I was blown away by this book and in floods of tears at the end. Evie Wyld does an astounding job at portraying how people cope with grief and loss. Her characters are very well drawn and interesting, and the scenarios she creates are utterly immersive. She is brilliant at creating a sense of place, and of making the reader feel part of the situations she has created. It's a truly moving novel that I have been recommending to people since reading it.

The 'blurb' for the book is that a man, Max, dies and then becomes a ghost watching over his former girlfriend Hannah as she deals with his loss. This is a very important element of the novel but it's also so much more than that. As Hannah tries to come to terms with Max's death we also delve into her past, a troubled childhood growing up in Australia, then through this we learn about the histories of her parents and other relatives too.

I was struck by how Wyld can conjure up characters very vividly in a very short space of time. 'Uncle Tone' for instance, is a relatively important side character in Hannah's life, and we see him through her eyes a number of times as we learn about her upbringing. But we then get a chapter that tells his story from his point of view, and we see events that occurred to him through the eyes of his sister, Hannah's mum Kerry, too. This way of writing brings more dimensions to the characters and gives the impression that the author is weaving an intricate, multi-layered story.

All of her characters are interesting, not just the 'main' ones. All together, the individual stories tell a bigger story of how people's past experiences shape not only them but the people they are close to as well.

There are funny parts that had me laughing out loud, especially the dialogue between Hannah and Max, a scene with Max's family, and Hannah's conversations with her friend Janey. I can't give away the ending but I found it so moving that it still makes me cry to think about it.

This is such an impressive, striking novel. Many thanks to Netgalley for letting me read it.

I found this book difficult to get into but once I did, I loved it.
Max is a ghost and is observing his girlfriend Hannah in her grief.
This book is about relationships and secrets and fallible human beings
It's a hard read at times but worth pursuing because the writing is masterful and beautiful

Beautiful writing, a lot of really lovely contemplative moments, but I never really connected with any of the characters, everything felt disjointed and muddled up and needlessly buried under a cloud of pretend-mystery. Absolutely gorgeous prose and cool premise, but I think this one is just not the book for me.

A story of love, loss, and of the secrets of the past being uncovered. Max is a ghost, still inhabiting the flat where he lived with his Australian girlfriend Hannah - he finds he can’t quite accept that he has died and desperately wants Hannah to know that he is still watching over her. The story explores some pretty gritty issues in Hannah’s past and introduces the reader to a range of interesting but not always likeable characters. It is set in three separate time lines, then, now and after, which does occasionally get a little confusing, but the book is moving, well paced, well characterised and is definitely thought provoking.

A unique multi-layered novel with multiple POVs that addresses powerful and emotive subjects in a unique and darkly humorous way. Intergenerational trauma, abuse and grief are all handled with an expert pen. Intense yet beautiful writing.
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own unbiased opinion.

I picked this one to read whilst on a recent holiday, noting that it was described as a ghost story, I did question whether poolside in the searing sunshine was the most appropriate place to read it. Less than twenty four hours later, as I read the final paragraph, I realised that this ‘ghost story’ was one of the best books I’d read this year.

I was captivated from the off; I was engrossed. It describes great sadness, grief and regret but it does so with authentic emotion and humour which make it so relatable. I experienced the highs and the lows with both Max and Hannah and I was as reluctant to let them go as they were each other.

The writing is stunning, I found myself re-reading passages so I could fully appreciate the words, the language and the images which they conjured. I felt almost bereft when I’d finished; thinking about missed opportunities, the things we never say, the stories we don’t tell.

I’ve been trying to put my finger on what it was about this book that had such a powerful effect on me. It is haunting, stunning, moving beautiful and all the rest but I can’t find the words to do it justice. As the phrase goes it just has that ‘je ne sais quoi’ quality.

By far one of my favourite reads this year.

This is another winner from award-winning author, Evie Wyld. In "The Echoes," Wyld explores generational trauma and how this trauma impacts the way we connect and love other people. Wyld creates a large groups of characters (generations of women), and she moves between these characters' points of view throughout the novel. The novel begins as a ghost story about a man named Max who has died and he remains in the flat he shared with his girlfriend, Hannah. The novel then moves to the stories of the women in Hannah's family tree.

While I went into "The Echoes" thinking it was going to be a ghost story, the novel quickly turned into a very serious book about generational pain. Wyld is an expert at the silences and the unspoken facts that permeate relationships (the passive aggressiveness, the anger, the lies we tell ourselves,etc.). She never devolves into melodrama when characters must confront the betrayals and the sadnesses of their lives. Instead, she creates characters we understand and empathise with even as they endure horrific things (trying to be vague as not to spoil the book).

