The Echoes

Wow, this book really caught me by surprise. I was expecting to like it but wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did. It's one of the best examples of multiple POVs that I've read in a long time - maybe ever. Each narrative voice is so strong and unique that you're never lost in the story. This book is both hilarious and heartbreaking. I found the characters and the story so compelling, and the way it only lets you in slowly meant I couldn't put it down. Honestly, this might be a new favourite of mine, it was just excellent and I can't wait to get myself the physical copy when it comes out! 4.5 stars rounded up, but depending on how this stews in my bead over the next couple of weeks it may be bumped to the full 5! Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher, Jonathan Cape, for this ARC, I'm delighted I got to read it so soon!

This is a really powerful novel dissecting the relationship between Max and Hannah after his death. The movement between timelines and character development is beautiful as is the writing style

Evie Wyld can really write. She knows her timelines and her characters and builds her story to a taut and intense and emotional read. There’s always darkness and violence in her books but she doesn’t describe it, she shows the effects on her characters and how they cope and somehow get on with their lives. The main character in this book is Hannah, an Australian woman living in a flat in London with her boyfriend Max. The flat is near a house where her grandmother lived before moving to Australia. The other major narrative is the ghost of Max in the flat (Surprisingly it works here, dead narrators don’t always work for me). That’s the ‘After’ thread, then there’s ‘Before’ about Max and Hannah’s relationship, and ‘Then’ set in Hannah’s childhood growing up in a house in ‘The Echoes’ on land where there’s also a schoolhouse that trained Aboriginal girls taken from their families. (Yes, there’s a graveyard, definitely not good vibes here). A powerful read.

Absolutely breathtaking, no-one writes about intergenerational female trauma like Evie Wyld. A truly mesmerising, powerful and heartbreaking novel. I loved how Evie used time in this novel, and she really cleverly switches between character perspectives. Brilliant, as always!