Speaking like a mother, this is an incredibly funny book that follows the dysfunctional Cleverley family as their love of technology and social media takes over their lives and ultimately leads to their downfall.
They reminded me of The Rose family in Schitt’s Creek!

I’ve always been a great fan of John Boyne and this is like no other book he’s ever written. Satirical fiction at its very best and worst!

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I have read one book by this author previously, which was The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. I really couldn’t have predicted how different these books could be!
This novel tells the story of a modern day family of 5, the Cleverlys, and is a lot of fun to read. George is a tv presenter for the BBC and married to Beverly, an author of female fiction. They live in London with their 3 children, all of whom have their stories told too in a plot that links up all of the main characters and many peripheral ones as well.
Boyne has managed to add tons of acerbic and hilarious asides to this book, with lots of contemporary references, that made me laugh out loud whilst reading. If you are looking for a modern read that will make you laugh, cringe and gasp, then this is for you.

So firstly I'd like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced copy. And I don't take any enjoyment from writing negative reviews on Netgalley.
Then I would just like to state that I have been a big fan of Boynes previous works and as a result I was VERY excited when I received this copy.

And that, unfortunately is where it went downhill from.
The character of George Cleverley was very on the nose, but I'll come back to him.

I actually found the dimwitted nature of some of the Cleverley family, Beverley for example was actually quite entertaining at parts to read. The thing was though is that it's TOO much - like this is obviously a satirical take on cancel culture - but in my opinion it was a bit loud, if this book was a bit more subtle in it's humour I think it would have been funnier. To be completely honest, the way it's written just feels like a toddler having a temper tantrum.
So based on that I probably would have given this book like, a 3/5 review. But the character of George Cleverley was just Boyne throwing the toys out of his pram over his own social media run-in and it was just a little bit embarrassing tbh.

So George Cleverley identifies as a left-wing liberal, always has been, etc etc. He lands himself in some hot water after deadnaming and misgendering a trans receptionist, Nadia and congratulating her on social media on her transition. But he complains "I was trying to support the trans community" and does not take criticism when he's told he did it wrong. Sound familiar to anyone??? Hmm???
After the controversy surrounding Boyne's previous release where he tried to represent the trans community (and to give him the benefit of the doubt - maybe his heart was in the right place?), He was told he was doing an injustice to the trans community in the way he represented it, but instead of apologizing and educating himself, honestly it feels like he wrote this entire book as an "f you" to the "Permanently Outraged on Twitter" as he calls them in this book.

Overall, I must say I have really enjoyed Boyne's past books - as mentioned earlier. I think his writing is good. But what I think an author needs to understand is that if they are going to write a book about a certain community, he does not necessarily have to be a part of that community but does have a certain responsibility to get their inputs and experiences BEFORE writing a whole book about them. Or at the very least, accept the criticism, put your hand up and say "my bad". Not denouncing the entire idea of "cis" as he did.
This book just felt like John Boyne got annoyed he was targeted on twitter for his wrongdoings and thinks by taking the mick out of them, he's going to regain some personal pride or something. I dunno. I will be telling people to avoid this one for sure.

Fabulously Biting.....
Fabulously biting satire of the modern world and inhabitants. Using the Cleverley family as the centre of this gloriously amusing novel, the reader is taken on their journey through modern life and disasters and those just waiting around the corner to happen. Perfectly observed and perfectly pitched this will not fail to resonate with readers.

Wow so different from the authors usual books. Previously read the boy in the striped Pyjamas and loved it! But this book was SO funny. The Echo Chamber introduces the Cleverley family over the course of one week and the unfortunate events that happen to them. We are given the story from each character's perspective, highly amusing! Fully recommend this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Echo Chamber by Joh Boyne.

The Echo Chamber is a funny, modern satire. It deals with the dark side of social media, wokeness and cancel culture.
The Cleverley family are a tweeting family who document their lives online, especially Elizabeth with her virtual signalling boyfriend Wilkes. Things start to change for them when George Cleverley, a national treasure and BBC personality, tweets something that causes outrage among the POOTs  (Perpetually Outraged of Twitter).
This novel by John Boyne is completely different from anything he has previously written. It is funny, bitchy and whip smart! Awful characters and the worst side of today's social media are brought together in this fun novel. It is very much of today so will be interesting to see if it ages well.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an
honest review.

Satirical fiction this most definitely is, and so unlike anything I’ve read by John Boyne before! Although not my favourite of John’s books - I’m here for his heartbreakers - I did find myself giggling in parts, and seeing Maude Avery’s name made me smile.

For those looking for a lighthearted read, this might just be the book for you. Can’t wait to see what John writes next.

Follows the privileged Cleverly family, Geroge, Beverly and the their three adult children, over the course of a week.