This is definitely one to watch out for as a possible contender for the women's prize for fiction in 2025.

Evie Wyld is just simply a great writer!
This book is a haunting read that is so beautifully and evocatively written the characters and the feelings you have whilst reading it stay with you for a long time. That feels like a cliché to write but it is absolutely true!
The structure of the piece centres around Hannah and her partner Max. The sections are entitled ‘Before’ which explores the relationship of the two protagonists, ‘After’ in which we experience the death of Max who then proceeds to haunt the flat he lived in with Hannah in London. There are also sections entitled ‘Then’ which flashback to Hannah’s childhood in rural Australia. We learn of Hannah’s past and meet her troubled family. Uncle Tone, her mother and older sister Rachel all live together on The Echoes, land that itself is troubled with the past. It used to be the site of a residential school for indigenous children where they were subject to mistreatment and abuse.
The ghosts of this trauma seem to haunt the land also and yet it can also be a place of great beauty and tranquillity for Hannah, yet as a reader equipped with the knowledge of the past juxtaposed with Hannah’s self harming in the present the experience becomes unsettling as you anticipate all is not well. This is further compounded by Max’s death and although his haunting of the flat does provide comic relief, he finds it highly inconvenient to be a ghost, we experience the grief of Hannah in her loss and are as equally powerful to do anything but watch.
Max’s desire to find out what happened to him and what caused his death also works to drive the narrative forward. We realise as readers that we are slowly creeping closer to finding out what happened to Hannah and her family on The Echoes and discovering the reason she ignores her mother’s letters and has lost contact with her sister. Secrets eventually do reveal themselves in poignant and emotive ways. Despite the trauma that has been experienced by characters there is also much that is positive and funny in this book.
A dark book that explores history, narratives and trauma but also on that offers quietly hopeful endings.

This book Was easy to follow whilst the narrative jumps between time to sectioned with Max as a ghost trapped in the flat, who can’t leave. And then the After”; Hannah’s chapters, set in the run-up to Max’s death, called “Before”; and “Then” – flashbacks to Hannah’s childhood in rural Australia.

Lots of fascinating stories inside stories. Full of tension. The characters have you immersed in the storyline and you want to genuinely know why Hannah left for the UK.

Heart wrenching at times. Also dark, witty and laugh out loud.

A story that highlights emotions, grief and trauma. Hidden secrets and how they can shatter your relationships.
And how life really does go on for those left living.

I really enjoyed this book!

A complex, emotional, tense, and compelling novel. It is a heavy read, and I found myself feeling really weighted down by the end of the book, but that does not take away from how gorgeous and important this novel is.

I loved Evie Wyld's Bass Rock and think about it regularly. The joy of being granted access to her new novel "Echoes" was huge.
Unfortunately I couldn't connect with it like I did with Bass Rock. The premise sounds exactly like my cup of tea. In the end I think it was the wrong moment for me to read this. Too heavy, too detailed, too toxic of a relationship. I couldn't understand why Max and Hannah were together. Hannah's past in Australia was of no interest to me. Halfway through I decided not to be miserable as well and to quit this read. If you have to force yourself to keep on reading, you know it isn't worth it.

This is a book that never quite landed with me. It opens with the voice of a ghost who doesn't know how he died or why he's still in the flat where he lived with his girlfriend..

The narrative switches between Before, After and Then; between Australia and London, between past and the future. I felt there were too many perspectives, too many points of view, and the structure felt a bit messy rather than layered.

At heart, this deals with 'echoes' of secrets, grief and loss in personal life and Australia as a colonial nation. There are family secrets to be uncovered and pains to heal.

I've read and liked Wyld before, finding her a powerful, surprising and edgy writer - this one fell flat for me. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood but I wish I'd loved this as much as other reviewers.

The Echoes is a book of family secrets, trauma and love. The storytelling is just masterful, with complicated characters and dynamics unfurling with the kind of ease that makes you forget you're reading and sucks you into the story completely. I loved how the story started off from a ghost's perspective and then gradually the layers peel off and you learn about a huge cast of characters, some who've endured horrors, some who've committed them (and many both), but who are all devastatingly real. Evie Wyld is an incredibly talented writer and I'm so glad I get to read her books.

The Echoes by Evie Wyld blew me away! It's a quietly powerful book of family, and relationships, and love, and how events in the past echo down the ages, affecting generation after generation. Max narrates much of the book from beyond the grave, as he watches his love Hannah continue with what should have been their life together. Hannah herself is struggling to forget her dark past, the tragic events of which she must come to terms with before she can move on. The Echoes is a haunting, profound and ultimately wonderful novel. Awesome stuff from Wyld!

