John Boyne’s latest work is a clever, satirical look at society today. Social media, ‘the Woke’ and being ‘cancelled’ are all explored in this fresh and funny novel.

The Echo Chamber is about the Cleverley’s. George is a BBC darling, a journalist who has had his own show for years. His wife Beverley is a popular women’s fiction writer, only she pays a ghostwriter to do the actual writing. Their children Nelson (named after Mandela), Elizabeth and Achilles still live at home and are perfectly content not doing all that much, with little aspiration besides gaining followers (Elizabeth) or getting even more rich (Achilles).

After an interaction at his solicitor’s office, George finds himself under scrutiny by the ‘POOTs’ or Permanently Outrages Of Twitter, as he calls them, for a ill-thought out and clumsy tweet.

From here things snowball into a huge mess of emotive public outbursts and accusations of every possible ism you can think of, with George’s family experiencing similar incidents of drama and scandal of their own.

The world of the Cleverley’s is a familiar one, yet Boyne shines a hilarious spotlight on aspects of our digital lives in a way I’ve not seen before. Elizabeth’s boyfriend Wilkes for example, wants to help a leper colony in Indonesia. When Elizabeth questions whether there are still any leper colonies in existence, Wilkes excited and buoyant response, “I hope so!” sums up virtue signalling perfectly; that is those who want to help others purely for their own gain or popularity.

An hilarious, entertaining and thought provoking read.

This book was brilliant. I admit I wondered at the beginning if it was funny just for the sake of being funny but no. John Boyne is far too skilled for that. We're slowly drawn into the lives of these characters and watch them navigate the world they know. It's satire at its best - very close to the bone with an exceptional understanding of modern life and the pitfalls of social media. The disparity between the actions and reactions of George and Beverley versus those of their children are spot on. At all times we can see how what each of them does makes sense because of their own perceptions. It reflections the absurdity of trial by social media as well as the innate need to be liked and how quick people can be to judge both themselves and others based on perceived popularity. There are many wonderful touches - the ghost, the tortoise, the running gag about everyone's familiarity with Ukrainian folk heroes. Too many to mention but all so well thought through. We are in the hands of a very skilled author here - nothing is wasted and slowly we realise how invested we are in these characters, torn between wanting them to realise what they're doing and wanting it all to end well for them. Even the slightly peripheral characters are magnetic. I loved it and really look forward to seeing how people receive it once it's published. Thank you #Netgalley!

This opens with a rather sweet loving family ,and the birth of their third child,and soon becomes a book about a not very pleasant family of 5 all being sucked into real life as we know it.
The political correctness,the social media obsessions,the wanting something for nothing,the anxieties every day life brings.
Its got a lot to say about current day life.
Its also funny. Whilst maybe not laugh out loud,there was a lot of smiling from me,and eye rolling at how ridiculous things have become.
I developed quite the soft spot for the head of the family,who at least seemed to be trying to do his best.
The others,not so much.

It seems like a completely different type of book for Boyne,but I liked it just as much as his others

If I hadn’t known this was written by John Boyne, I wouldn’t have guessed. All credit to him for having the talent to write such different books. This is just so funny - a state-of-the-nation satire, poking fun at people’s reliance on social media platforms for personal affirmation or mischief-making. It hinges on five members of one family, brilliantly created, distinctive characters, coming a cropper for one reason or another as they try to navigate the absurdities of the modern world. I was particularly tickled by George’s experiences at the BBC, especially his disciplinary meeting. Great dialogue carries the whole thing along at a cracking pace.

For most of the book I was going to award 4 stars, but am bumping that up to 5 just for the ending and where they all end up, close to my heart. Highly recommended and I can’t wait to see what JB tackles next.

George and Beverley Cleverley have been married for many years. Both are successful in their careers - he as a chat show host, she as a novelist of sorts. They have three children, all living at home. Nelson is still bullied by an ex-schoolmate who teaches alongside him at their old school, Elizabeth devotes herself to her social media profile while Achilles is still at school, ensnaring men on the lookout for boys then blackmailing them in his spare time. When George congratulates his agent’s receptionist on transitioning from Aidan to Nadia all hell lets loose on social media thanks to his choice of pronouns. By the end of the working week each of the Cleverleys have had a close encounter with the law and their lives have been transformed.

John Boyne has a lot of fun with his characters while lampooning aspects of modern life, from hipster fads to virtue signalling, celebrity to entitlement, but his primary target is social media and its all-pervasive influence. Despite The Echo Chamber’s 432 pages, I whizzed through this entertaining, very funny sometimes acerbic novel which has a pleasing epilogue.

The Echo Chamber by John Boyne is a satirical that explores our addiction to social media and the absurdity of it all. There were many laugh-out-loud moments – the author writes with wonderful humour.

Much of the story is told through witty dialogue which also shows how stupid, selfish, and unlikeable these modern characters are.

It takes place over one week and examines the impact of the modern technological society on this family when they make erroneous assumptions about the events, and people around them.

At some points I found it difficult to connect with the characters, and some conversations felt protracted, but overall the humour and ridiculousness of it all kept me reading.

