Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

13 reviews

aromarrie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“When I smile, you don’t have to be scared of me, okay?” 

if there was a top three category of books i cherish with my whole life, this one is definitely it. 

i loved nick & sam’s pov’s so much the first time and fell back in love with it again in this reread. and that bittersweet feeling pervaded throughout the whole story as always!! especially in all of sam’s terror disguised with wise cracks + nick’s awe of the mountains that veered into possessive territory. 

absolutely wicked atmosphere, with so much striking detail, it made the horror hit harder (that and the love story that tangled in between). the vivid details would be a hit or miss for some, all of its long monologues and such, but i adored it. 

i’ve always loved horror legends and sam’s childhood fascination with it made the events that unfolded feel even more surreal. 

this story has stuck with me since 2021, and the numb feeling i felt at the ending was as strong as ever in 2024 and i feel relieved. because it confirmed how much nick & sam’s story has still stuck with me, that i could relive that first moment of grief with them :’) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content

jane_moriarty's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicide and Self harm

torismazarine's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

liltakeawaygirl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Suicide

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Child death, Alcohol, Child abuse, and Sexual content

cosmicpanda's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Medical content, Murder, Suicide attempt, Ableism, Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Gore

svnsn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

1.75

I did not enjoy this book. I feel like it dragged on for ages with some parts feeling endless and/or redundant, without adding anything to the story really,
I do wonder though, if the German edition, which I read, was somehow dragged out much longer than the english one for example - it has about 300 pages more I think.

The story jumps from here to there, it feels like it's lacking structure.
The first chapter was honestly the only time I was spooked, after that it was all sort of whatever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Death

Minor: Child death

shadowspinner's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Addiction and Violence

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, and Car accident

theremightbecupcakes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Mental illness, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Death, and Murder

marleens's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

3.5

The opening paragraph creeped me out so much I had to stop reading and look around and breathe. That promised a lot for the rest of the book, but for me it didn’t quite live up to that promise. The horror elements of most of the book were nothing like that first paragraph, and I wonder if my expectations and experience would have been different without that beginning, because I think for a long time I was very much waiting to get back to that specific horror element. That being said, there were plenty of other good creepy moments along the way, and I liked the exploration of obsession and possession, and the things we do (or pretend not to see) for love.
I like Olde Heuvelt’s writing style, but in this book it was a bit odd. Very stream of consciousness sometimes, and a strange mixture of first and second person, often switching mid-sentence. It made sense, because you could definitely feel the characters losing their grip on reality, but it did make it hard to read sometimes. Also, I think it was a bit longer than it needed to be. But I liked our main POVs and the weirdness did often work for me. 
Still, that brilliant creepy opening paragraph might have been the best part for me…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident, Alcohol, and Self harm

Minor: Child death

falchionm's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Stalking, Gore, Homophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Minor: Child abuse