Hilarious and damning at the same time, Boyne’s skewering of… well, everyone kept me chuckling throughout. The Cleverleys are abhorrent but like Shakespeare, Boyne knows a tragic hero needs just a little hint of redemption to offset the bleakness.
I love the supporting cast as well, especially the noble and long suffering tortoise. This would make a great TV show.
‘Fuckity bye’!

The Echo Chamber John Boyne
Another fine piece of work by one of my favourites authors.
This book was different to anything else John had written, but that is the beauty of his books, the sheer variety. I listened to this as an audiobook, and found myself listening a lot more than normal as was enjoying it do much.

How on earth can John Boyne write a book about a thoroughly , rich, famous and unpleasant family, for it to be a hilarious satire on the state of modern life that I wanted to keep listening to. It helped enormously that Richard E. Grant was narrating. He was perfect. I mean, in real life he seems really lovely, but in this audiobook, his narration exactly reflects the Cleverley family’s selfishness and disregard for anyone other than themselves.

The whole family is obsessed with social media, permanently glued to their phones - all except for the youngest member of the family who gets his kicks elsewhere. Achilles starts off as the most likeable family member, but it soon becomes apparent that he’s as bad as the rest.

I laughed throughout this: it really is very funny. The insights into social media are spot on, and has actually made me think about how much time I spend on it (whatever it was, it’s a lot less now - with the added bonus that I read more!). I can see that some would find this controversial. There were times when I wanted to block out what these people had said or done. I was far too caught up in it though, and wanted to see what they could possibly do next!

Another outstanding book from John Boyne!

‘…filming the whole thing on their iPhones. What are they going to do, he asked, go home and watch it again later and wish they’d been there to enjoy it live?’

The image, materiality obsessed Cleverley family clumsily navigate through a world of social media. What they attempt to use to their gain though is the biggest contributor to their spiralling downfall.

Ridiculous, exaggerated to the extreme but perfectly accompanied with ever so pointed satire Boyne will make you raise your eyebrows, cringe and smile smugly as the consequences of actions catch up with the hideously detestable ensemble of characters.

My only criticism is the ending, which just felt a little too obvious for my liking and Boyne’s capability.

I’m not sure this novel will make any sense in 10 years time, but it captures the moment in time to perfection.

This is the first book of John Boyne that I have tried and I throughly enjoyed it. I will now seek out other books by this author.

I liked the way the plot was laid out and the way the author lead the reader through it. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Netgalley and John Boyne for the opportunity to review this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

We meet the dysfunctional Cleverley family. George, Beverley and their grown up children Nelson, Achilles and Elizabeth.

George works for the BBC as a chat show host and is regarded by many as a national treasure. His wife Beverley is a published author who is now looking for a ghost writer to write her books for her. The three children all live at home and seem to have their own problems.

The whole family are obsessed with social media and are permanently attached to their phones, constantly tweeting, unaware that their privileged lives are one Tweet away from a disaster!!

We follow each of the family members as they cause destruction along the way.

I loved this book!!! There are plenty of laugh out loud moments. I found it to be very witty and with life like characters that will make you smile.

A very funny story that I just simply adorable.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

I couldn't get into this book. Normally I'm a big fan of John's, so I'll definitely return to this book at some stage in the future.

John Boyne is an exquisitely sensitive, highly intelligent, writer. So you may be surprised that The Echo Chamber has all the subtlety of Die Hard. He takes aim, and completely destroys, everything and everybody who has ever irritated him. It has the feel of a lockdown exercise, to rid himself of years of frustration. It is hilariously funny, and every acerbic sentence is beautifully crafted. Do not expect political correctness, just enjoy the laughs. You will never think of social media, celebrities, the BBC, or the Groucho Club in the same way again. Oh, and I detect a certain sympathy for J K Rowling.

A classic John Boyne. Very funny at times and witty in a very JB way, but also says a lot about the state of our current times, i.e Stan Twitter, cancel culture, media distortion and many other things.
All in all I enjoyed it.

Riotous satire from one of my favourite authors. A bit too slapstick for my liking, but Boyne's attack on wokeness was spot on and very amusing.. A page-turning, rollicking read.

I enjoy live comedy. The very best comedians are masters of the narrative – introducing a theme early, meandering around related topics, only to loop back to the initial idea for that final punchline. Done well, it’s immensely satisfying.

The Echo Chamber by John Boyne is like a 420-page comedy skit. The broad themes are political correctness and social media, and from there Boyne weaves a deliciously sharp satire that had me laughing out loud – and all those threads came to a neat ending with a brilliant final line.

The focus is on the privileged Cleverley family – George is a stalwart of a television talk-show, and a self-described ‘national treasure’ (he’s waiting for a Queen’s honour); his wife Beverley is a celebrated romance novelist (who relies entirely on her ‘ghosts’ to put the actual words on the page); and their children – Nelson, with various hang-ups that his therapist is working through; Elizabeth, a would-be ‘influencer’ looking for a cause that will build her social media profile; and Achilles, a con-artist relying on his schoolboy good looks and charm.

Each character finds themselves in a particularly awkward situation (self-inflicted), that comes about because of their snobbery; their appalling lack of self-awareness; their poor use of social media; or their failure to be sensitive to others. Or a combination of all.