#netgalley #theechochamber #johnboyne #randomhouse

The Echo Chamber introduces the Cleverley family over the course of one week and the unfortunate events that happen to them and it's a lot! We are given the story from each character's perspective, both parents and their three children.

John Boyne has done it again! With each novel that he writes we are given such diverse stories, time and time again, which are all so well written. This one made me laugh out loud, a lot! It also gave me an opportunity to ponder how reliant we have become on technology, mobile phones in particular and so dependent on social media. I don't use many of the social media platforms available and I never did figure out how to use Twitter. After reading this book, I'm thankful for that!!! Thanks for the many giggles, it was fun!

The picture on the cover of the book is so appropriate and made me laugh, love it!

My thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This novel is about the Cleverley family and its downfall thanks to George, the head of the family, tweeting something extremely offensive (even though he didn't think it was) and since he's a famous chat show host at BBC, of course he was harshly criticized for it. We also get to know more in depth the other members of the family: his wife Beverley and their three kids, Nelson, Elizabeth and Achilles. Each of them have their own dilemmas and make their own mistakes as well, so obviously they suffer the on and offline consequences of them.

I have to say this one surprised me. I had read many of the author's previous books, but I think I never saw this humor in the books I've read. This novel is so damn funny! A lot of the humor comes from the satirical tone of the book. We can see this humor especially in the dialogues since the characters are extremely shallow, stupid and self centered, which can be a bit of a problem for those who prefer books in which they need to feel a kind of connection with the characters like me, but at the same time, the way they are is the whole point of the book, so for me, it's more of a positive than negative feature of it.

The way the author criticizes the cancel culture, the privileged people, the absurdity of our current modern family, etc. is amazing and really well done, although It felt a little exaggerated and expositive at times. I think like it could be a little more subtle in some key moments.

Overall, I highly recommend it if you want to read a satire of the way we are living our lives, since it can be quite funny and also makes us rethink a lot of the thing we are doing.

This story centres around the Cleverley family, who are dysfunctional and unlikeable.
George the father is a chat show host who is cheating on his wife and the woman has told him that she is having his baby. Beverley his wife is also cheating with a toy boy young enough to be her son. Their three children spend all their time staring at the screen of a mobile phone.
A dark look at the world today, about social media and the lack of human contact in society.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK for my e-copy exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Literary Fiction | Adult Fiction

Release Date: 5th August 2021



4th February 2004.

Beverly has survived a dangerous labour to bring a beautiful baby boy into the world, her husband George and their other children holding each other right outside. And at the exact same moment, something called The Facebook was also born into the world. Both of things would change their families lives forever.

Years later, the Cleverly family has maintained the image of a perfect marriage and a perfect family, regardless of how imperfect they really are. George Cleverly; the activist of everything and everyone still has his grown children living at home quite content to never see the real world. Socially awkward and unaware, each member of this family is in their own echo chamber and they can't hear the warnings all around them.

Satirically smart and dry, this is a story about the utter absurdity that is modern life; where charity only counts if you post it on social media and some people have given up with real socialising altogether. Each character so viscerally flawed and unlikeable in their own unique way, this story maintained a strange playfulness throughout while still maintaining the farcial commentary.

I felt kept an arms length away from the Cleverly family at all times, which may have been a stylistic choice but it did make it immensely hard to connect with the characters at times and made the chapters multiple times throughout the story, the characters falling very flat and becoming the stereotypes I'm sure they were intended to be. - but if you're looking for a witty parody of modern life, look no further!



RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐



Thank you to John Boyne and Random House UK for this ARC in return for an honest review.

John Boyne you are a genius! I have loved all of your books, and recommend them often! How on earth you wrote this after ‘A Travellor at the gates of wisdom ‘ is just beyond me.

This book is modern, funny, very clever amd focuses on a disfunctional family and social media.

I couldn’t put it down.... If there was 6 stars I would be pressing!

Simply Fabulous

This is John Boyne as I’ve never known him before! I came to this having read a great many of John’s previous novels, and the closest comparison I can make is take the last two chapters of his last novel ( a traveller at the gates of wisdom) and turn that style of writing into a whole novel! If you’ve read it , you’ll know what I mean!

This is highly mischievous, farcical, and fun, and is a great modern satire on the social media obsession of the past 10 or so years.

This is a full on comedic novel that I think John has teased us all with for many a year. I bet he had huge fun writing this! Loved some of the references to his previous work ( Maud Avery, Zelda of course) .

Very different, and a lot of fun.

An entertaining read by author John Boyne featuring the dysfunctional family ‘ The Cleverley’s’. Father George works for the BBC as a chat show host and is regarded by many as a national treasure. His wife Beverley is a successful novelist who has now started to take on ghost writers to do the writing for her. Their three children Nelson, Elizabeth and Achilles all come with issues and are happy to live in the family house rather than face the outside world.

The story follows each of the family members as they go through their far from normal lives creating havoc where ever they go. The story is told through these wonderful characters with a lot of humour and wit and will leave you smiling. Well written, great characters and lots of fun making this an entertaining read.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Random House UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.