Echo is a propulsive read. It is a story about a couple who are facing a terrible tragedy, one of the partners has just been badly injured on a mountain climbing expedition and the other climber killed. The injuries involve terrible disfigurement to his face. At first, the partner is not sure if he can even stay with his boyfriend's face in ruins. Then, the story shifts and takes on a dark and gothic vibe. There are supernatural elements that are play in this story and it is on par with this author's previous work.
This was an okay read for me, but will be high on other readers lists. I think this is the sort of book that the reader either adores or hates, or needs to have the mood hit to read this style of work. Sometimes books work best when you are in the right point of interest or longing for the style.
I still recommend it for those that enjoy the unusual and supernatural thrills/horror.
#Echo #NetGalley #TorForge

This desperately needs an editor, and to be about 200 pages shorter. I love the haunted mountain, the idea of possesion by a literal force of nature! There are some great concepts, some very spooky sections and I did enjoy the character building. But it's ridiculously lengthy and takes way too long to ramp up to anything at all. The pacing feels stilted, we'll finally get something going and then another whole chapter of everyone handwringing about things being bad. A miss, for me.

I received this ARC a couple of days before it released and I’ve finally finished it today.

Typically, I am a quick reader, but I found it difficult to stay engaged with the story at times. Truthfully, this book could’ve been shorter. A lot shorter. There was a lot of unnecessary rambling about facts or anecdotes or stories that only mattered very little or seemingly not at all in the grand scheme of things.

That being said, the story itself IS enjoyable and unique enough. There were some horror moments that I genuinely enjoyed, it just kind of seemed like a horror moment would happen, then it would be pages and pages of filler stories before hopping back to another horror moment (or between significant events).

I do feel like the book starts stronger than it ends, but it’s still pretty interesting. I think it would make an interesting movie. The telling of so many peoples’ stories in this book definitely feel like something that would translate to screen better.

Also wasn’t a fan of the constant use of “cuz” for because, coulda or woulda, and “bro” - among other colloquialisms - because they felt very…unnecessary to like…make it sound hip? Or modern? I’m not sure what the author was going for, but that was a big turn off.

Example of bothersome writing:

“Sure, if I’d heard myself talk like this a coupla months ago, I woulda thought Dude, go flex your macramé club or something,”

Some good quotes:

“In the light, the people in the stairwell will no longer be visible—and not seeing them, while knowing they’re there, is worse than seeing them.”

“I didn’t only give humanity the gift of fire. I cremated them on the spot.”

“‘Possession is obsession with capital penetration.”

“Nick would come every night, my nemesis, my paramour. We would make love, and he would eat up more and more of my emotions and feelings, till nothing would be left besides an echo of what I had once been.”

Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Type: Fiction
Length: 401
Copyright: 2022

After a tragic accident on a difficult mountain, Nick wakes from a coma to find his face disfigured and everyone recoiling from him in terror. What happened to him on the mountain is still partially a mystery to him and his partner but the tragedies that are happening around them cannot be ignored.
I finished this book and sighed a content sigh. Olde Heuvelt has done it yet again. This book manages to completely horrify and delight it’s reader at the exact same time. I will admit I probably should have looked up the features of a mountain before I got halfway through the book (that may have saved me some confusion) and I possibly should have looked at a map of Europe. Despite that, Sam and Nick are completely believable characters. You feel in your heart their love of each other and the anguish of their situation. Echo is almost like a tragic horror-love story. And it was an amazing ride.
Yet another book that I would highly recommend.
Thank you to Netgalley & TorNightfire for the ARC of this in exchange for my unbiased review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire for an advanced eBook copy in exchange for an honest review.

Having read Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt I was super excited to get scared once again ! This book fit the bill, it's terrifying from the start. Don't plan on reading home alone or during a winter storm for sure. The book starts with Julie alone in a cabin in the Swiss Alps, waiting on her brother to arrive. When she sees someone in the hallway, GAH!!!! I couldn't put it down... surrounded by looming mountains and rushing winds and snow this one is a nail biter for sure.
The story is based around Nick our handsome mountain climber who loves the rush of adrenaline he gets from going higher and higher. His husband, Sam is constantly worried about him falling and dying on the side of a mountain while he waits at home for his return. Until the time he gets that dreaded call, Nick is in the hospital and his climbing partner Augustin didn't return. Slowly the story unravels as we hear the harrowing story of how Nick survives the dreaded Maudit mountain. Piece by piece Heuvelt feeds us bird seeds of information... (yes, fear the birds!) . Hang on until the end to see who survives and what really happened on that mountain.

