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A review by entazis
Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I had to take few days to calm a bit to write this down. I'm still not okay. Love this book.
Echo is a story about relationship that gets tested when Nick gets into a freakish mountain climbing accident that ends with heavy facial disfigurement. His young boyfriend, Sam, can't deal with the fact that his boyfriend's face is not perfect anymore, but soon, both will learn that scars aren't the only thing that Nick got from the mountain. It's something way worse he brought back with him.
It's the mountain itself.
This book is genuinely creepy. I can't remember when was the last time that the horror book managed to freak me out, but this one managed with some great scares and disturbing vivid imagery. The novel is very visual with evocative descriptions of beautiful landscapes but also creepy happenings and it leans heavy into very disorienting descriptions, going hard with nightmare-filled moments of pure fear, discomfort, vertigo and despair. The narrators are also very reverent towards mountains, shaping them into something bigger then life.
I loved the characters, how imperfect they are and human, and loved the fact that voices and style narrations were so distinctive. I actually managed to like Sam a bit more, even though in the beginning he was written to be this unlikable immature asshole. I'm not going to go into details because of the spoilers, but between the two, I just couldn't deal with the way Nick sometimes talked and behaved, even before the accident. He's way to pretentious for me, also the voice actor didn't help (he did amazing job, don't get me wrong, but his performance definitely painted Nick to be this pretentious egotistical guy who loves only himself and mountains he climbs).
The story was also very suspenseful, with tension constantly brewing and getting out of hand. For a book 400 pages long (some 19 hours of listening time) it could've easily be redundant and blown out of proportion, but it wasn't.
While I'm not the biggest fan of the first person narration, this was masterfully written and I enjoyed every minute of it. There's something in the way when it's presented as a form of a manuscript and notes that make it more believable and it helped that Nick and Sam had distinctive writing styles. Also, loved all of the references at the gothic literature. I have a feeling this was a love letter to all of the book mentioned in the novel.
In conclusion, I love this book. It's perfect. And the audiobook narrators: David Wayman, Greg Lockett and Lauryn Allman did such a great jobs it was such a joy to listen to this book.
Echo is a story about relationship that gets tested when Nick gets into a freakish mountain climbing accident that ends with heavy facial disfigurement. His young boyfriend, Sam, can't deal with the fact that his boyfriend's face is not perfect anymore, but soon, both will learn that scars aren't the only thing that Nick got from the mountain. It's something way worse he brought back with him.
It's the mountain itself.
This book is genuinely creepy. I can't remember when was the last time that the horror book managed to freak me out, but this one managed with some great scares and disturbing vivid imagery. The novel is very visual with evocative descriptions of beautiful landscapes but also creepy happenings and it leans heavy into very disorienting descriptions, going hard with nightmare-filled moments of pure fear, discomfort, vertigo and despair. The narrators are also very reverent towards mountains, shaping them into something bigger then life.
I loved the characters, how imperfect they are and human, and loved the fact that voices and style narrations were so distinctive. I actually managed to like Sam a bit more, even though in the beginning he was written to be this unlikable immature asshole. I'm not going to go into details because of the spoilers, but between the two, I just couldn't deal with the way Nick sometimes talked and behaved, even before the accident. He's way to pretentious for me, also the voice actor didn't help (he did amazing job, don't get me wrong, but his performance definitely painted Nick to be this pretentious egotistical guy who loves only himself and mountains he climbs).
The story was also very suspenseful, with tension constantly brewing and getting out of hand. For a book 400 pages long (some 19 hours of listening time) it could've easily be redundant and blown out of proportion, but it wasn't.
While I'm not the biggest fan of the first person narration, this was masterfully written and I enjoyed every minute of it. There's something in the way when it's presented as a form of a manuscript and notes that make it more believable and it helped that Nick and Sam had distinctive writing styles. Also, loved all of the references at the gothic literature. I have a feeling this was a love letter to all of the book mentioned in the novel.
In conclusion, I love this book. It's perfect. And the audiobook narrators: David Wayman, Greg Lockett and Lauryn Allman did such a great jobs it was such a joy to listen to this book.