So, perhaps I should have read the synopsis before starting the book... I have loved this author's other work (hence why I blindly requested to read and review this) but this one really wasn't the read for me. I understand that it is a work of satire, but it also seems too excessive in its cultural criticisms, somehow. I constantly wondered what were the character's fictional thoughts and what were the author's own? Some of the wit did make me laugh but it was too overly farcical for me to continue to find enjoyment in the humour.

Love Boyne's interesting stories, his gripping writing, and the characters he created. Loved this audiobook too. The narration was very vivid and nice that it added another layer to this beautiful book. Highly recommended!
Thanks a lot for this copy.

After hearing such great things, I expected great things from this author.
It didn't hold up to them, unfortunately. The satire was enjoyable initially, but then it became irritating, as if Boyne had a vendetta and used this book as a ranting device!
His books are vastly different, which I like and dislike at the same time! He is versatile, but it seems to me he has no writing style that means I go into a new book a little blind. This can work for or against the author in my opinion.
Some readers have loved this, but it's not for me. I liked the narration but found it difficult to appreciate it when I didn't like the book.

A chapter into listening to the wonderful narration by Richard E Grant, I had already surmised the following: The Echo Chamber by John Boyne is a farcical, laugh out loud tale about social media and modern society. Farfetched, sarcastic, preachy in places, I am enjoying it immensely.

When I got to the end which was a protracted affair due to the vagaries of the NetGalley app. I thought about what had happened and a hell of a lot had, and my thoughts hadn't changed.

I loved this journey - an expose of a family of 'characters' who embodied the worst traits of the privileged elites/media darlings/celebs - leading to a meltdown of epic proportions. To my delight, what could go wrong, did. The coincidences were obvious but funny, nevertheless.

However, the clearly signposted denouement was a hollow reward. The Cleverley family while exposed as treacherous, more so unthinking, oblivious individuals, who coasted on their popularity, were exposed as such and to their horror ‘cancelled'.

But it was clear that whilst fiction, The Echo Chamber mirrors the real world and a few years away from the public eye, a couple of insincere apologies, some grand gesture to those less fortunate and the Cleverley's would be back.
Back on social media tweeting, liking, and following. Promoting themselves and putting others down.
And that is disheartening.

Finally, I was thrilled to be introduced to Ustym Karmaliuk the tortoise on the book cover and the stereotyped Ukrainian cast. It made me ever so glad to be listening mostly at home, because those characters in particular made the story laugh out loud in many places.

My thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a copy of this book in return for a candid review.

The Echo Chamber is a witty and well observed novel focusing on the Cleverley family and their well deserved downfall. It highlights the very worst parts of modern society where celebrity and social media ‘likes’ are more important than meaningful relationships and moral codes.
George Cleverley is a tv personality and his wife Beverley is a writer. Their three children are all dysfunctional in their own way with Nelson wearing costumes to feel secure, Elizabeth addicted to social media and Achilles using his looks for financial gain. Both parents have been unfaithful but they used to be a normal, loving family. So what went wrong?
This novel is literally laugh out loud, especially with the fantastic Richard E Grant narrating the book. The storylines of the five characters are all intriguing and well linked, and the style of language used in the writing is absolutely brilliant. Highly recommend.

I enjoyed this audio book. It made me laugh and cringe throughout. Some of the characters were totally obnoxious, but that added to the humour. A book all about the characters rather than the plot - which I enjoyed, particularly the ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the audioARC of this book.

This book didn’t capture me at all. I felt no connection to any of the characters and thus wasn’t too bothered what happened to them.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

3.5 stars

I love this authors writing, he wrote one of my favourite books - The Hearts Invisible Furies, so was excited to get stuck in to this one, although it is very different!

The Cleverley family are a wholly unlikeable bunch - Dad George is a chat show host at the BBC, Mum Beverley is a 'novelist', eldest son Nelson is a techer at his old school and has never got over his time there, daughter Elizabeth is a social media addict and youngest son Achilles is a teenage con-artist! Also, not forgetting their inherited 'pet' tortoise Ustym Karmaliuk who has an unhealthy addiction to After Eights!

Following their dysfunctional exploits over the years as they try and navigate the fast-moving world of social media, there are some amusing plots and accurate representations of several of the current themes - wokeness, cancel culture etc, that can be found across the platforms.

Behind the satirical exterior of this story are some important messages that shine a huge torch on the issues, on both personal and societal levels, with social media as a whole.

I just maybe would have liked at least one likeable character!

Excellent narration by Richard!