While not my favourite of John Boyne's books, I still found it thoroughly enjoyable. It was lacking the emotional impact of 'The Heart's Invisible Furies' and 'A History of Loneliness'. The inane Cleverly's just aren't sympathetic characters. However, Boyne's quick wit, sarcastic tone and over the top characters (all reminiscent of Oscar Wilde) still remain, and never fail to put a smile on my face.

This book is made all the more interesting, in the fact that it deals with the dark side of social media, and cancel culture, something John Boyne has grappled with recently.

Great title! Great cover!

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

George is a "national treasure" BBC talkshow host, his wife, Beverly is a famous author and their three adult children who refuse to leave home, are Nelson, a teacher, Elizabeth, an influencer and Achilles, an idiot.
The story follows all five family members as they navigate the modern world of social media, creating havoc everywhere they go.
I laughed out loud reading this book. It's so relatable and shows the toxic side of social media in all its glory.
Brilliant characters and amazing writing as always from John Boyne.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced copy of this book.

Meet George Cleverley. He is self-defined as one of the few television personalities over the age of fifty without a criminal record. He starts this book a bit worried when his mistress tells him she's carrying his child, but then his author wife is getting her kicks with the Ukrainian partner Strictly Come Dancing paired her with. They have three children, who are a sad-sack with absolutely no social skills whatsoever, a girl who hangs around with a virtue-signalling, keyboard warrior wokester who wants to save the world's homeless with out-of-date food, and a fit young lad doing the gay hustle thing. Add in a few other characters – therapists, lawyers, random transgender types – that all have two very different connections to his life, and you have something that suggests an almost farcical approach to the modern world. What suggests the farcical approach even more, however, is the fact this is bloody funny.

Yes, I didn't expect such an eventful, comedic romp as this, even from an author as diverse and chameleonic as John Boyne. This is one of the most quotable books I can remember enjoying, with everything from Croydon, Brooklyn Beckham and ITV up the topic of a finely-delivered quip. It helps of course that Cleverley (the most atypical BBC name imaginable, it goes without saying) is riling against all the wokery bollux surrounding him – he's self-identifying as against all the them/they/their/its trying their best to ruin the language of the world he finds himself in, with their ultra-insecurity about body space, PC language, the world's last few lepers and suchlike. This is a world where binaries are necessary, for the simple reason many people are two things at least here – the social media-constructed world has allowed for everyone to hide under an indignant new persona, and a lot of these characters either choose to, or are forced to, adopt a front.

People may take umbrage at a book pointing out the horrendousness (and untranslatability – into French at least) of all the neologistic pronouns, but this book is definitely aimed at those very people. Its target is, of course, the bigoted intolerance of the left, who have created a world where if you are one iota away from their idea that month of political correctness you are completely incorrect, irredeemable, and fair game online (the bigoted intolerance of the right is deemed an unalterable given). Such a topic, and the fact this is set optimistically in a post-Covid, post-vaccine 2021, may make one think this is just a book valid for the month it comes out, but while being drop-dead current it has much of a greater picture to show us, and is all the greater for it.

What Boyne also offers is a selection of characters he has wrung every potential comedic breath from, all to our benefit (he also must have a strong legal team, for there are so many current butts to his jokes it amazed me what he got away with). Beyond the social (media) faux pas that feature prominently in the plot, the whole bunch of them have flaws and extremities of character, yet none of them at all appear unlikeable. They are great company, for all their alleged transgressions. This all boils down to a book that is just about perfect – yes, I suspect it makes a mistake as to where Celebrity Mastermind is filmed, but if that's what counts as a flaw you're on to a winner. As to winners, I got it utterly wrong the last time I predicted something for the Wodehouse Prize for comedic novel. But surely I'm one from two here.

‘Speaking as a mother’ (one of the novel’s in-jokes ) this is the most 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 satire.
And what an unexpected departure this is from the author’s previous novels, none of which prepared me for this complete change in style - and so much for the better, in my opinion. Here he displays a total mastery of the Irish satirical tradition - with touches of Flann O’Brien’s genius - and as with O’Brien’s storytelling, the plot doesn’t really matter - it's the effervescent use of language, the witty punning and inventive turn of phrase that make his writing such a joy and laugh out loud funny.
As well as the satire, his wonderfully oddball cast of characters engage in the whip-smart sizzling dialogue of the old Hollywood movies, as the whole thing descends into farce.
I loved it, and hope we can expect more of the same from this amazingly versatile author.

I loved this book. It was a joy to read. It's a clever and very funny social satire. It's the first book I've read in a long time where I found myself laughing out loud frequently. The past year has not been easy for anyone and during the various lockdowns my concentration has suffered. The Echo Chamber has been the perfect antidote. I'm hoping my brain fog is now beginning to clear.

At the centre of the story is the Cleverleys, a celebrity family consisting of father George, a television chat show host, his wife Beverley, an author, and their three adult children who are still living at home and financially supported by their father.

