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A review by casskrug
The Echoes: A Novel by Evie Wyld
4.0
this one unexpectedly drew me in and i ended up reading most of it in one day! part family history, part relationship autopsy, and part ghost story, the echoes has a lot of moving parts that work together to make a compelling read.
we begin by following max, a recently deceased writer who is now a ghost, stuck in the apartment he shared with his longtime girlfriend hannah. hannah’s family life has been a mystery to max, and the chapters alternate between max’s perspective as a ghost and hannah’s perspective before max passed away, as well as a chapter from the perspective of each of hannah’s family members during her childhood. sounds like a lot, but once you settle into the novel, this puzzling-together of hannah’s life becomes a really compelling way to move the story forward.
i thought hannah’s complicated family history was the most gripping part of the story. max’s role in hannah’s life and the plot dealing with their relationship didn’t feel as fleshed out to me, and max didn’t feel like as strong of a character compared to hannah and her family. i was unsure how i would feel about the ghost element, and despite it being the weaker plot, i thought it was a very effective device to demonstrate how you can never fully know someone.
the book deals with some heavy topics, most notably the stolen generations survivors of australia and how hannah’s family was living on stolen land. this was my first time reading about this topic and i’d be curious to hear opinions on how this was handled from indigenous folks. would be really interested in reading more about the topic!
thank you to knopf and netgalley for the early copy of this book, out 2/18!
we begin by following max, a recently deceased writer who is now a ghost, stuck in the apartment he shared with his longtime girlfriend hannah. hannah’s family life has been a mystery to max, and the chapters alternate between max’s perspective as a ghost and hannah’s perspective before max passed away, as well as a chapter from the perspective of each of hannah’s family members during her childhood. sounds like a lot, but once you settle into the novel, this puzzling-together of hannah’s life becomes a really compelling way to move the story forward.
i thought hannah’s complicated family history was the most gripping part of the story. max’s role in hannah’s life and the plot dealing with their relationship didn’t feel as fleshed out to me, and max didn’t feel like as strong of a character compared to hannah and her family. i was unsure how i would feel about the ghost element, and despite it being the weaker plot, i thought it was a very effective device to demonstrate how you can never fully know someone.
the book deals with some heavy topics, most notably the stolen generations survivors of australia and how hannah’s family was living on stolen land. this was my first time reading about this topic and i’d be curious to hear opinions on how this was handled from indigenous folks. would be really interested in reading more about the topic!
thank you to knopf and netgalley for the early copy of this book, out 2/18!