A definite for fans of Horror and Outdoor adventure!

I'm so sorry I didn't manage to read it before release!

I'll be honest: I knew literally nothing about this book going in, but that opening chapter blew me away and I knew I was in for a good one.

After the first chapter (prologue, maybe?), I did get a bit lost, and it took a few chapters for me to adjust to the style of writing and get my bearings on the plot. Once I did though, I was very invested. I thought the characters were well-developed, the plot was utterly creepy and mysterious, and the horror scenes were top notch. Like seriously, some of the most chilling horror descriptions I've ever read in a horror book.

That said, I did find the middle chunk of the book to drag a bit, and I was getting frustrated with the plot not moving fast enough. This is a longer book, and I think the author could have cut quite a bit in the middle to help with pacing.

In the end though, I love where it went. It was powerful, it was interesting, and it was scary. Not an all-time favorite, but I think it'll be one that definitely sticks with me!

Echo is a compelling and terrifying supernatural thriller. By far, this is one of the darkest books I've ever read. When his boyfriend is horrifically maimed after a climbing accident, Sam tries to come to terms with the level of care Nick will now need and quickly becomes overwhelmed by the swift change in their relationship. As Nick begins to heal physically, both Sam and Nick realize that something far darker has found it's way into Nick.
Compulsive, thrilling, and horrifying, Echo is not for the faint of heart.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy. This review will also be posted to my Goodreads page.

5/5 WOW. This one was fantastic. I enjoyed Thomas Olde Heuvelt's "Hex"- if you haven't read it. Do it. Now.

Nick and a companion go hiking in the mountains. They come across a mysterious mountain- there's not much written about it, no one talks about it. But they climb it. Only Nick returns and he's changed. Nick's boyfriend, Sam, tries to figure out what happened and why all these terrible things are happening to people around Nick. This story is a great mix of horror, folk horror, and super scary travelogue. Not to mention it has one of THE BEST opening scenes in a book I've ever read. I read a lot of horror and I was scared.

5/5 I recommend picking up "Hex" first and then jump into "Echo."

"They say the dead want to embrace you. That they want to warm themselves with your life. Because they’re so cold. So very cold."

Nick and Augustine go climbing, and only Nick comes back, sporting horrible injuries and claiming that he has no idea what happened. Something on that mountain was calling to them, and is still calling to Nick after he leaves the hospital and reunites with his boyfriend Sam.

I really wanted to like this book, but in the end I felt really disappointed. I think the writing style threw me off. There's a lot of very interesting stuff in this book, but I think the way it's written makes it difficult to follow.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for giving me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m an avid hiker, so I was incredibly excited to read a horror novel set on a climbing trip in the Swiss Alps. I’ve traveled to a handful of places mentioned by Nick in his travels–I’ve climbed Mt. Taranaki, which is mentioned in passing, and my friends and I got lost in fog near the summit. That’s what I was picturing while I listened to the scenes of Nick and Augustin lost on the Maudit.

Obviously, my favorite scenes were the ones on the mountain! I also enjoyed the creepy Swiss mountain town, which seemed nothing like the picture-perfect ones I’ve visited.

Echo grew on me more and more as I listened. At first I was a little lost, and it definitely helped to have a physical copy to read back through to figure out what had confused me. Without a physical copy, I would have had to restart the audiobook a few times for clarity. At the beginning, I thought I might not be smart enough to follow the author’s train of thought. Once I got a hang of the story, though, I began to really like it.

Relationships aren’t usually the focal point of horror novels, but I really liked Nick and Sam’s. I also liked Sam’s relationship with his little sister. The scene where she brought him his childhood teddy bear to give him courage was so sweet!

I definitely think horror fans will enjoy this creepy, atmospheric story.

I can't quite believe this is a translation. Its prose rings like a crystal wineglass.
<blockquote>Every year, climbers—sometimes entire teams—disappear into deep glacial voids and die in their frozen darkness. If the mountain is merciful, the drop is deep enough to smash them into silence in one go. Most victims, however, are trapped between blue, narrowing walls of ice, and as their body warmth melts the ice, they sink slowly deeper and deeper, until they die very consciously of asphyxiation.</blockquote>
I can't quite believe I have a son named Sam (he's so much like me it's scary) who lives in a novel. By a Dutch guy. Whom I've never met.
<blockquote>There are November mornings when the cold is clear, crackling, and crisp, but this cold was sticky, syrupy, clung to you. Like it was begging you for help. You, the first organism to have crossed its path, and would you <I>please</i> take it with you and protect it from what's about to happen, because that was much, much worse than the cold itself.

