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A review by emmahayes99
Echoes by Danielle Steel
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Really liked this one from the beginning, I loved Beata and Antoine’s story and then after his death Beata’s mother making contact again. Beata and Daphne get taken away by the SS, and from there we follow Amadea as she eventually gets caught and taken to Thereseinstadt which was all interesting as well. The story was engaging the whole way through, even with the slightly predictable ending but no complaints there really.
If I’m honest, I think the ending was rushed. I understand getting across the message that so many lives were taken and disappeared in the holocaust, but the fact that we didn’t learn anything about what happened to Beata and Daphne doesn’t seem right since we followed Beata for half the book before that point. I didn’t like the writing style in the sense that I found there was a lot of repetition to really drill certain points in, which I didn’t appreciate but saw past because I enjoyed the story. Also a little frustrating how often we’re reminded that every man Amadea interacted with fell in love with her - she was beautiful and they were all shocked that she was a nun, we get it😂 but again I could look past that.
I also just wish there was a bit more packing out in details, for example Amadea clearly loved Jean Yves but we didn’t get to learn much about him and their time together, it was all very fleeting and sometimes we were skipping over half a year in about two sentences.
Overall, I did really like the story and the history involved, but it did feel rushed in parts and I feel we were owed more information at the end about the outcome and what actually happened to the people that we spent the first half of the book with
If I’m honest, I think the ending was rushed. I understand getting across the message that so many lives were taken and disappeared in the holocaust, but the fact that we didn’t learn anything about what happened to Beata and Daphne doesn’t seem right since we followed Beata for half the book before that point. I didn’t like the writing style in the sense that I found there was a lot of repetition to really drill certain points in, which I didn’t appreciate but saw past because I enjoyed the story. Also a little frustrating how often we’re reminded that every man Amadea interacted with fell in love with her - she was beautiful and they were all shocked that she was a nun, we get it😂 but again I could look past that.
I also just wish there was a bit more packing out in details, for example Amadea clearly loved Jean Yves but we didn’t get to learn much about him and their time together, it was all very fleeting and sometimes we were skipping over half a year in about two sentences.
Overall, I did really like the story and the history involved, but it did feel rushed in parts and I feel we were owed more information at the end about the outcome and what actually happened to the people that we spent the first half of the book with
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and War