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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