Jesus. The Morose hadn't even got started yet and my metaphors were already going haywire.</blockquote>
I can't quite write a real review yet...still stunned, too scared to go back and figure out why...but it's a week ago the book came out and honestly I'm still shook that all y'all ain't got it on your nightstands yet.
<blockquote>You’ve often asked me why I climb mountains. You’ve also often asked me (I wouldn’t say begged, though it’s not far off the mark) to stop. Our worst argument was about this, and it was the only time I was really afraid that I would lose you. I’ve never been able to fully explain it to you. I wonder if it’s at all possible to fully explain to someone who isn’t a climber. There’s an apparently unbridgeable gap between the thought that I risk my life doing something as trifling as climbing a cold lump of rock and ice…and the notion of traveling through a floating landscape, progressing with utmost concentration while having absolute control of the essential balance that keeps me alive and that, therefore, lets me live. Conquering that gap is possibly the most difficult climb in the life of any alpinist who is in a relationship.</blockquote>
What is wrong with people?! Go get this terrifying, propulsive, exquisitely personal and depressingly universal horror-adjacent thriller. Go on! March, young scalawag.

An absolute stunner once again! I love Thomas Olde Heuvelt's writing in Hex and I was so glad to have been completely sucked into Echo. Fantastic read

3.5 stars

The synopsis for this book had me intrigued right off the bat, but the story itself is what kept me coming back for more.

Nick Grevers awakes from a coma with his face covered in bandages and unable to speak. He also learns that his mountain climbing partner, Augustin, is missing and presumed dead. Though he claims to have amnesia at first, Nick actually remembers everything that happened up on that mountain. The Maudit is a remote and dangerous peak in the Swiss Alps, and no one comes back alive when attempting to climb it, but Nick somehow survived…though he didn’t come back alone. The mountain awakened something inside of him, and now everyone around him is suffering from the effects.

This was quite the thriller, and I enjoyed the horror and supernatural aspects thrown into the mix. The characters were great too. The banter between Sam and Nick definitely helped lighten the dark mood of the book, and I loved Sam’s witty sense of humor. I did find the story to be a bit on the long side though. Some scenes dragged on for too long and felt repetitive, while others were a little on the vague side. By the end of the story, I was left with more questions than answers, and for that reason, I’m not sure if I would recommend this book.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4534460291

This is one of those books that I would describe as being delightfully creepy in all the best ways. I had such a great time reading through this horror novel and getting to know the setting and characters that Heuvelt has created. I loved the mountain setting and the fact that the author drew from his own climbing experiences to add some detail and content that made it feel that much more realistic and nail-biting at times. This was also a bit of a weird book at times, but if you're into that then I think you'll really enjoy this one and get along well.

DNF at 25%

I read Hex by this author and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I was excited to read another book by him. Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me. The prologue was very intriguing, but it lost me after that. The timeline was confusing and I found myself not wanting to read every time I picked it up.

This book gets the award for most terrifying start of a novel. This book had such creepy imagery throughout the whole thing. Still thinking about certain parts of this book made the hair on the back of my neck stand up! My only complaint is I thought it was a tad long and there were a few parts I just skimmed but there were plenty of parts that made up for that! I also think that there was a great disservice done by not advertising that this is gay horror. I think to many people that is a selling point on it's own because there isn't a ton of LGBTQ horror. Overall this.is gonna be added to my All Time Favorite Horror list.

I will most certainly be reading Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (I've heard only great things!), but unfortunately Echo was a DNF for me. The beginning was SO strong and creepy and wonderful, but the more I read the more unintentionally disjointed it felt. It's my understanding that this is a translated work, so perhaps it simply doesn't come across the same way in english as it does in its original language, or hey, maybe it wasn't translated as it should have been - I couldn't say, I just know it became incredibly confusing for me the more I read. Again, I'll most certainly be reading Hex - I've already purchased - but this one wasn't for me. I would prefer not to rate this since it's a DNF for me, and that seems unfair to the author, so please note that my rating selection is because it's required.

I loved Hex, so I was super excited to get my hands on this one! I'm not a big enough name on Goodreads for Tor to approve me on Netgalley, but they had a thing where this book was available to download for anyone for a short period of time, and I snagged it! Score one for the underdogs! :)

Anyway, this one started off with a real bang. I don't think it's as scary as Hex was, but there's definitely something creepy about this one. I loved it. It's obvious the author knows his way around mountain climbing, because it all felt authentic and was so vividly described that you couldn't help but feel like you were up on the mountain with them. Love the unique story, the various locations, the smattering of foreign languages, the relationship between Sam and Nick, and just the idea behind the whole thing. I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it.

