Echo

Wow! This book was absolutely fantastic. I was drawn in from the start and didn’t stop until I was done. Can not wait for more by author.

Having read and listened (I am greedy) to Hex I have been waiting for this book with baited breath (ok with anticipation at the very least) it’s not at all what I expected but this does not detract from what is a very good work of fiction, I am not going to give spoilers or regurgitate the synopsis which a lot of reviewers seem to do, read and enjoy

A young girl, Julia, trapped in a snowbound chalet in a mountainous area of Switzerland, is under attack by ghostly apparitions. Her brother, Sam, rushing to save her, is struggling through unnatural levels of snow on roads closed to all traffic but a snow plough. Her brother’s boyfriend, Nick, horrifically scarred after an ‘accident’ on a mountaineering expedition is missing and believed to be a danger to himself and others. This sounds like a fairly classical format for a psychological thriller or a horror story, but in this instance it appears to be both. Nick has becomes obsessed with climbing The Maurit, a peak deep in the Swiss Alps about which there is little information other than allusions to suspicious and secretive villagers’ tales that no one who has tried to climb it has ever returned. During the climb, strange delusions affect him and his partner, Antoine. The latter disappears, presumed dead, and Nick returns with a massive wound across his face.
I said this was a combination of psychological thriller and horror, this is why:
Both Nick and Sam had traumatic experiences of mountains at an early age, which led Nick to become a risk-taking climber and Sam to have an abiding fear of climbing. These different psychologies colour the way the story evolves. When Nick returns he is supernaturally possessed by the mountain and, when his attempts at control fail and the Maudit breaks through, he become a monster and mass murderer. The horror elements are well written, though somewhat formulaic, and the mountain climbing sequences are clearly written by someone with experience. It is a cross between ‘Touching the Void’ and a Lovecraftian Cthulhu tale, with the mountain as an elder cosmic god.
The book is written as a series of first person narratives, mostly by Nick and Sam, interspersed with quotations from Horror stories from the past, particularly by H. P. Lovecraft, who was obviously a major influence. In the past I have read all of HP’s oeuvre and can feel little touches throughout. I think the translator, Moshe Gilula, deserves applause for what must have been a challenging effort to turn Dutch horror based language into English/American horror based language.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

This is the second book by Thomas Olde Heuvelt that I have read.  Hex was the first, which I really enjoyed, as have many other readers.  But I think I enjoyed this latest book more, though I am not sure 'enjoyed' is the right word to describe my experience of this book, and it certainly is an experience.  

Echo is a story about a mountaineering trip that goes disastrously wrong.  Nick returns from the mountain badly hurt but alive.  His climbing buddy wasn't so 'lucky'.  But perhaps Nick got the short straw after all as it seems that he may have brought a dangerous and sinister part of the mountain home with him. 

This book is so sad, creepy, ominous.  I actually found a lot of it exhausting in its relentlessness. But there are a few little bits of dark humour in the story, particularly in the parts narrated by Nick's boyfriend, Sam.  Clever little wry chuckles where the reader can take a breath before the tension ramps up once more. The descriptions of the mountains and the mechanics of climbing are amazing and very detailed and are obviously well researched. This is a truly amazing story with all types of horror by the bucket load.  I really hope the book does as well as Hex did.  I will certainly be recommending it and it will stay with me for a very long time.

I used to think mountaineering sounded exciting and loads of fun.  Ha ha. Nope.

Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt.
When climber Nick Grevers is brought down from the mountains after a terrible accident he has lost his looks, his hopes and his climbing companion. His account of what happened on the forbidden peak of the Maudit is garbled, almost hallucinogenic. Soon it becomes apparent more than his shattered body has returned: those that treat his disfigured face begin experiencing extraordinary and disturbing psychic events that suggest that Nick has unleashed some ancient and primal menace on his ill-fated expedition.Nick's partner Sam Avery has a terrible choice to make. He fell in love with Nick's youth, vitality and beauty. Now these are gone and all that is left is a haunted mummy-worse, a glimpse beneath the bandages can literally send a person insane. Sam must decide: either to flee to America, or to take Nick on a journey back to the mountains, the very source of the curse, the little Alpine Village of Grimnetz, its soul-possesed Birds of Death and it legends of human sacrifice and, ultimately, its haunted mountain, the Maudit.
This book was creepy and spooky and eerie. I loved it. 5*.

A very interesting book, one I simply couldn't put down. I can't wait to see more from this author.

Thanks for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.