i liked this one, but i feel like it just scaped my range because i am no longer a teenager and this seems more aimed for teens that whatnot, so i think that everyone who is around that age will enjoy it!

I love me a good YA contemporary book and this one did not disappoint,

The protagonist of this book, Griffin, started off as very unlikeable and I was concerned I mate hate him. I usually DNF books if I dislike the main character. Thankfully, he evolved throughout this book, became more self-aware and turned into an amazing protagonist. Just a perfect learning path for a YA main character.
Max who is the other major character, was his complete opposite and a big reason of why I kept reading this book. She influenced Griffin positively and seemed so real in her responses and reactions.
I appreciate that Griffin's character development took a long time, as it was more realistic and relatable. Max was also a great friend and their relationship was sweet and touching.
I was unprepared for all the emotions this book will bring out. But I'm glad I read it - even while ugly crying or laughing.

This is a voluntary review! Thanks to NetGally for the ARC.

I really enjoyed In the Echo of this Ghost Town. I read it straight after CL Walters other book and really enjoyed both. The interactions between all characters were really well done. I will definitely be reading more from CL Walters in the future.

4/5 stars. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest thoughts.

<i>In the echo of this ghost town</i> is such a refreshing read. Griffin, the main character, is fully alone after a fight with his best friends, and on top of all that, toxic masculinity has a chokehold on him. But then, he gets a job and meets Max, both a huge change in his life.

In love with Max. She is kind, stunningly written and very well fleshed out. She felt like an actual person, a friend you’d have around.

I am so impressed by Griffin’s character development. The author deserves all the praise for her accomplishments. I love

Of course, this couldn’t be done without the immaculate writing. It is plain and simple, fits Griffin’s character, and is also still poetic. I cannot wait to buy a physical copy and to annotate it!

The only complaint here is that the book is kind of too long? I think there were too many filler paragraphs, and long ones at that, that I think could have easily been cut out.

The end was so, so good! even though a very sad thing happens, it is still a nice and bittersweet ending.

Not much to say about this book. I enjoyed it and it's definitely not something I'd usually pick. But would recommend.

I read this book at the perfect moment, when I needed a sweet, engaging story packed with emotions. I liked that the author let us see the story through Griffins head, and also all the turmoil that he felt. Towards the end I felt that the story dragged a bit and it was a little to much emotion-packed scenes for me. It felt a little exaggerated which was a pity since she did a good job writing the story from the pov of a teenage boy.

Wow. This was… AMAZING! And it caught me totally by surprise. It made me feel so many different emotions and I haven’t cried so hard with a book for some time now.

Griffin, our MC, is so unlikeable in the beginning that I went into this thinking I would hate him. He was self-centered, drunk and a douche to everyone that came close to him. Due to his actions, he lost all his friends and didn’t seem to think he was at fault. But throughout this book he evolved and got more self-aware, and I started liking him more and more, in the end, I think he is the perfect MC for this story. What I liked most is, that his personality didn’t change over night and that it took time and relapses into old behavior, because that made it feel so real. No one can change who they are without putting work into it and Griffin was no exception to that.

Max, another major character, was completely different from Griffin but I could see the influence she had on him and how she was a great friend to him, even though he was awful at times, but she was human and real too and only couldn’t take so much before she broke down.

Like I said it made me feel all the emotions and I loved it for that. Please give Griffin and his story a chance, he deserves it.

I loved this book! It is so well written, I was drawn into the story immediately. Griffin’s relationship with Max is a good old slow burn, which I love. It didn’t feel rushed or unrealistic which makes this a great contemporary YA book.

In fact, all of griffin’s relationships are written brilliantly. With his family, his friends. Griffin had such a great character arc and it was a joy to read.

TW: miscarriage.

3.5 stars

I have to say I didn't expected to cry as much as I did with this book but it truly hit home in many ways.
This was... felt real and sadly will be relatable to many people.
Griffin was so broken and full of anger and issues but you know why and how everything in his life made him that way and yes at the beginning you won't like him but by the end you will root for him, especially because he becomes someone else... someone better.
Max was a beautiful character and I liked their relationship.
The ending felt a little bittersweet but overall the story was wonderful .

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

this story was okay. i didn't really connect with the characters or feel immersed in this narrative but again, i just think YA is disappointing my personal preference once again. i can see why this is well loved though, so i appreciate what it attempted to do here. it just wasn't for me.

- thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Happy Pub Day to C.L. Walters!

The title and blurb drew me to this one. I went in pretty blind not knowing what to expect but I definitely enjoyed reading this. I didn’t know there was a prequel to this but I still managed to follow the story just fine. This was a little slow for me at times but it is filled with emotion that takes you on a journey of difficult truths, heart breaks and forgiveness.

This story follows Griffin, a high school graduate, who is dealing with many personal issues. This stems off from an unhappy childhood. His father was arrested before his eyes and his brother, Phoenix, left the family not long after. He felt abandoned. Burying the pain, Griffin became closed off and copes through anger and alcohol in order to hide his insecurities. Then, Griffin met Max. She helped him realise that he doesn’t always have to put up an angry front. Griffin learnt to cope in a healthier way with Max but life has its twists and turns. Griffin finds himself being tested again and again.

I love that there is so much character development with Griffin. Initially, I didn’t like his character much because he always say hurtful things and tend to make horrible decisions. But he has his reasons for behaving this way and once I knew why, my heart really went out to him. He was a very conflicted character, often lashing out when feeling frustrated or upset but he slowly learnt to let go of all his pent-up frustrations, he learnt to let go of his self-loathe and he learnt to open up to people he love.

