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beautifulpaxielreads's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Joanna Ruth Meyer's Echo North is a novel that had been on my TBR list for some time. Now that I've read it, I feel it is a novel of four quarters. The first quarter started off strong, sagged in the second, picked up again for a strong, compelling, and moving third quarter, and tailed off again in the finale.
In this review, I will expand on that last statement.
The first quarter of Echo North was by far the most enjoyable for me. The premise of the plot was strong, the chilly atmosphere vivid, and the worldbuilding compelling - and so imaginative and ingenious. I also loved Meyer's dismantling of the"ugliness/disability=evil" trope with the MC, Echo, who has a scarred face after a childhood animal attack. That's such an insidious, ableist trope that needs to die in a fire and I am so glad the author handled it the way she did.
The second quarter I found less compelling, and the way time seemed to pass at this point in the story (and really from here on in) felt odd and jarring. I also dislike the way theromance was handled, it felt everything happened way too fast to be plausible and made the climax less compelling and believable and less easy to suspend my disbelief. And just a side note, is anyone else sick of the "teen girl/young woman falls for a centuries-old man/immortal" trope? Because it made me uncomfortable this time around
As I said earlier, things picked up again in the third quarter, as the MC Echosets off on a long journey across icy landscapes to reclaim her lover from an evil, power-hungry witch queen . The addition of a new character called Ivan who accompanies Echo for the majority of her journey added an interesting dynamic to the story. This character's backstory - which I won't spoil here - I found surprisingly moving.
Unfortunately, while the finale was well-written and kept me turning the pages, I found it less and less believable, thanks to the issues I had with the second quarter. It was so hard to imagineEcho being prepared to put everything on the line - including her own life - for a young (okay, centuries-old) man she'd known for barely a year. . I did think the twist that was revealed was done reasonably well despite the issues I had with it(again, I think writing about the fluidity of time can be really tricky to get right, and I don't know if Meyer quite pulled it off here).
Overall, this was a novel that had a lot of promise and very strong, imaginative writing, unfortunately, I feel like it had too many issues for me to be able to give it a full five stars.
In this review, I will expand on that last statement.
The first quarter of Echo North was by far the most enjoyable for me. The premise of the plot was strong, the chilly atmosphere vivid, and the worldbuilding compelling - and so imaginative and ingenious. I also loved Meyer's dismantling of the
The second quarter I found less compelling, and the way time seemed to pass at this point in the story (and really from here on in) felt odd and jarring. I also dislike the way the
As I said earlier, things picked up again in the third quarter, as the MC Echo
Unfortunately, while the finale was well-written and kept me turning the pages, I found it less and less believable, thanks to the issues I had with the second quarter. It was so hard to imagine
Overall, this was a novel that had a lot of promise and very strong, imaginative writing, unfortunately, I feel like it had too many issues for me to be able to give it a full five stars.
Graphic: Death of parent, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Ableism, and Blood
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Animal death, Child abuse, and Child death
Minor: Pregnancy
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