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shhchar's review against another edition
2.0
Very interesting plot, it just wasn't delivered well enough. My copy had a lot of spelling errors, which took me out of the story as soon as I noticed them. (It wasn't an ARC.) The dialogue is also written a funky way without quotation marks and I found that to work well in favor of the eerie tone of the story. However, I skimmed the last 50-pages or so because I felt unsatisfied with the plot and just wanted to be onto the next.
rachelakelso's review against another edition
4.0
Letitia Trent and I met a decade or so ago and bonded over weird, rural Oklahoma stuff, so when I found out she had written a book with this setting and it was in the genre of my heart (gothic) I snapped it up. I grew up between two haunted lakes (Oklahoma is full of them,) one covering a town and the other settled land, and they filled our rural farm with spooky, weird smelling fog. A pastor killed his wife and then drove his car into one of them a few years back. This novel was consequently very real to me, the strange small town of Heartshorne like many I have visited. I can't remember the last time I read something and so often thought, "Ahh, I know that feeling, that smell, that memory."
I love when poets write prose, there is a magical disregard for the rigid and formulaic structure in most novels that I find invigorating, inspiring, and exciting to read. It feels like growth in a medium where things don't really change that much.
I love when poets write prose, there is a magical disregard for the rigid and formulaic structure in most novels that I find invigorating, inspiring, and exciting to read. It feels like growth in a medium where things don't really change that much.
megapolisomancy's review against another edition
3.0
A Weird Place novel about the titular lake, an engineered body of water which drowned an earlier iteration of Heartshorne, Oklahoma and has continued to have a bad reputation ever since. I was expecting a Charles L. Grant-esque work of quiet horror, but this was more of a Southern-gothic-by-way-of-the-Midwest focusing on family trauma and small-town secrets, with splashes of regular old horror intruding to allow Trent to meditate on the differences between random and “redemptive” violence.
Our protagonist Emily Collins, living a soulless and repetitious life in Ohio, finds herself newly single at 30. We’re told at first that this relationship had lasted five years and began when she was in college, which never really added up with the other stories we get about her life, but later we’re told the relationship lasted ten years. This isn’t a slippery, unreliable narrative, though, but just the most glaring of the sloppy mistakes that surface throughout this work, which also includes an astonishing number of typos. As a material artifact, this book is quite visually striking, but it seems the publisher might have spent their proofreading budget on the art department. This is too bad, because Trent (who I believe has mostly published poetry prior to this) has a beautiful way with language, even if the choice to omit quotation marks seems like a somewhat self-conscious way to assert this book’s literary (as opposed to genre) bona fides.
Emily, at any rate, is rather emotionally stunted/needy after a chaotic childhood spent unmoored and constantly moving, due to some unspecified trauma her single mother suffered during her own chaotic childhood in Heartshorne. When her great aunt dies and leaves her a house in Heartshorne, she decides this is her chance to figure out what happened to drive her family out of the town, and to make a more meaningful home/community for herself. Emily is the central POV through the book, but in the first section she is interspersed with chapters centered on various locals coming under the influence of the lake, in the second with flashbacks to her mother’s childhood, and in the third with Levi Richardson, the closeted local pastor who tries to bring Emily into his flock. Of those counterpoints, the first two were the weakest parts of the book - around halfway through I was sick of reading about random characters stabbing, slashing, or crushing other random characters, and the mother’s storyline went exactly where I didn’t want it to. Levi’s, on the other hand, worked because he was an actually developed character, and helped to tie in the wonderful climax of the novel.
This novel is an interesting counterpoint to Kiernan’s _The Red Tree_ (a newly-single woman relocates to the countryside and muses on loneliness and isolation while beset by long-running local weirdnesses) , and while I liked the voice of this one more, I think the Kiernan might stick with me longer - I can’t say why, exactly (maybe the metafictive/unreliable aspects of _The Red Tree_?), because I did enjoy this book, but that's my gut feeling.
Our protagonist Emily Collins, living a soulless and repetitious life in Ohio, finds herself newly single at 30. We’re told at first that this relationship had lasted five years and began when she was in college, which never really added up with the other stories we get about her life, but later we’re told the relationship lasted ten years. This isn’t a slippery, unreliable narrative, though, but just the most glaring of the sloppy mistakes that surface throughout this work, which also includes an astonishing number of typos. As a material artifact, this book is quite visually striking, but it seems the publisher might have spent their proofreading budget on the art department. This is too bad, because Trent (who I believe has mostly published poetry prior to this) has a beautiful way with language, even if the choice to omit quotation marks seems like a somewhat self-conscious way to assert this book’s literary (as opposed to genre) bona fides.
