Echo

ECHO is a wonderfully complex novel (if you've read Author Heuvelt's earlier novel, HEX, you will certainly retain some idea of his complexity and imaginative gifts). With LGBTQ + rep delightfully done, settings supremely designed in Amsterdam and Switzerland, a superb vein of rural European Folk Horror, ECHO is fascinating, riveting....and extremely terrifying.

After reading Thomas Olde Heuvelt's Hex, I knew immediately that his upcoming USA release for Echo would be right up my alley. The story is a supernatural horror taking form and causing havoc upon a gay couple? SOLD.

This story focuses on Nick Grevers and his boyfriend Sam Avery. Nick is a major fan of mountain climbing, while his boyfriend Sam is apprehensive about this hobby of his. They met several years prior, with Sam moving from New York to Europe to be with him. However, Nick and his climbing partner Augustin reach trouble at a remove mountain peak in the Swiss Alps, specifically called Maudit. Unbeknownst to Nick, he wakes up in a coma and Augustin is dead. Nick's face, once beautiful and provided him the luxury of privileges he took for granted, is now completely scarred from the nose down. Nick's face is mutilated and even with reconstruction surgery, he will never be the same Nick again. Sam is scared about what that means for their relationship as they are still young and naïve about romance. Will Sam stay with Nick? The old Nick may not look the same anymore, but something else is also brewing inside of him, what exactly is Nick hiding from that night?

I want to be vague on the synopsis because I went in only knowing it was gay and horror, and I want you to go in knowing as little as possible as well. It's a bit longer than it should be, but ultimately its a powerful story about love and acceptance, mental health, and of course, all intertwined with supernatural horror. I really loved the main characters in their own specific ways and at the core of this book is a romance (in my opinion). This story is really dark and the first chapter in the book is one of the scariest pieces of fiction I've ever read in my life. I don't really know how to compare this book with anything else I've read, but I definitely got Insidious / Conjuring vibes, I guess?

This story isn't for everybody, but if you like slow burning suspense, mixed with deep character driven narratives, I say go for it. Echo is very much like Hex in a sense that at times, the author lets your mind come to your own conclusions to certain plot points. The scariest thing in the world is one's own imagination, and Echo reeks havoc on it. I hope to see more of these types of novels from Thomas Olde Heuvelt.

Echo is a well-crafted book that uses supernatural horror as lens through which the author explores deeper, and ultimately more human, horrors such as: losing a loved one, how a relationship shifts over time and through trials, the way guilt can shape our view of the world, and the fear of losing yourself. A very engaging read & wickedly atmospheric.

Echo is a story that stars loving couple Nick and Sam, who are going through a 'rough patch' in their relationship after a mountain-climbing accident scars Nick both physically and mentally. Also, Nick might be possessed. Things escalate from there, with the narrative covering multiple perspectives and different points in time so the reader has a clearer picture of what is going on and why all these horrific events are happening.

With some of the most out there scenes I've ever read and some truly horrifying events and imagery, this book is a must for both horror fans (especially those who enjoyed Hex) and I guess also for mountain climbers who want to get into horror novels. There is a surprising amount of mountain climbing information here.

While I greatly enjoyed this book, I will say that something felt off about the pacing or maybe the story was a little too long. I thought that the length cuts into the tension the book is building, a tension that I felt Hex really excelled at stringing out as long as humanly possible. When the book does build that atmosphere of dread though, well... it is quite an experience.

This book opens with a terrifying sequence that made me want to get into bed and pull the covers over my head!

I've also read Hex by this author, and I think that Echo is a level up from that book. The author wants to make you feel the implacability and disregard of the natural world. One of the characters in the book is "possessed" by a mountain, though, so nature can sometimes take notice and you really might not like that. The author uses the term "possession" a bit differently than the normal horror trope, though. It's more like being enthralled and possessed by an impulse to climb. Nick, the mountaineer character, also takes souvenirs of each summit he masters, so he also wants to possess the mountains that he succeeds in climbing.

There's a lot about souls in this book. The Maudit seems to have a soul, and it also seems to have Nick, or vice versa. The Maudit is a repository for all the blackness (or is it all the goodness) of the souls of the people that die there. The author wonders what it would be like to be the remnant, or echo, of a person after all that makes them "human" is taken away. What happens if you have nothing to counteract all your worst impulses? We all have those black flashes of thought; what if nothing inside you held you back from acting on them?

Sam, Nick's boyfriend, hates the mountains. He's held by a past traumatic event that he can't let go and he hates the mountains because they remind him of it. I had a hard time understanding Sam's aversion. On the other hand, Nick relates in great detail just how dangerous it is up on a tall summit and how one mistake can be deadly. The cold, the wind, the ice, the cracks and snowslides that can make you fall, that felt real to me.

Although I didn't entirely like either Sam or Nick, I did really like their relationship. At the beginning of the book, Sam is trying to come to terms with Nick's disfigurement. He's mourning the loss of all they had taken for granted, and that everything will be different now. Is he up for it? He isn't entirely sure, and he despises himself for that. But these two seem to have a bond that makes them sacrifice for each other, to hold to each other despite their worst impulses, and that's a love to admire. There's talk about submission, about losing oneself in the other, that was both romantic and a little scary. They're both all in, but is that a good idea if one of you is dangerous and can't control himself?

So, scary things include body horror/facial disfigurement, danger from the heights of the mountain, not being in control of your body, not knowing what your lover is capable of, falling (being afraid of falling is such a basic human instinct, isn't it? this author makes you really feel it and I wonder why more horror doesn't deal with this), evil birds, evil villagers (this author really doesn't seem to care for villagers), ghosts, being restrained while you sleep unknowing (the vulnerability of sleeping with a loved one), nature itself.

The end of the book was a bit quick after the meditativeness of the build to the climax. It felt a bit psychedelic. It surprised me a bit- the author had such a bleak ending in Hex that I wasn't expecting any mercy. (The town of Black Rock is namechecked in this book!) But I'm not complaining.

Animal danger alert: the pet cat lives! However, a couple of wild animals are killed, one in a very gory way.

Things I loved:
1.) The atmospheric horror and increasing dread. If I wasn’t terrified of mountains, I would be now.
2.) Nick’s diary entries.
3.) The folk horror/mythology.
4.) Images I had to read over and over because they were SO. GOOD.

Things I did not love, but are definitely subjective:
1.) It took me a long time to get my bearings. Maybe my own fault, but I couldn’t get settled in the shifting times and perspectives.
2.) I hated Sam’s slang. This may be a translation issue, not a writing issue.
3.) This was only 416 pages, but felt much longer.

And then the ending…beautiful. Took this from a solid 3 star to an easy 4.

Many, many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.

This was genuinely a terrifying read. Beautifully crafted, both enchanting and horrifying. The characters are flawed and charming, the imagery vivid, and overall a captivating story. I recommend a pair of warm socks and maybe a scarf while you read because Echo was chilling.