In the final chapter of this book, Boyne writes : "As...Kingsley Amis once said, if you can’t annoy somebody, there is little point in writing." and I think he wrote this book as a tongue in cheek antagonistic poke at modern society, 'wokeness' and 'cancel culture'. And maybe I'm too woke myself, but it worked, it annoyed me.

Having read The Hearts Invisible Furies earlier this year and fallen in love with his character writing I was delighted to get an ARC of Boyne's latest novel through Netgalley. Sadly I was pretty aghast as I read through the first few chapters as there is not one likeable character in the lot. I love 'flaws and all' writing, but the family at the centre of the story and everyone that they knew were just horrible caricatures and it felt like they were written with a lot of anger.

For me personally if it were any other writer I would have given this 2* and given up part way through, and only 2 because it is of course wonderfully written. I didn't enjoy the story at all. But then this type of book is not one I'd usually enjoy anyway, so I've gone for 3* as it's probably the perfect holiday read for somebody, and the 'coming together' at the end was a mildly amusing turn in what I'd already accepted as a wholly unrealistic farcical world by then.

Richard E Grant narrated the audiobook and did a wonderful job of it!

I don’t usually enjoy satire but John Boyne is a master story teller and anything that he writes makes a compelling read. The Echo Chamber is no exception. It is funny, clever and even moving in places. The author’s sharp observations and insights in the modern life are spot on. I listened to the audio version of the book and the narration was great.

3.5 stars.

I love John Boyne’s writing and The Heart’s Invisible Furies is one of those books that I regularly press into people’s hands. Here, however, whilst I admire the social satire and the long-overdue takedown of wokeness and social media, the targets seemed a bit too obvious and were delivered with a sledgehammer rather than a scalpel.

The Cleverly family are a series of grotesques: father, George is a BBC chat show host; mother, Beverley is a writer who doesn’t write any of her ‘own’ books; Nelson is a teacher with a serious case of arrested development; Elizabeth is a wannabe social media star with a morality by-pass; and Achilles is a 17 year old blackmailer. There is no-one to love and no-one to root for and that is part of the problem I had with the book. Even the peripheral characters are awful. The inevitable takedown of this family is set up well but is drawn out too slowly when the payoff seems obvious from very early on.

However, there were some genuinely funny parts of the book. Digs at the BBC; the cynical dispatching of disposable juniors rather than Names; virtue signallers; Instagram influencers and the Twitterati all richly deserve their roasting. I wish some of the humour had been a little more restrained as I think it would have enhanced the punchlines.

Finally, I was fortunate enough to be given an arc of the audiobook of this novel and Richard E Grant was the perfect narrator. I could so easily see him taking the role of George in a theatrical version of this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Penguin Random House UK Audio for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

#loved #5stars #UstymKarmaliuk

Hold onto your hashtags and switch to airplane mode because I need to rave about The Echo Chamber.

🧡Much as the Greek Gods represented the sun, sea, earth, sky and all in between, Boyne created the Cleverley family. Parents, sons and daughter, each one embodies different aspects of social media and modern excess. Virtue signalling, self promotion, follower obsession, the politics of prejudice and beyond, the Celeverleys gleefully indulge in them all.

💜 This book was, in itself, an indulgence. I relished every guilt-free moment of despising this genetic grouping of privileged, self-obsessed, vapid, superficial narcissists. But this is about much more than bad people behaving badly. It is through these characters and their entertaining thoughts and escapades that Boyne explores what it is to live and die by the social media sword.

💚 Through absurdist extremes and biting witticisms, Boyne takes modern contradictions on safari. Then he tears them apart like a lion mauling a ghost writer who gets too close in pursuit of the perfect selfie.

❤️️ Finally, I have neglected thus far to mention the real star of this show; that intrepid tortoise known as Ustym Karmaliuk. He is the true hero of this tale.

Soundbite

🎧 Richard E Grant’s performance in this audiobook is comic genius. Just the dry delivery of one name - Ustym Karmaliuk - was enough to make me laugh. Every character has a distinctive, fitting voice and I think he portrays the female ones as well as the male. Flawless.

Shall I Compare Thee To…

Absurdist comedy in literature is rare and rarely as good as this. Were it a YouTube video, it would be cast by Wendy Holden and directed by Jon Ronson. Were it a tweet, it would be trolled by Douglas Adams' Vogons and eventually removed for breaching the rules.

Big thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Random House UK Audio and Transworld Digital for providing me with an audio ARC in return for an honest review.

Fabulously Biting...Audio Perfection…..
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 that are just waiting around the corner to happen. Perfectly observed and with perfectly pitched and perfectly nuanced narration from the wonderful Richard E Grant (who, in my opinion, gets it right every single time) - this is one that surely will not fail to resonate with readers. Audio perfection.