Emily, at any rate, is rather emotionally stunted/needy after a chaotic childhood spent unmoored and constantly moving, due to some unspecified trauma her single mother suffered during her own chaotic childhood in Heartshorne. When her great aunt dies and leaves her a house in Heartshorne, she decides this is her chance to figure out what happened to drive her family out of the town, and to make a more meaningful home/community for herself. Emily is the central POV through the book, but in the first section she is interspersed with chapters centered on various locals coming under the influence of the lake, in the second with flashbacks to her mother’s childhood, and in the third with Levi Richardson, the closeted local pastor who tries to bring Emily into his flock. Of those counterpoints, the first two were the weakest parts of the book - around halfway through I was sick of reading about random characters stabbing, slashing, or crushing other random characters, and the mother’s storyline went exactly where I didn’t want it to. Levi’s, on the other hand, worked because he was an actually developed character, and helped to tie in the wonderful climax of the novel.
This novel is an interesting counterpoint to Kiernan’s _The Red Tree_ (a newly-single woman relocates to the countryside and muses on loneliness and isolation while beset by long-running local weirdnesses) , and while I liked the voice of this one more, I think the Kiernan might stick with me longer - I can’t say why, exactly (maybe the metafictive/unreliable aspects of _The Red Tree_?), because I did enjoy this book, but that's my gut feeling.
missjackieoh's review against another edition
5.0
I received an ARC of Eco Lake by Letitia Trent through Goodreads giveaways. This book was both spooky and intriguing. A family with a dark secret untold for 40 years, a town that wholeheartedly believes in 'an eye for an eye', a series of gruesome murders that may or may not be caused by the uber creepy Echo Lake and its mysterious green fog.
I could not put this book down! Throughout the whole thing I was desperately intrigued and needed to know the whole secret that the Collins family desperately tried to hide. All in all this was a very enjoyable book. I have to say that the conclusion, I felt, was just a tad bit anticlimactic when compared with the rest of the book. However that in no way took away from the overall feeling of this novel. Definitely recommend it to all my friends!
I could not put this book down! Throughout the whole thing I was desperately intrigued and needed to know the whole secret that the Collins family desperately tried to hide. All in all this was a very enjoyable book. I have to say that the conclusion, I felt, was just a tad bit anticlimactic when compared with the rest of the book. However that in no way took away from the overall feeling of this novel. Definitely recommend it to all my friends!
etchlings's review against another edition
3.0
This could have been so much better than it was. Plot spacing and execution didn't quite live up to the potential of the horrific ideas. But so much potential!
Loooove the character developments and the uncanny ideas about the lake. The book took way too long to get to anything thick though, and so wrapped up too quickly and without exploring those excellent ideas deeply enough for my taste. Ended up feeling like the story battled to believe itself both horror and mystery without the two making peace.
Loooove the character developments and the uncanny ideas about the lake. The book took way too long to get to anything thick though, and so wrapped up too quickly and without exploring those excellent ideas deeply enough for my taste. Ended up feeling like the story battled to believe itself both horror and mystery without the two making peace.
8little_paws's review against another edition
4.0
Really good horror novel set in rural Oklahoma, with an interesting main character, Emily. The story is also about the issues between Emily and her mother and I thought those scenes were excellent too. There are a lot of editing problems unfortunately, and this book deserved better than that. Despite that, if you're looking for a book to read by a small press, don't miss this one.
expendablemudge's review
4.0
Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Thirty-something Emily Collins inherits her recently murdered aunt's house, deciding to move to Heartshorne, Oklahoma, to claim it and confront her family's dark past after her dead mother begins speaking to her in dreams, propelling this gothic, neo-noir thriller toward terrifying revelations of murderous small-town justice when a horrible community secret is revealed through the supernatural pull of Echo Lake.
My Review: is an imprint of the newish press,Curbside Splendor. All part of a Chicago blooming of publishing talent, laden with the starter jobs that publishers and editors need so much.
Here's the usual rub: Amateurs are the decision makers and frequently they don't have mentors or cicerones. And now here this: To my melting happiness, [ECHO LAKE] has trimmed these ordinary issues far, far down and has risen to higher levels than any other first-time author could reasonably ask for.
