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jessversteeg's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Death, Death of parent, and War
tiffyb's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
The Echo of Old Books started STRONG- I thought it might be five-star book. The premise was fantastic, the writing was beautiful, and the love story was touching. But as it went on, those stars dropped off, all the way down to two stars.
I won’t put the book’s blurb here because you can read that for yourself.
Let me condense my review into one paragraph, and you can optionally read the rest of my review (which is extraordinarily long and detailed, just like this book 🤪). 1) Ashlyn’s storyline simply didn’t need to exist. 2) I wish her ability to “sense” books had any purpose or part of the story, but it didn’t. 3) I wish any of the characters had been more likable. All of them turned out to be despicable. 4)I wish the author had simply switched gears and written a duel-narrative love story, because that was her strong suite 5) Every storyline was dragged on too long, and the “shocking twist” was so obvious it could have been seen from outer space.
Now onto my detailed and eternally long list of complaints, plot holes, and irritations!!🫣
- All three narratives (Ashlyn, Belle, and Hemi) are written in EXACTLY the same voice. I can imagine it’s really difficult to write with three different voices, but you shouldn’t write a book with so many narrators unless you can do that. Near the end of this book, we randomly get a FOURTH narrative (older Belle), which felt haphazard and sloppy so late in the game.
- Ashton’s ability to sense “echoes” from holding books turned out to have no impact on story and was only used to introduce the novel. (Someone please tell me if there’s a good book with a similar premise!!!)
- both of the “books inside the book” are actually super long letters written to the other jilted lover, yet it’s obvious that the books are just written for OUR reading. No ex would ever need to introduce people they both knew or remind their lost lover of details surrounding the first time they had sex or how they met, much less describing the color of a chair or the weather.
- Ashlyn is an AVID reader from childhood who owns a bookstore. How could she possibly be SO slow at reading these books?!? She spends hours reading the tiniest chapters. These two short books are taking her literal weeks to finish. WEEKS of engrossed reading, in spite of the fact that she’s a single woman with few responsibilities.
- The “modern narrative” portion of this book was placed in the 1980’s, and clearly It’s placed in that year so that Ashlyn can’t just google everything (instead she must run around pestering everyone and their mother, trying to answer her questions).
- Also like WHY DOESNT SHE JUST FINISH READING THE BOOKS before contacting the entire state of New York trying to find out more info on these people?!? For example, she foes wild trying to find out Goldie’s real name, when Goldie’s real name is right there in next chapter (which btw I think was a slip-up by the author😂).
- ALSO Ashlyn is desperately sleuthing to find these people in real life, but doesn’t notice that a key person has his first and middle name, occupation, birthday, AND place of birth are all laid out (Teddy, the ex fiancé)! Either we are to believe that Ashlyn is sosososo dumb (a reasonable guess based on the rest of the book), or this is a huge plot hole.
- Then Ashlyn CHASES this Ethan guy with the intensity of a psycho stalker, demanding info about his family and answers to her questions… before even finishing the books she has. Like the books are clearly here to answer her questions, so why in the world is she leaving repeated messages on a strangers phone and SHOWING UP AT HIS HOME when he said he wasn’t interested and doesn’t know anything about his family?!? Especially when she could A) finish the book and B) do some research using the names he gave her??? That’s Ashlyn for you!
- And how is this possibly the first time she’s found a book this fascinating?? She can literally feel past book owner’s feelings, and she is a USED bookstore owner. So I’m sorry but she would have likely felt many intense and mysterious stories.
- Plus Ashlyn is kinda awful. She asks a librarian friend to do major research for her, doesn’t even take the time to finish the books to get more info, THEN straight up refuses to tell the friend why she’s researching this (“I’m gonna wait till I know more before I say anything”). Sorry but what?!?
-She also spends the whole book feeling bad for herself because (amongst other things) her abused and battered mother “allowed herself to die from cancer” (yes you read that right), leaving Ashlyn alone. 🫣🥴
- Another reason to dislike Ashlyn is that every time she sees a picture of A CHILD (Zachary) she comments on how attractive he is and also on his full lips??? Weird??
- Note that there are very jarring references to suicide(several suicides, in fact), physical and mental abuse, and racism just tossed around in here like a trauma salad
- Did I mention that nothing in this book was surprising? I knew every single plot twist BEFORE 40%. I genuinely thought I was a few pages or maybe a chapter from the end of the book (because everything was so obviously laid out for us!), so I decided to look at how many pages were left (I was reading on a Kindle). I was at FIFTY PERCENT! That’s how predictable this book was! The second half of the book was an insanely slow uncovering of every single predictable thing I knew would happen.
