What I'm Reading: Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Today I have a review of one of the most anticipated Horror novels of 2022 via Booklist. As usual, I have posted my draft review with extra appeal info, more readalikes, and my "three words."

Echo
By Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Feb. 2022. 416p. Tor Nightfire, $28.99 (9781250759559); e-book, $14.99 (9781250759573). 
First published November 1, 2021 (Booklist).

Dutch Horror master Olde Heuvelt returns with an epic tale of madness that, while less focused than Hex, is just as frightening. Nick and Sam are young, handsome men, blissfully in love, until Nick is horribly disfigured in a climbing accident on Le Maudit, an Alpine mountain that even the locals won’t climb. From the moment Nick is rescued, it is clear that he has brought something dark back with him, a force whose power is spilling out of his wrecked face and infecting others, with deadly consequences. Opening with a masterfully terrifying scene, the stage is set for a high anxiety, cinematic tale, and Olde Heuvelt delivers with an intimate and disorienting storytelling style, told by alternating Sam’s notes as he grapples with demons from his past and present with Nick’s diary entries and a confession, parsed out in five sections. The plot may be a slow burn, but the horror is immersive and the fear paralyzing, as readers experience mortal danger, freezing cold, and debilitating vertigo along with the characters. Clearly reminiscent of classic King tomes, but also for fans of more recent coming-of-age Horror like The Bright Lands by Fram or highly suspenseful stories with a strong sense of place like Road of Bones by Golden.

Further Appeal:  First I want to point out a major things about this book that I would not fit in the review: all of the chapter titles in this book are the titles of classic Horror novels and the epigraph for each chapter is a quote from that book. If you know the book, it adds a layer of enjoyment to each chapter and the story as a whole, but if you do not know the title, it does not ruin it at all. Over time, I found it to be a bit much personally, too many side references, but I can easily envision readers for which this will be a very fun scavenger hunt within the book.

When I say it is not a focused as Hex that is NOT a negative statement. Hex is all about the claustrophobia: the witch who holds the town hostage, they cannot leave, they challenge her and she still wins. It is terrifying because they are trapped and she is physically controlling them.

Echo is the opposite of claustrophobic. It is terrifying because the setting is so vast-- the Alps! Also the supernatural monster is so amorphous. The witch in Hex is a single monster. The deadly monster in Echo is a part of the mountain and has been carried off it by Nick. The power it has on those around Nick, is intense and terrifying.

If Hex had not been so popular, I wouldn't make a big deal about these difference, but these books are very different and many casual Horror readers who loved Hex might be disappointed. So my overall advice to suggest this book is-- if you like Horror in general you will be very happy with Echo. However, if you liked Hex and are not a Horror reader in general, this might not be for you.

A couple of other thoughts while I read:

• Excellent mountain climbing frame and  love story-- not a romance though. Interesting stylistic choices that add to the enjoyment.
• Terrifying but no time to stop and contemplate your fear because the chapters are all different in style and voice
• Immersive-- the dread builds and then it stops and switches you somewhere else-- person, storytelling style. It is disorienting but also keeps the suspense and intensity ratcheted up at 10 for the entirety of its 400 pages. Very well done. 
• Compelling because of these reasons. The pages keep turning. As a reader, it feels like you are trapped int eh story and cannot get out. Like Nick's victims. There is not way out. I am being very vague here because I don't want to give it away but there is a word in the review that gives a bit away after you have read it. 
• Paralyzed with fear while reading, you need to snap out of it each time there is a new chapter.
• Maudit is a real mountain. "CURSED" is the meaning of the word. Googling that while reading added even more chills.
• Cinematic, character driven story line.
• Written in a conversational style because it is notes, correspondences, confessions. It makes it more intimate and more real at the same time.
• Timeline is fluid
• Story filled with ghost stories. Not just the main one. That was cool. Some are concealed in a line or two. 
• Flawed main character- Sam, who has to overcome his own demons and an actual monster. Nick and Sam are great characters. You root for them despite everything-- and everything is A LOT!

Without giving anything away-- even though the setting is vast and outside the normal experience of the average reader-- super serious mountain climbing-- the terror is VERY realistic. It comes into the real world experience of every reader.

Again, it is worth repeating-- the opening scene is AMAZING and TERRIFYING.

My one reason why I didn't give it a star is this: It is missing something larger to bring it all together. Sam is the center but "why" is he telling us this story. His personal journey and confessions while interesting, were not enough to bring it all together for me.

Three words that describe this book: slow burn, terrifying, immersive

Readalikes: As the author says at the start, every single chapter title is a Horror novel that he hopes you read. But those are all older. 

For another newer title, try Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. This is also an epic, Gothic novel that both models itself off of classics in the genre, with gay main characters. Also it has a very specific frame too. While Echo is filled with mountain climbing details, Summer Suns is bursting with cars and drag racing specifics. Many readers love a very specific and detailed frame where they also learn something new. For those readers, this is a great options.

The two in the review above, however, get to the heart of major appeal factors.