This writing reminded me a lot of Taylor Jenkins Reid. I enjoyed the split POV and different timeline. Overall the characters were flat and frankly the story was a little bit boring. It was very predictable and I didn’t find myself WOWed at any moment. I also found Goldie’s absolute obsession with Echo creepy and unprofessional. Yes it gave her a certain drive to get to the bottom of the story, but it was a little strange to me that she had such a personal interest rather than professional interest. I do think this would make a decent movie though.

Hayley Krischer's debut novel, Where Are You, Echo Blue?, is a gripping exploration of fame, obsession, and the dark underbelly of Hollywood. The story follows Goldie Klein, a young journalist in the early 2000s, who becomes obsessed with the mysterious disappearance of Echo Blue, a former child star who vanished from the public eye in the 1990s.

Goldie’s investigation into Echo’s life reveals the hidden complexities of fame and its toll on personal identity, offering readers a layered and emotional narrative. Through dual timelines and perspectives, Krischer paints a compelling picture of the entertainment industry’s impact on mental health and ambition.

With sharp prose and an engaging plot, Where Are You, Echo Blue? draws readers into a world of secrets, lies, and the intense desire for truth. Critics have praised the novel for its insightful storytelling and its ability to delve into the dark side of celebrity culture.

Where Are You, Echo Blue? is a must-read for fans of contemporary fiction and psychological thrillers. A captivating, suspenseful journey that will stay with you long after the final page.

Thank you for the advance copy of Where Are You, Echo Blue? Unfortunately this book did not keep my attention in the ways I hoped it would. I love the cover art and the premise but felt the story fell short.

The trouble with a book like this is that the main character is not at all the most interesting character. I would much rather read Echo Blue’s story in her own words. Certainly echo wouldn’t be as ashamed of shame as our narrator is.

I'm a sucker for books that focus on celebrity of the early aughts, so this was a YES from the moment I read the description. All in all, it was an enjoyable read, if a bit uneven. Echo Blue's sections were far more interesting to me than Goldie's, but it still held my attention enough. This would be a great book to read by the pool in an afternoon.

WHERE ARE YOU, ECHO BLUE? is an entertaining and speculative novel about fandom, believing in yourself, and how far one will go to find the truth. A story about a child star with a troubling past and family who goes missing and her number 1 fan who is determined to figure out the truth. I enjoyed the pacing and the way that the story jumped between past and present. I found the ending to be a bit of a let down but was ultimately entertained. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher - WHERE ARE YOU, ECHO BLUE? Is out now!

For fans of 00s imploding former child celebs like Britney, Lindsay Lohan, and Amanda Bynes. Famous actress Echo Blue has a gig on MTV's live broadcast of the New Year's Eve ball drop, but she doesn't show up. Journalist Goldie decides to investigate for a story on where Echo has gone. Told in alternating perspectives of these two woman, we get Echo's backstory and Goldie's search for her. It wasn't as gripping as I hoped, but I'm always happy to go back to Y2k.

This book just intrigued me because i love reading about other peoples stories.

I loved the back and forth on this book and how Goldie was obsessed with finding her. The author did a great job of portraying how obsessed people can be with celebrities and how they can fast make it their whole life. Goldie's personality really irked me and made me aggravated.

Great read and i will recommend this book .

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to be able to read and review this book!

4/5

The idea behind this book really intrigued me, I absolutely loved the back and forth of Echo's past and how she got to where she is and Goldie's obsessive search for her. Hayley does a great job in portraying how obsessed people become with celebrities, making them their whole lives. I will say there was a point that I was not a fan of Goldie and her personality which slowed down my reading a bit for this book. I definitely think this is a great read and I loved how Goldie found herself and realized that she had a problem.

I was super into this one! The most famous 90s child star goes missing as she is supposed to go on a highly publicized appearance. Goldie knows there’s more to the story. She might be her biggest fan and as a reporter she’s bound and determined to get the story. This is a juicy one that I didn’t want to put down!

Thank you #Dutton and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

While a work of fiction, I feel like Echo's story was one that could easily be a ripped from the headlines story told by a former child star. It was a fascinating examination of the world of "fandoms" and how fans truly feel like they know their favorite stars, when in reality they only know what they choose to show the world. The reader is led to WANT Echo to remain "missing," if only to finally find the peace and stability she craved for so long. Echo's story did not end in the most dramatic way, but it was the most gratifying for the reader.

I want to talk...

A lot

Ill try to keep it short and sweet but, when you read this title, did you really think about where this chick went?

Where Are You, Echo Blue?

Throw in some 90s vibes and child actors and I was all about finding out what was going on with Echo Blue.

I LOVED THIS BOOK

Absolutely amazing and quite literally a masterpiece.

Check out this teaser :

When Echo Blue, the most famous child star of the nineties, disappears ahead of a highly publicized television appearance on the eve of the millennium, the salacious theories instantly start swirling. Mostly, people assume Echo has gotten herself in trouble after a reckless New Year’s Eve. But Goldie Klein, an ambitious young journalist who also happens to be Echo's biggest fan, knows there must be more to the story. Why, on the eve of her big comeback, would Echo just go missing without a trace?

After a year of covering dreary local stories for Manhattan Eye, Goldie is sure this will be her big break. Who better to find Echo Blue, and tell her story the right way, than her? And so, Goldie heads to L.A. to begin a wild search that takes her deep into Echo’s complicated life in which parental strife, friend break ups, rehab stints, and bad romances abound. But the further into Echo’s world Goldie gets, the more she questions her own complicity in the young star’s demise . . . yet she cannot tear herself away from this story, which has now consumed her entirely. Meanwhile, we also hear Echo's side of things from the beginning, showing a young woman who was chewed up and spit out by Hollywood as so many are, and who may have had to pay the ultimate price.