- To find out at over 75% of the way through that we were essentially covering a backstory to the “main story” is wild. We could have skipped most of the book. I couldn’t believe we suddenly were getting a whole new narrative from present-day Belle.
- Sorry I’m so nitpicky but Hemi is the worst nickname ever (I assume pronounced “hemmy” - just say it out loud a couple times and then consider if you’d ever call your steamy lover HEMI!). Seriously if you want to shorten Hemingway, call him Hem. Or just nickname him something else or call him his name.
- Every little thing we had learned about Ashlyn was repeated *in detail* around the 60-80% mark, so why have it all spread throughout the book? Almost the entirety of Ashlyn’s story happens right around 70% through this book, and then her timeline just disappeared -because it doesn’t matter and never did.
- When Belle and Hemi finally meet each other, it is entirely separate from Ashlyn. She had no part in Belle and Hemi reuniting, finding out the truth, or making up. So I ask again, why is Ashlyn in this book?
- I kinda hate the whole “evil person sabotaging perfect relationship but lovers are too immature to communicate for even five minutes and see that they still love each other and it was just a misunderstanding and this lasts for way too long while said lovers spend endless years being angry at (but also in love with) one another before finally talking for five minutes and finding out that their relationship was sabotaged so they can finally reunite” trope.
- The fact that they wrote letters to one another, and those letters were BOOK LENGTH, yet they managed to randomly leave out the single detail that would have fixed everything is just so dumb haha. I mean every other inconsequential detail is spelled out.
- And finally. Belle was truly awful. Anyone who keeps her child from their father without the father even KNOWING THEY EXIST is horrific - unless the father is dangerous or a criminal. This was SO PETTY of Belle and she did NOT deserve to be forgiven for this. Especially when it was easy to find Hemi. And then! Hemi only needs *2 1/2 hours* to decide that he’s totally cool making up with Belle and forgiving her for THAT. When he spent 43 years, bitter and hardened, hating her, all because he thought she had written him a letter, saying she was going to STAY WITH HER FIANCÉ. Please. They had ten weeks of relationship before deciding to run off and he’s bitter she didn’t do it, but he’s cool just forgiving her for stealing his son from her for forty-three years. I cannot with this book.
Honestly?? After all that, I actually feel like the author is this book is still a good writer. She’s eloquent and had great ideas for characters and storylines and plot twists. I get the feeling that she was really passionate about the topics touched in her book, especially that she wanted to send out a message of forgiveness and letting go of hatred and hurt. I think she just got really caught up in writing and her editor was the one who failed here.
I won’t put the book’s blurb here because you can read that for yourself.
Let me condense my review into one paragraph, and you can optionally read the rest of my review (which is extraordinarily long and detailed, just like this book 🤪). 1) Ashlyn’s storyline simply didn’t need to exist. 2) I wish her ability to “sense” books had any purpose or part of the story, but it didn’t. 3) I wish any of the characters had been more likable. All of them turned out to be despicable. 4)I wish the author had simply switched gears and written a duel-narrative love story, because that was her strong suite 5) Every storyline was dragged on too long, and the “shocking twist” was so obvious it could have been seen from outer space.
Now onto my detailed and eternally long list of complaints, plot holes, and irritations!!🫣
- All three narratives (Ashlyn, Belle, and Hemi) are written in EXACTLY the same voice. I can imagine it’s really difficult to write with three different voices, but you shouldn’t write a book with so many narrators unless you can do that. Near the end of this book, we randomly get a FOURTH narrative (older Belle), which felt haphazard and sloppy so late in the game.
- Ashton’s ability to sense “echoes” from holding books turned out to have no impact on story and was only used to introduce the novel. (Someone please tell me if there’s a good book with a similar premise!!!)
- both of the “books inside the book” are actually super long letters written to the other jilted lover, yet it’s obvious that the books are just written for OUR reading. No ex would ever need to introduce people they both knew or remind their lost lover of details surrounding the first time they had sex or how they met, much less describing the color of a chair or the weather.
- Ashlyn is an AVID reader from childhood who owns a bookstore. How could she possibly be SO slow at reading these books?!? She spends hours reading the tiniest chapters. These two short books are taking her literal weeks to finish. WEEKS of engrossed reading, in spite of the fact that she’s a single woman with few responsibilities.
- The “modern narrative” portion of this book was placed in the 1980’s, and clearly It’s placed in that year so that Ashlyn can’t just google everything (instead she must run around pestering everyone and their mother, trying to answer her questions).
