A review by kristenjiannotti
Echo on the Bay by Masatsugu Ono

dark slow-paced

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

2.5

I really thought that I was going to enjoy this novella as a character study set on the shores of a Japanese Island.. However, the ideas here were just disjointed. It seemed as though the author had perhaps one too many ideas and was having difficulties trying to connect them. We had what seemed to be a murder mystery, a forbidden teacher-student relationship, a new-to-town narrative, and small town secrets, none of which were fully developed within 160 pages. There were far too many characters that we didn't really get to know, nor did we really get to know our main character/narrator. Great ideas, poor execution.