You get a wonderful sense of the characters. They're not particularly nice at times and are obsessed with how they present themselves to the world. Beverley is a successful author although she has written only one book and has employed ghosts to write the others. The daughter Elizabeth is obsessed with social media. She wants to be an influencer. She even has a twitter spat with herself (using a different account) to draw attention to herself and increase her followers. Her awful boyfriend Wilkes is obsessed with showing his 'charitable deeds' on all the platforms, taking virtue signalling to extremes – cringe worthy but also very funny. The eldest, Nelson has his own issues while Achilles, the youngest has been extorting money from older men. George means well, believes he's liberal, not a racist, not homophobic but he's older generation (not that old – 60) and doesn't always think it through before he speaks (or tweets).

One little tweet, that's all, is just the start of things going horribly wrong. He upsets the 'woke' people, provokes the cancel culture.

I like John Boyne's writing. He's a wonderful story teller. I've only read a few of his books so I don't have much to compare this with. The three I've read are all different and brilliant in their own way. The Echo Chamber takes a satirical look at society's obsession with social media and shows that actions have consequences. His observations are spot on. It made me think of how much influence social media has on society. For all the dubious behaviour of some of the characters, I still had a little bit of sympathy for them.

A good ending too.

The Cleverleys present themselves an urbane, intelligent, successful liberal family. George hosts a chat show and is widely regarded as a national treasure; his wife, Beverley, is an author and their adult children are bright, good-looking and socially aware. But just below the surface of these glossily presented people, John Boyne’s social satire reminds us that there’s no such thing as a perfect family, despite what is displayed through social media.
In reality, Mr and Mrs Cleverley are self-obsessed and their children are either horribly entitled or deeply insecure. Influencer, Elizabeth, still lives at home and thinks only of what will enhance her online profile. Volunteering to help the homeless, she ‘longed for her shift to be over so she could go somewhere with Wi-Fi to post pictures of her philanthropy online.’ Her older brother, Nelson, a teacher who works at his former school is in therapy, unable to come to terms with his sexuality. He only feels comfortable in uniform: forays across London in medic scrubs or police attire bring challenging situations. Achilles, the youngest, is a conman. He has no compunction about blackmailing his ‘marks’.
‘The Echo Chamber’ is a biting comedy of manners and Boyne gives us a number of laugh out loud moments. Society’s current addiction to all forms of social media is his target. However, the humour is unrelentingly unsubtle (perhaps intentionally mimicking the lack of nuance in the average tweet!) and so the points he makes feel the weaker because of it. It is rather like being shouted at the whole time; after a while one just ignores the noise. Examples include Beverley announcing to her ghost writer that, ‘I read six or seven books a year, if you can believe it, which is probably why I’m one of the most popular writers in the country’, and Elizabeth’s woke partner telling her that his child ‘would be brought up gender neutral. In fact, it wouldn’t even be allowed to look at its own genitals until it was eighteen.’
John Boyne’s excoriating exploration of a world in which everyone is unnaturally aware of how they present themselves or extraordinarily unaware of how they come across is certainly timely. As ever, we are pulled into his compelling narrative, imagining the characters, places and situations readily, so vivid is his prose and so convincing his dialogue. Thankfully, the final stages of the novel suggest that nothing is irreversible. Nevertheless, the overall effect of this tale is not as powerful as it might have been had the author allowed for a little more subtlety in its telling.
My thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

The Echo Chamber by John Boyle is so very different to his previous novels. So current and spot on with his observations I felt the author was pouring out his anger at the state of the world and social media in particular. This novel made me laugh out loud and yet at times it made me really think. What a wonderful novel. Just what is needed in these strange times!

An absolute winner from start to finish, Mr. Boyne's latest journey into post-Brexit & post-Covid British life is an uproariously funny romp about the Cleverley family, five self absorbed and dimwitted idiots and their utterly superficial lives in the posh London neighborhood of Belgravia. It really takes a very talented wordsmith to create such despicable and disgusting characters totally devoid of human empathy while managing to keep the reader in stitches for hours on end 🤣🤣👍But it's really when their outrageous shenanigans threaten to get everything dangerously out of kilter, that it becomes an absolute delight to follow that quintet of halfwits to its doom until it brilliantly manages to cancel itself out.... A marvellous slapstick comedy loaded with unforgettable verbal pyrotechnics and a searing and unflinching look at the moronic world of Twitter and the ridiculous hogwash easily found today behind the notion of political correctness. It might be hard to find a funnier and more disturbing comedy out there in 2021. Highly recommended and to be enjoyed without any moderation!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Random /Transworld for this terrific and hilarious ARC

Absolutely hilarious, laugh out loud funny. This wasn't like any John Boyne book I've read before, funniest book I've read in long time. Its based around a family , The Cleverleys, the Dad is a BBC presenter and Mum a famous author, they've 3 children all equally as eccentric as the parents. A satirical take on modern life, social media and fame. All 5 are caught up in their own world leading to some hilarious comic outcomes. Some interesting thought provoking issues when it comes to how people feel they can or should behave on social media and the permanently offended on social media Also deals with the different generations and how they grapple with the modern world. Also some food for thought about how much we are engaging with our phones and the time it is taking away from living in the moment, spending time with our families, reading or just being present a very funny satirical book that gives some great laugh out loud moments.

