by her feelings of having a functional alcoholic as a mother. I've seen a lot of that) Reuel is gone by morning.

This reunites the remaining five girls and without being terribly spoilery as they each go missing and return 'wrong' the sense of dread increases throughout the book. I thought that was handled well. The girls come back together almost too easily (that is my other reservation, there are some emotional beats that felt off. This was one of them) and together they need to uncover what is happening to them, what their mother's did that they're being weird about and how does this all relate to Sorrow.

I did figure that out pretty early on but I still enjoyed watching Iz and her friends solving the mystery. The end action worked well for me. This is a very female forward book, almost a role reversal to early action/horror when the few guys in it are only there as boyfriend props (except Bridger who has a small role to play). I didn't mind this at all. I will say another place I felt this stumbled with the emotional beats is Iz figuring out her feelings which felt a little out of nowhere (with some back tracking to be sure we saw the clues which yes I did but the whole couple thing felt shoehorned in and stretched out the ending a bit much.

That aside, I liked Iz and her friends and would recommend this. One thing I didn't enjoy was how much Iz smoked especially in the light of them not having much money. Health concerns aside, have you seen the cost of cigarettes?



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