Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer review

Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer review

Synopsis: 

Echo Alkaev’s safe and carefully structured world falls apart after her father leaves for the city and mysteriously disappears. Believing he is lost forever, Echo is shocked to find him half-frozen in the winter forest six months later, guarded by a strange talking wolf—the same creature who attacked her as a child. The wolf presents Echo with an offer: for her to come and live with him for a year. But there is more to the wolf than Echo realizes.

In his enchanted house beneath a mountain, Echo discovers centuries-old secrets, a magical library full of books-turned-mirrors, and a young man named Hal who is trapped inside of them. As the year ticks by, Echo must solve the mystery of the wolf’s enchantment before her time is up—otherwise Echo, the wolf, and Hal will be lost forever.

My thoughts: 

5/5 stars.

This book was so immensely good. Honestly to be quite frank, I’m still shocked as to how this is not getting more hype. Apart from the whole ‘Beauty and the Beast’ retelling thing, this book is a must read for fans of high fantasy.

The writing was rich and powerful and lush in its descriptions of the surroundings, this book wasn’t meant to be just words on a page, this is a book I experienced with all of my senses, the world was so beautifully put together that I felt like I’d stepped into one of the mirror books myself and was this harmless spectator amidst it all.

The characters were well rounded, perhaps ever so slightly static, but very well rounded and that certainly helped add to the already close to enchanting story. Echo was such a fierce badass character, when I grow up I want to be just like her. Honestly, she’s a great character who makes mistakes, who experiences multiple emotions at once, long story short, she was human. And she was stubborn and I especially loved her during the ending of the book. She was so brave and courageous.

This story was so beautiful and oh my goodness, I never expected to like it this much, but I did and I constantly think about it. This story definitely sinks its hooks into you and leaves you wondering what the future has in mind for the two main characters of the story.

This book reminded me a lot of a book by Thea Stilton (Elisabetta Dami) which I believe hasn’t been translated into English, but I remember reading that book when I was eleven or twelve and being enthralled by it. I really loved the feeling that book gave me as I read it. This book made me feel almost precisely the same as back then.

A must read!