I really enjoyed it, and I'm definitely an official Tomas Olde Heuvelt fan! :)

A super big thank you to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for making this available to download so a small fish like myself could enjoy it and review it! :)

It was a free copy, but my opinions are very much my own.

If House of Leaves was a Mountain... That is the though that kept echoing through my mind as I read this cold, no glacially-freezing, slow burn of supernatural and psychological horror. At 416 pages, Echo should have been a quick read for me, but Thomas Olde Heuvelt wove his story in such a way that I lost track of time and my page count seemed stagnant despite reading on. The disorienting atmosphere was absolutely stifling, and I could sense the dizziness and breathlessness creep in beneath my covers as the snow was falling, falling, falling outside my windows. The sense of doom, even my own doom, seemed inevitable. This is a perfect read for a snow-bound weekend and those who feel the written word instead of just read them. Thank you NetGalley and Tor/Nightfire for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Long review short: I’m absolutely terrified of mountains now. Also possibly all of Switzerland.

“When did the idea first pop into my head that Nick’s trauma in the mountains had awakened some dangerous thing in him?”


Nick and Sam have been together for three years, but Sam hasn’t stopped worrying every time Nick goes mountain climbing. And then, he gets the call – Nick has been badly injured in the Swiss Alps and his climbing buddy is missing, presumed dead. Nick claims he doesn’t remember what happened, but some of the circumstances of his accident don’t quite add up. Before long, even Sam can’t logically explain away all of Nick’s differences. Torn between love and fear, what will it take for Sam to finally understand what happened on the mountain?

For the most part, the story is told through documents: notes from Sam, records from various doctors, emails, all interspersed with Nick’s written journal, a slow reveal of exactly what happened in the mountains. It’s somewhat slowly paced, but the tension builds steadily. After an absolutely gripping first chapter, the story skips back to Sam arriving in Switzerland after Nick’s accident, terrified and not sure what this will mean for their relationship. Sam is a well-drawn character, someone who freely admits that he was shallow enough to agree to date Nick because of how he looked at the gym with his shirt off. Unlike Nick, who’s Dutch, Sam is American and has that particular brand of sarcasm, something that he hopes will serve him well as he faces Nick’s uncertain recovery. Sam doesn’t think of himself as the strong one; he’s the one who’s always leaning on Nick, and the prospect of having to be that shoulder for him is overwhelming. Nick describes him once as “little, fragile Sam” and while Sam takes that initially as a physical descriptor, it’s also true of him emotionally. Part of that is that Sam has his own childhood trauma that he’s dealing with, one that makes him hate the outdoors and mountains in particular.

“If you, the climber, hear the mountain’s call, it will bewitch you, it will intoxicate you, and you will realize that you could fathom her only if you succumb to it—if you go up.”


Nick, on the other hand, loves the mountains. Mountain climbing is not a thing I’ve ever been interested in, but the author frankly does a great job at explaining why Nick loves it so much. It’s a sort of spiritual cleansing for him and something that’s as an integral part of Nick as Sam’s trauma is of himself. But while the two men may seem like opposites, they’re also deeply committed to each other. And that’s the genius of this book. It’s primarily a horror story, yes, but it wouldn’t work without the unconditional love between Nick and Sam. It’s one thing to be drawn into an unspeakable primordial horror; it’s another thing entirely to watch that happen to your loved one, and you can guess which one my romance-loving heart prefers. Sam’s terror at how this will affect their relationship slowly turns to terror once he starts accepting that what came back from the mountain isn’t wholly his Nick. It’s his determination to prove that his Nick is still there, that he can be saved, that kept me frantically turning pages.

Each chapter is named for a classic horror book and contains an initial quote; it didn’t take long to realize they were foreshadowing the events of that chapter. There’s more meta bits woven throughout, like one character complaining about his hatred of jump scares. Along with Sam’s humor, those parts added enough levity to make the book not feel stifling heavy. But while for the most part I think the pacing was well done, there were a few chapters that felt bogged down, where nothing really happened to further the story.

“When you go, please drag me down with you into the darkness.”


Overall, this was an engrossing slow-burn horror tale, full of love and determination, and I will be definitely be adding this author to my watch list.

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.