The plot is a juicy one; the characters feel more vigorous and buzzy-bizzy than I, a real corporeal being, than I can even pretend to occupy.
At $15.95 USD, this eerie and suspenseful exploration of solitary life is a terrific value. Make a dent in your loneliness, read this book, and remember how it all began.
The Publisher Says: Thirty-something Emily Collins inherits her recently murdered aunt's house, deciding to move to Heartshorne, Oklahoma, to claim it and confront her family's dark past after her dead mother begins speaking to her in dreams, propelling this gothic, neo-noir thriller toward terrifying revelations of murderous small-town justice when a horrible community secret is revealed through the supernatural pull of Echo Lake.
My Review: is an imprint of the newish press,Curbside Splendor. All part of a Chicago blooming of publishing talent, laden with the starter jobs that publishers and editors need so much.
Here's the usual rub: Amateurs are the decision makers and frequently they don't have mentors or cicerones. And now here this: To my melting happiness, [ECHO LAKE] has trimmed these ordinary issues far, far down and has risen to higher levels than any other first-time author could reasonably ask for.
The plot is a juicy one; the characters feel more vigorous and buzzy-bizzy than I, a real corporeal being, than I can even pretend to occupy.
At $15.95 USD, this eerie and suspenseful exploration of solitary life is a terrific value. Make a dent in your loneliness, read this book, and remember how it all began.
penny_literaryhoarders's review
3.0
What started out to be interesting and had some great potential ended in a confusing mess.
ashleybwells's review
5.0
Full disclosure: Letitia is a friend of mine and I'm already a huge fan of her poetry and of the horror movie podcast she cohosts, so there was no way I WASN'T going to like Echo Lake. But I still feel comfortable saying this is a fantastically entertaining first novel, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone who's into horror, suspense, noir, or just good literature. The main character, Emily, inherits her murdered great-aunt's house in rural Oklahoma, and after she uproots her life and moves there, she ends up investigating her family's dark past and how it fits into the dark past (and present) of the town itself. I've always loved the "seemingly wholesome small town hides dark secrets" plot device, so it was especially fascinating and eerie for me to watch that plot unfold in an environment very much like the one I grew up in.
One of my favorite things about this novel is the structure and the way it allows the suspense to unfold at a satisfying pace. The book is divided into three roughly equal sections, and in the first, Emily discovers that something happened to her now-dead mother when she (the mother) was thirteen that resulted in their entire family, with the exception of Emily's great-aunt, moving away immediately afterward. The middle section alternates between Emily's conversation with an elderly woman who claims to know what happened to Emily's mother, and flashbacks to what actually happened during those three days in 1965. I really appreciated the way this structure allows the suspense to build and holds the reader's interest without ever feeling manipulative.
Fair warning: this book is pretty dark and creepy, and it doesn't shy away from showing the worst of small-town life. But nor does it wallow in seediness or corruption. Emily has her fair share of issues, as she'd be the first to admit. But she's completely believable and likable as a protagonist, quick to find the good in her new hometown even though she knows something terrible happened to her family here. I'd like to be able to claim I knew what a treat Echo Lake would be, but Letitia really outdid herself. Highly recommended.
One of my favorite things about this novel is the structure and the way it allows the suspense to unfold at a satisfying pace. The book is divided into three roughly equal sections, and in the first, Emily discovers that something happened to her now-dead mother when she (the mother) was thirteen that resulted in their entire family, with the exception of Emily's great-aunt, moving away immediately afterward. The middle section alternates between Emily's conversation with an elderly woman who claims to know what happened to Emily's mother, and flashbacks to what actually happened during those three days in 1965. I really appreciated the way this structure allows the suspense to build and holds the reader's interest without ever feeling manipulative.
Fair warning: this book is pretty dark and creepy, and it doesn't shy away from showing the worst of small-town life. But nor does it wallow in seediness or corruption. Emily has her fair share of issues, as she'd be the first to admit. But she's completely believable and likable as a protagonist, quick to find the good in her new hometown even though she knows something terrible happened to her family here. I'd like to be able to claim I knew what a treat Echo Lake would be, but Letitia really outdid herself. Highly recommended.
helenmcclory's review
I can't resist any narrative that has a lake over a flooded town. This gothic story feels well balanced between the twin narratives of mother and daughter, separated as they are by years and all the secrets in those years.