A jewel of a book: ineffably sad, hilariously irreverent and gorgeously layered. The pitch perfect writing draws you into the story from the get-go. Wylde’s style is so naturalistic, so seemingly effortless that she could almost be transcribing the thoughts of real people. At the same time her descriptions are gorgeous. Max, the ghost (it sounds more kooky than it reads) finds himself ‘a tumbleweed of hair and dust’, Natalia remembers ‘the chocolate-cake sound of Grandad’s shovel sinking into the earth of the garden.’ Young Hannah and her sister, spirited and feral, are highlights of the book. A racist old man is described as smelling ‘of earwax and unwashed bum crack’.

Whilst the book covers pretty grim territory, it is also very very funny: I particularly loved the way Max, a keen cook when alive, is so appalled by the culinary crimes committed by Hannah when he dies: “The water is unsalted and not at a rolling boil and the pot is far too small to cook any shape of pasta in…. The pasta will have overcooked by the time she’s chopped a single vegetable…’

The ending landed a bit softly for me but this is a minor point compared with the brilliance of the book as a whole and you may not feel the same. Affecting and wonderful.

“I do not believe in ghosts, which since my death, has become something of a problem”

Straight away from this line, I knew I was going to really enjoy this read. The story is based around an emotionally strained couple, Hannah and Max. There is one problem, however, Max has just died from an accident he can't quite remember. The book is divided into 3 perspectives 'before', 'after' & 'then', based around before Max's death, after Max's death & also Hannah's past, one that she wants to keep from Max & distance from her current self.

This book isn't a comfortable read, but a powerful one, and executes covering topics such as family trauma, love & loss & grief extremely well. This is definitely a read that'll stay with me for a long time!

3,5

The Echoes is about the places we live in and how the things that happened there in the past still reverberate in the present.

Hannah has left her native Australia and now lives with her boyfriend Max in London, who dies in the opening chapter but lives on as a ghost. Via flashbacks we find out Hannah's secrets and why she never wanted Max to meet her parents.

I had not read Evie Wyld before, but quite enjoyed this accessible novel.

This wonderfully complex and compelling novel from Evie Wyld is haunted both figuratively and literally by ghosts and echoes of the past. Hannah is a young Australian woman who has moved to London where she shares a flat with her partner Max. The book opens with Max, who has been killed, returning to the flat and observing Hanna as a ghost – even though up to then he hasn’t believed in ghosts. This sounds, perhaps, a bit whimsical, but in Evie Wyld’s confident hands the conceit works perfectly, as bit by bit the reader discovers the back story. The narrative moves between Max’s chapters as a ghost, title “After”; Hannha’s chapters leading to Max’s death titled “Before”; and chapters titled “Then” describing Hannah’s dysfunctional and traumatic past growing up with her family in Australia. With constantly shifting time frames, perspective and place, it’s not an easy story to navigate but well with the effort. Wyld is an extremely clever writer and handles her material expertly, sustaining the tension throughout as bit by bit everything falls into place. It’s a short novel but one which packs a lot in. Unsettling, tender and sometimes amusing, I found it a marvellous read, which I very much enjoyed.

I was reluctant to describe The Echoes as haunting, given that one of the main characters is a ghost, but it truly is. I read it over the course of a few weeks and felt genuinely emotionally haunted by this book. I kept finding my mind returning to Max's experiences as a ghost, feeling this intense sadness at him being there, but not able to be seen by his girlfriend, Hannah. I found that Max's reduced/absent capacity for emotional response as a ghost allowed for the focus to stay on Hannah's story. It also raises interesting questions around what really 'matters' while we are alive.

The Echoes flits between 'before', 'then' and 'after', offering snapshots of Max and Hannah's relationship, but also weaving in Hannah's childhood in Australia. You get the feeling quite early on that something bad happened, but it is revealed slowly, with layers being peeled away gradually, giving context to decisions made by Hannah's immediate family.

The 'echoes' are not just the echoes left when someone passes away, but also of intergenerational trauma - be advised this book covers topics which may be triggering - abuse and self-harm.

The Echoes will stay with me for a long time.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the digital ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Uk Vintage for allowing me an early read of this beautiful book.
This is my first experience of Evie Wyld's writing and it just pulled me right in.
The story is about a couple in love, Max and Hannah only Max is ripped away from Hannah and she has to learn to grieve.
Wyld has written the story as present day and past as Max permeates throughout their flat as a ghost trying to contact Hannah. We learn how their life was, all their niggles and great times and We get to see how one copes with trauma and tge strategies put in place.
This is a brilliant read. If you want a book that's actually different, this is the book to grab, you won't be disappointed!
Available on 1st August!