As these young women's poignant and unexpected journeys unfold, and eventually meet, Where Are You, Echo Blue? interrogates celebrity culture, the thin line between admiration and obsession, and what it means to tell other peoples’ stories, all while ushering us on an unruly ride to find out what did become of Echo Blue.

Once again, I was drawn in by a striking book cover, only to be let down by the writing. The concept is compelling — I'm very intrigued by re-examining the pop culture of the early aughts. I loved the idea of a journalist on a quest to find a maybe-missing celebrity, but as some other reviewers noted, this just felt lackluster. Hopefully other readers will enjoy it more than I did.

I've put off reviewing this book for a few weeks, but I think that I am finally in a space where I can talk about just how bad this was fairly comfortably.

As I've said a lot recently I think that I am starting to be the problem here. Books like this where the focus is on fame in the early aughts and how women at that time were treated by the media at large are like a siren call to me. So I keep reading them, and slowly as more of them trickle out to the mainstream they all sort of start to become muddled, none of them really crafting any new points.

This book does something a little different. For the most part it's all set at the dawn of the new Millennium when A-list actress Echo Blue misses a scheduled appearance on MTV's live broadcast of the ball dropping and upstart journalist Goldie makes it her mission to write a cover story on where Echo has gone. Told in alternating perspectives we get Echo's life story and Goldie's search for the actress.

The biggest problem I had with this was namely that Echo is still twenty-ish. She's young, around the same age as Goldie and this is what has given Goldie this parasocial relationship. The book reads as though Echo is much older, as is the people in her life that are part of the search for this missing woman. They read as though they have these long histories with one another when in reality they have just petty teenage drama that has festered in their lives. The commentary on stardom also just sort of falls flat. This doesn't read like a book grounded at the turn of the century. It reads like a book that is only set in the year 2000 to escape the problem of social media, while all of the characters acting as though they live in a world with that being a reality in their lives anyway.

That's nothing of the fact that Goldie's investigation is horrible from beginning to end and doesn't really add anything to the story but a lot of foolishness. The ending... we won't really talk about it. <spoiler>Goldie denouncing something like a Perez Hilton or TMZ before either could really become a media staple after going full Stan to the point she could have inspired Eminem himself was certainly a choice...</spoiler>

All of this is to say that between the flat characters, Echo's lifeless chapters, and an overall story that just sort of does nothing and goes no where made for a pretty lackluster reading experience. Not all books need to be deep, but when they have this kind of premise I do wish that more had something to say about the nature of celebrity and if they don't that they could at least be entertaining and unfortunately this was neither.

Thank you so much to Dutton Books for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this one especially in a time when books are failing to hold my interest, this one definitely did!

I was so curious to learn what happened to missing star, Echo Blue! This one had a little bit of mystery, women's fiction and general fiction and I think it could be enjoyed by a wide audience!

The story is told in from two perspectives: Echo herself and Goldie who is a reporter and also Echo Blue's biggest fan!

This story had me thinking deeply about how much attention and pressure society places on our "stars" and how easily it can become toxic.

Some of the character's choices made me want to scream, but overall I enjoyed it and think it will be a hit!

I really enjoyed this book, set in early 2000 with flashbacks to the 90s. Goldie and Echo are two distinct main characters, we get Goldie as a journalist for a NYC magazine, researching when her favorite actress Echo Blue disappears from public life. We go back and forth between the beginning of Echo's acting career at age 11 and early 2000 when Goldie pitches the story idea and heads to L.A. to look for the truth and maybe find Echo.
TW for addiction, parental abuse and neglect, and grief over losing a parent. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the writing. Krischer is an author l've read before as this is her adult debut after publishing YA. The two main characters have distinct but complementary voices.

Oh, I had so much fun reading this one. Very clearly inspired by Tatum O'Neal and her father Ryan O'Neal, splashed with lots of early aughts troubled starlet vibes, this story perfectly captures that time and place when online media isn't even a thing yet and young women are still being put through the publicity ringer. I'm a sucker for novels about Hollywood, journalism, ambitious young women who are also messy, and daddy issues so I was fully sold from start to finish. I think the resolution of where Echo Blue is felt a little anticlimactic but overall this was a smart, interesting ride.

(Actual: 4.5⭐, rounded up) I loved this book. Prior to reading, I saw a lot of people compare this book to DJ&tS, except.... I don't really see that comparison here? I guess because they're both centered on famous people working within the entertainment industry? Regardless, I'd say those comparisons need to be put to rest because they're honestly not very alike at all. I find the inner-workings of the entertainment industry and how fame impacts those who start off in the business fairly young, especially women, to be extremely fascinating in all their complexities, and so WAYEB was very compelling to in that regard from the very start. The mystery aspect was also well-written and, as always, I'm grateful for dual POVs (which, sidebar, was also a really smart storytelling decision made by the author here imo, it works very well). I'd definitely recommend this book out to others and look forward to reading more works by Krischer in the future!

Child star Echo Blue has disappeared and her biggest fan, reporter Goldie, scores a shot at breaking the news story on her whereabouts. Told through alternate viewpoints, Hayley Krischer’s Where Are You Echo Blue is a nostalgic trip into 90’s/2000’s pop culture. The vibe is low rise jeans with a going out top, and MTV’s TRL with Carson Daley.

For fans of Taylor Reid Jenkins, Sloan Crosley, with a dash of TMZ.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Dutton for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.