- Also like WHY DOESNT SHE JUST FINISH READING THE BOOKS before contacting the entire state of New York trying to find out more info on these people?!? For example, she foes wild trying to find out Goldie’s real name, when Goldie’s real name is right there in next chapter (which btw I think was a slip-up by the author😂).
- ALSO Ashlyn is desperately sleuthing to find these people in real life, but doesn’t notice that a key person has his first and middle name, occupation, birthday, AND place of birth are all laid out (Teddy, the ex fiancé)! Either we are to believe that Ashlyn is sosososo dumb (a reasonable guess based on the rest of the book), or this is a huge plot hole.
- Then Ashlyn CHASES this Ethan guy with the intensity of a psycho stalker, demanding info about his family and answers to her questions… before even finishing the books she has. Like the books are clearly here to answer her questions, so why in the world is she leaving repeated messages on a strangers phone and SHOWING UP AT HIS HOME when he said he wasn’t interested and doesn’t know anything about his family?!? Especially when she could A) finish the book and B) do some research using the names he gave her??? That’s Ashlyn for you!
- And how is this possibly the first time she’s found a book this fascinating?? She can literally feel past book owner’s feelings, and she is a USED bookstore owner. So I’m sorry but she would have likely felt many intense and mysterious stories.
- Plus Ashlyn is kinda awful. She asks a librarian friend to do major research for her, doesn’t even take the time to finish the books to get more info, THEN straight up refuses to tell the friend why she’s researching this (“I’m gonna wait till I know more before I say anything”). Sorry but what?!?
-She also spends the whole book feeling bad for herself because (amongst other things) her abused and battered mother “allowed herself to die from cancer” (yes you read that right), leaving Ashlyn alone. 🫣🥴
- Another reason to dislike Ashlyn is that every time she sees a picture of A CHILD (Zachary) she comments on how attractive he is and also on his full lips??? Weird??
- Note that there are very jarring references to suicide(several suicides, in fact), physical and mental abuse, and racism just tossed around in here like a trauma salad
- Did I mention that nothing in this book was surprising? I knew every single plot twist BEFORE 40%. I genuinely thought I was a few pages or maybe a chapter from the end of the book (because everything was so obviously laid out for us!), so I decided to look at how many pages were left (I was reading on a Kindle). I was at FIFTY PERCENT! That’s how predictable this book was! The second half of the book was an insanely slow uncovering of every single predictable thing I knew would happen.
- To find out at over 75% of the way through that we were essentially covering a backstory to the “main story” is wild. We could have skipped most of the book. I couldn’t believe we suddenly were getting a whole new narrative from present-day Belle.
- Sorry I’m so nitpicky but Hemi is the worst nickname ever (I assume pronounced “hemmy” - just say it out loud a couple times and then consider if you’d ever call your steamy lover HEMI!). Seriously if you want to shorten Hemingway, call him Hem. Or just nickname him something else or call him his name.
- Every little thing we had learned about Ashlyn was repeated *in detail* around the 60-80% mark, so why have it all spread throughout the book? Almost the entirety of Ashlyn’s story happens right around 70% through this book, and then her timeline just disappeared -because it doesn’t matter and never did.
- When Belle and Hemi finally meet each other, it is entirely separate from Ashlyn. She had no part in Belle and Hemi reuniting, finding out the truth, or making up. So I ask again, why is Ashlyn in this book?
- I kinda hate the whole “evil person sabotaging perfect relationship but lovers are too immature to communicate for even five minutes and see that they still love each other and it was just a misunderstanding and this lasts for way too long while said lovers spend endless years being angry at (but also in love with) one another before finally talking for five minutes and finding out that their relationship was sabotaged so they can finally reunite” trope.
- The fact that they wrote letters to one another, and those letters were BOOK LENGTH, yet they managed to randomly leave out the single detail that would have fixed everything is just so dumb haha. I mean every other inconsequential detail is spelled out.
- And finally. Belle was truly awful. Anyone who keeps her child from their father without the father even KNOWING THEY EXIST is horrific - unless the father is dangerous or a criminal. This was SO PETTY of Belle and she did NOT deserve to be forgiven for this. Especially when it was easy to find Hemi. And then! Hemi only needs *2 1/2 hours* to decide that he’s totally cool making up with Belle and forgiving her for THAT. When he spent 43 years, bitter and hardened, hating her, all because he thought she had written him a letter, saying she was going to STAY WITH HER FIANCÉ. Please. They had ten weeks of relationship before deciding to run off and he’s bitter she didn’t do it, but he’s cool just forgiving her for stealing his son from her for forty-three years. I cannot with this book.