Linking each character is Pylyp, a Ukrainian dancer who partnered Beverley on Dancing with the Stars. Pylyp has been ‘busy’ (i.e. slept with almost every character in the book, unbeknownst to Beverley), and when he has to dash back to the Ukraine, he asks Beverley to look after his tortoise, Ustym Karmaliuk (named after a Ukrainian folk hero). As the book jacket illustrates, the old tortoise and the new world of social media and being ‘woke’ make for appealing contrasts.

“Was bad of me,” he [Pylup] admitted. “I should have called.”
“Or texted. Or emailed. Or Skyped. Or Facebooked. Or Tweeted. Or Snapped. Or Insta’d. We live in a world where it’s basically become more difficult not to contact someone than it is to contact them.” [Beverley]

Because of the nature of the humour, it’s hard to pull out favourite quotes – it’s less about one-liners and more about clever scenes that are built over many pages. But to give you a flavour –

Beverley on her writing process – “Naturally, I insist upon remaining very hands on during the creative process. The stories are mine, so the hard work is already done for you. Really, all the ghost has to do is take my ideas and type them up. I suppose you could compare it to how Leonardo da Vinci took on assistants and pupils, told them what he wanted and then they just got on with it. I feel a great affinity to da Vinci, actually. He’s been a tremendous influence on my work. … Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not comparing what I do with what Leonardo da Vinci did. His work is probably a lot better than mine. But, as fellow creatives, I imagine we would share a certain sympathy.”

George, after being harassed online – I could cure cancer and they’d say I was creating unemployment among oncologists. They want to ruin me… All these brave little souls hiding behind their keyboards, spitting out their venom. I blame Steve Jobs. And that Zuckerberg fellow. All those clever little psychopaths who couldn’t get laid in high school but make up for their sexual inadequacy by inventing technology that destroys humanity. They’re the Oppenheimers of the twenty-first century.

I suspect some readers will find the satire overdone, but I admired Boyne’s commitment – he’s gone all-out. It’s a very different book to the last one I read of his (and loved) – The Heart’s Invisible Furies – no tears this time, but enjoyable for different reasons.

4/5

I received my copy of The Echo Chamber from the publisher, Random House UK, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

The Echo Chamber is a masterpiece! Funny, engaging, cringe-worthy and a little bit absurd but so very close to the bone in how modernity can be obscene.
I think most young people now live just one tweet away from disaster- not thinking about the consequences of social media and how we play our lives for the whole world to witness.
Definitely a must-read for every young person out there! Loved this book!!

I had a few download issues with the book and by the time it was sorted, the file had unfortunately been achieved. Happy to re-review if it becomes available again.

The Echo Chamber is a witty satire on modern life. Though all the characters were unlikeable, the story was very funny and I enjoyed the book very much.

This is a book which is almost too clever for itself. Tapping into the zeitgeist the characters are all cliches of the upwardly mobile, chattering classes who feel that they are superior to others. It does tip over into farce at times but is witty and passes the time

I am John Boynes number one fan so found this book interesting as Boyne's first satire. I enjoyed how much I could love and hate the characters at the same time especially George a 'national treasure' of a BBC. It is devastatingly accurate ‘current state of the nation’ novel that I have read so far this year - so spot-on in fact, that it almost risks being banned by the Woke crowd that it satirises - luckily they are beyond understanding satire. Hilariously funny. Must read.

This was a funny and clever satire on the 'woke' social media age we are living in - but it was a bit overdone at times and bordered on the ridiculous - which was intentional but became a bit tedious after a while.

But it was spot on in many ways and was very perceptive about the use of social media and how many use it to define themselves.

I also admire Boyne for how he can write such different styles of novel with great characters.

I've thoroughly enjoyed John Boyne's other books so this departure from his usual style took me by surprise. I couldn't quite decide whether I liked it or not!
The story centres on the lunacy of social media and how it can take over and destroy lives. Topical and entertaining. But the humour was juvenile at best and not particularly well written. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed by this book.

DNF — unfortunately I was unable to finish this novel. This has nothing to do with the quality of the writing or the content of the novel, merely my own inability. I am incredibly grateful to have received an advance copy and will absolutely sit down with it and finish it one day. Thank you for trusting me with this advance copy, and I hope to review it soon.

John Boyne’s latest, “The Echo Chamber”, is an intense satire about the digital life. We follow every member of the rich and well-known Cleverley family on their individual paths, all mostly documented on social media.

George the father is having an affair, Beverley the wife is chasing a younger man, Nelson the son has issues with women, and Elizabeth the daughter is a troll on social media. That’s perhaps the quickest sum of it and everything is so centered around social media that it might as well be the fifth most important character.

I have always enjoyed John Boyne’s writing and his ability to craft a super engaging story. But this time I struggled to finish this book. It has his characteristic wit and an interesting enough overall storyline. It also addresses a very relevant topic – the toxicity of social media and the way it can wreck us.

Sadly though it stops there. I couldn’t identify with any of the characters, which was a first for a John Boyne novel. His characters are usually very finely drawn with much depth. Here, though, they were shallow and unpleasant, which, to be fair, I can attribute to the theme of the novel. But I wish that we were shown a different side to them that would perhaps explain why they were the way they were.

And the thing that really got under my skin – the constant reiteration of how bad social media can be. Boyne also pokes fun at terms like ‘woke,’ ‘cancelling’, and other cultural changes in recent times. It’s the point of the whole book, yes, but when you read about it on literally every page it gets tiring after a while.

All in all, I’d say this had its moments and I just wish there were more of those. Thanks to DoubleDay publishing for my ARC.