The Echo Chamber by John Boyne is so unlike anything else he’s ever written. It’s funny, clever and so very current. It’s based around the Cleverley family. They comprise of a husband in the BBC, a wife, Beverley, who wrote a novel once and whose fame has continued on the back of that achievement, and three incompetent, narcissistic, dependent, self-obsessed children. Storylines revolve around each of the five, many of which are off the wall and utterly ludicrous at times. The humour is often classic, laugh out loud funny. The trip to Ukraine, the After Eight eating tortoise, the overly vocal George, the crossing of paths with those Achilles encounters, Nelson’s school experiences, Elizabeth’s repugnant boyfriend, the list goes on. There are lessons to be learned here too that will become entirely apparent as the reader becomes engrossed in the text. And the ending was superb, farcical if held in comparison to the standard novel closure, but completely apt as a finale to the outcome of each of the characters’ exploits. This is another wonderful offering from John Boyne, a writer who once again succeeds in showing us that there is no limit to the extent of his literary capabilities.

I have many thoughts about this book! I am a huge fan of John Boyne’s writing and have read all of his books. His range is incredible and again this book is unlike any of his others. This is a book about the Cleverley family. They are an eccentric British family and we follow their antics and examine the impact of social media on today’s society. George is the father who is quintessentially British and is at big star at the BBC. Beverly is the mother who is a well known romance novelist / Strictly star. Nelson Elizabeth and Achilles are the children who all behave like the rich kids they are. The plot twists and winds its way towards a very funny ending and I did have some laugh out loud moments while I was reading this. But a lot of the book comes cross as a little bit preachy, catty and a little bitchy. A lot of the comparisons and jokes about celebrities were unnecessary and I didn’t feel they added anything to the story. I follow John Boyne on Twitter and I know he has a love/hate relationship with social media and he himself has been on the receiving end of trolling. I did feel at times this was his way of retaliating to those trolls. The trans-plotline was a little uncomfortable and I didn’t like making humour out of it as it is such a emotive subject for some people. I was not expecting this kind of novel from John Boyne and while it was very good and enjoyable I am more of a fan of his other works. He is still one of my favourite authors of all time!

I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it's a satirical novel - not really my thing, so I didn't think I would like it. On the other hand, it's by John Boyne - he is such a good writer, that the book was worth a shot just because of the author.

This novel is about the Cleverley family. Dad, George is a chat show host who works for the BBC. Mum, Beverley is a novelist. They have three fairly grown up children, Nelson, a teacher, Elizabeth who aspires to be an influencer and Achilles who, at seventeen, is still in education. Each of their individual stories is told throughout the duration of the book and there is something very unlikable about each and every one of them!

The novel explores several aspects of modern society from our reliance on our phones and technology, our attitudes to racism, homophobia and political correctness. One aspect I really liked was the way the author linked something the family was doing to the timeline of the creation of social media, for example when facebook was created, when the first tweet was send and when the logo was designed for snapchat. It's all very current and although the characters are an extreme form of the people around us in society (I hope), it is very relatable, it makes you think.

Many other reviewers have commented on the ending of the book. I loved it. It brings everything together in a funny yet serious way. There is a statement near the end about people caring more about their publicity than their privacy and for me this statement sums up the Cleverleys exactly. They all need a big dose of good, old fashioned morals and values! The ending made the book for me. It has left me thinking what a good book it was and yet I know there were parts I enjoyed much less. Perhaps not the best John Boyne book I have read but highly recommended still.

Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I don't really know what to say about this novel, quite honestly! I requested it purely because I had heard a lot about the author - I read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas years ago and The Heart's Invisible Furies is on my to read list. I didn't know what to expect and if I'm honest I still don't really know what it was about, yet I was strangely captivated.

This story follows high profile, celebrity family the Cleverleys. They are eccentric and a little dysfunctional which makes for humorous reading, and mainly follows their plights and journeys on social media. I enjoyed the contemporary aspect of this book, particularly the references to 'that pandemic' which is all over now everyone is vaccinated (can't wait until we reach those days!) and it made some interesting, thought provoking points about social media and political correctness. Overall I enjoyed it and the ending sold it for me, but probably wouldn't read it again. Wins the top spot of the most bizarre book I've read this year though!