Honestly?? After all that, I actually feel like the author is this book is still a good writer. She’s eloquent and had great ideas for characters and storylines and plot twists. I get the feeling that she was really passionate about the topics touched in her book, especially that she wanted to send out a message of forgiveness and letting go of hatred and hurt. I think she just got really caught up in writing and her editor was the one who failed here.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and War
britwalsh16's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I picked up this book cause it sounded interesting & counted towards one of the kindle challenges. I did not expect to love it as much as I did! It just reminded me of why I love reading so much, & how books can change your life.
Ashlyn & Ethan are such a sweet couple that were brought together by the books, & because of the books, they were able to finally heal old wounds & move on with their lives together. & I just love that!
And Belle & Hemi’s love story, is heartbreaking, how so many things just tore them apart, leading to them writing the books, but in the end, years later, they are brought back together & finally get the happily ever after we all wanted for them since the beginning.
Just a very sweet read, & though not a book I would have normally picked up, I am really glad I did.
Ashlyn & Ethan are such a sweet couple that were brought together by the books, & because of the books, they were able to finally heal old wounds & move on with their lives together. & I just love that!
And Belle & Hemi’s love story, is heartbreaking, how so many things just tore them apart, leading to them writing the books, but in the end, years later, they are brought back together & finally get the happily ever after we all wanted for them since the beginning.
Just a very sweet read, & though not a book I would have normally picked up, I am really glad I did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, War, and Classism
Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting
Minor: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Self harm, Xenophobia, and Abandonment
jjj_27's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Death of parent, and War
mrsjburgin's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Genocide, and Suicide attempt
lizdon's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Car accident, Death of parent, and Classism
Moderate: Child death, Genocide, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
fbzreadswhatever's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, and Death of parent
Moderate: War
sizzlesteaks's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicide, Antisemitism, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Terminal illness and War
yvo_about_books's review against another edition
4.0
Finished reading: March 9th 2023
"Without a reader, a book was a blank slate, an object with no breath or pulse of its own."
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
I always love a story with a bookish angle, so of course I was intrigued as soon as I saw The Echo Of Old Books first mentioned. Then I read the blurb, and I knew I HAD to add it to my shelves. Between the main character being able to feel echoes of the previous owners when touching books, the bound volumes and the mystery around the identity of their authors, the premise has so much potential, and I've been looking forward to read it. And it turned out to be an excellent read!
If you enjoy a bookish angle in your stories, you are in for a treat here. Not only is part of the story set in a book store, but the main character is also a rare-book dealer who restores books and has a special bookish talent. On top of this, we have the two mystery bound volumes, and I do love a good historical mystery to mix things up. This is not all though... Because The Echo Of Old Books uses a very unusual plot structure. Not only do we have Ashlyn and Marian's POVs, but the plot actually includes the full stories of both bound volumes as well. Yes, you read that right: you get three books for the price of one here! Being able to read the volumes yourself and in time with the developments in the present timeline really took this story to the next level for me.
The Echo Of Old Books uses a dual (triple?) time structure, where we switch between the 'present' in New Hampshire/Massachusetts (1984), 1954 Massachusetts/London where the bound volumes are first created and the content of the volumes themselves set in 1941 New York. This means a lot of different settings, timelines and characters, but somehow it's quite easy to keep them apart. The main focus is on the 1984 timeline and the 1941 flashbacks though, and I felt that both complemented each other beautifully. I do have to say that the bound volume chapters did read a bit slow in the beginning, but this was only until things got more interesting. The present timeline took a little while speeding up as well, but as soon as you learn more about the mystery around the volumes you will find yourself hooked.
As for the characters... I do have mixed thoughts about them in general. Ashlyn can get a bit frustrating, but I love her special talent and the fact that she doesn't give up searching for the authors of the volumes. Belle and Hemi... Well, I do always hate stories with an active cheating element, and some of their actions were quite irritating, but somehow the actual cheating didn't bother me as much this time around. Probably because there never seemed to be a real connection between Teddy and Belle in the first place, and the marriage was arranged. What did bother me was that so many of their suffering could have been prevented if only one of the two had reached out to the other.
The writing itself was quite engaging despite the slow start, and I enjoyed the literary mystery, the descriptions of 1941 New York and the political climate back then as well as class differences. I did see part of the twist in the present coming (it was quite obvious to be honest), but as a whole I liked how everything was wrapped up in the end. The Echo Of Old Books is a great mix of bookish contemporary, historical fiction and forbidden love, all wrapped up with some mystery to give the story extra flavor. I can definitely recommend it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Grief, Gaslighting, and Classism
Moderate: Death, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Murder