This story can happen to anybody. Walters showed that life is messy, we don’t always make the right choices, being able to open up and forgive and letting go of what is holding you back. There is something heartwarming about Griffin wanting to make a change in his life so he can be a better person. I felt so proud of all that he achieved in the end.

One thing that I really love is the fact that Walters didn’t shy away from boys being able to talk about their feelings without shame. She showed that crying isn’t a weakness and it is perfectly fine to be vulnerable. This was a delight to read and I am currently reading ‘When the Echo Answers’ where the story is told in the perspective of Max. I am curious to see what goes through Max’s mind during Griffin’s self discovery.

Thank you Netgalley and Xpresso Book Tours for the arc.

4 1/2 stars

In the Echo of this Ghost Town is a hard, yet rewarding, read. It will make you angry, make you cry, and still give you hope for a better tomorrow.

The opening of the book was a bit of a struggle for me to read. I wasn't invested in the characters and didn't much care about the fight between the friends. But I kept reading, and I'm so glad I did.

Griffin is all kinds of messed up. He's taken all of his pain and shoved it down deep, letting it fester so that he lashes out not only at those around him, but even attacks himself. Drowning his pain in alcohol and parties, he didn't realize how far he'd fallen, until he had nowhere to go but up.

Enter "Weird Girl."

The moment Griffin met Max, I knew something was about to happen. She sparked his interest, intrigued him unlike anyone ever had, and didn't let him get away with being a complete jerk. With Max, Griffin realized he needed to become a better person. Not only to ever have a chance at a true friendship, but also for himself.

In the Echo of this Ghost Town isn't about the end destination so much as the journey... Isn't that what life really is? A journey? I enjoyed seeing Griffin grow as a person, loved how patient Max was with him while remaining tough and telling him what he needed to hear and not always what he wanted to hear. The dynamic between the two was amazing. The book touches on some hard topics, but life isn't easy so why should a fictional character's not be just as messy and screwed up?

Definitely worth the read!

Thanks to Netgalley for this e-ARC in exchange of an honest review

"In the Echo of this Ghost Town" is about Griffin, who graduated not long ago and has been under a lot of bad things. With a father in prison, a ghost brother and a mother who works a lot, he faces problems in a different way. And because of his personality, Griffin ended losing his friends.

Griffin feels lost without their friends until he meets Max, who is new in the town and the daughter of his boss. When he meets her start to realize all the mistakes he has been doing, how he treated everyone around him and wanted to be a good friend for Max. Together with her, Griffin will discover new things and feelings.

I was really curious because of the synopsis and the pretty cover of the book, and at first the story was interesting, seeing how the character of Griffin makes progress and change into a new and better person, but I feel that the book was a little slow paced. I wanted more action and not only Griffin regreting her actions throught all the book and wanted to make things work only when he was with Max.

In general, it was a good book to read because of the big change of Griffin after meeting Max and the story was slow paced for me.

I would like to thank the publishers and the author for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It was evident from the Griffin's introduction that he is not a great person and is experiencing a whirlwind of emotions within him that causes him to lash out and cause pain to those he loves. There were moments in the book where his actions leave you frustrated and emotionally exhausted as a reader. However he does begin to make amends when he meets Max and realises that much of the problems he experiences are often created by him.

I loved the bond between Griffin and Max and how their friendship transitions to love; slowly and steadily. Max is certainly not the perfect girl who is set out to save Griffin and she also faces insecurities and challenges of her own. Together, they find a sense of purpose and direction within each other and watching these experiences unfold was a true delight!

Walters knows how to pen a story that is equal parts poignant, dark and heart breaking whilst also showing us that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We see Griffin work on himself and the relationships he shares as he makes apologies and grows to be a better person. Walters explores the concept of toxic male culture and how it tells us "men shouldn't cry" and the repercussions of this thinking. Griffin has one of the best character arcs I have read in a book and I was thoroughly impressed with how organically Walters' writes his journey.

I also loved how we get a book that is fully told from a male perspective. This doesn't often happen in YA contemporary books, so I found this to be refreshing and engaging!

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't expecting In the Echo of this Ghost Town to make feel so many different emotions while reading it. At first, I wasn't a huge fan of Griffin Nichols. Mostly because he seemed to be a self-centered douche canoe who only wanted to drink to become drunk and make horrible decisions. Then it would say something that would somehow annoy me and make me feel so freaking bad for him.

He felt alone all the time. His dad left and his brother disappeared all when he was pretty young. So when they both come back into this life, well, it's safe to assume he has a shit ton of questions. Mostly because he has no idea where his brother Phoenix went off to but he did know that his dad went off to jail.

Shit definitely hit the fan throughout this book. Griffin doesn't make life easy but he tries his hardest to make things right. It just takes him a bit longer to do so. I'd like to thank Max for being an awesome influence on him because she definitely made him better. Even after he continued to mess up on certain things.

The ending definitely made it all bittersweet because of what went down. Again, this book made me feel all the feels guys. I might have cried.. and I might have ate some chocolate. I'm also really excited to jump into the next book too.

This story is rife with character development. The conflicts and emotions written within the pages accurately fit within the ya genre. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a cooking of age story deep with meaning. The dialog is also medium paced and the length of the novel is reasonable.

Griffin's dad is in prison and years after that, his brother left him and his mom. The book starts with Griffin fighting and ending a friendship with Tanner. From that, we could see that Griffin has problems on handling his emotions, he tends to be defensive of it. Then, he gets a job and starts a friendship with his boss's daughter, Max. Soon, the friendship blossoms into something more.

Just from reading the plot summary, I know it's going to be a book with heavier topics. It's all about Griffin making his life right with the help of Max. Just when I thought everything was going right, there's a new complication coming up. It's an emotional rollercoaster especially towards the end of the book.

Overall, it is a good book. 😊