Echo

Horror is not really a genre I feel knowledgeable about yet, but a three-star rating seems right for my experience. I did enjoy this book overall, and I think certain aspects of it are really done well. For my romance pals: this isn't a romance novel, but the main relationship is central to the story.

However, the book is way, way too long. Really, this could've been a quarter as long as it is and had the same impact. The plot is not complicated, but it's spread out over a lot of words, which are mostly introspection and exploration of feelings. I also think that the author got a little too technical in most of the mountain-climbing scenes. He is a mountain climber and I understand this is based on his own experience, but those sections were the most difficult for me to follow. There's a moment in one of Nick's latter sections in which he's describing a specific technique and why he's using it that worked really well (the Prusik knots, if you've read this), and I wish more of the climbing sections had been like that scene.

To me, the structure detracted from the building sense of dread that I want from a horror novel. There weren't really any huge surprises here. There are a couple of linear narratives, Sam and Nick's own experiences of life after his accident, and then those chapters are interspersed with Nick's story of the accident. In all of these narratives there are a lot of digressions, about local legends of this mountain, both characters' childhoods, and so on. These are all relevant to the story, but I just thought it was all too much. I don't think I will be revisiting this book, but if you pick it up, I would recommend approaching it as a dual character study, rather than as a thriller. It isn't an exciting book, but maybe it wasn't trying to be.

I deeply appreciate that this is a mainstream horror novel and the main characters are two men in a relationship. This is totally unremarkable to every other character, and yet I don't think the story would've worked nearly as well with non-queer leads. Also, at no point did I doubt their love for each other, even though their relationship is difficult. These characters are developed with a lot of depth, and both of the main characters' points of view are distinct. There are two chapters from other points-of-view and they're done well too.

Every review seems to mention the high quality of the translation, and I'm also impressed with it. Fantastic. If I'd somehow picked this up without background info, I wouldn't have known it was translated.

Even though this book did not completely enchant me, I will probably check out more of the author's work. I really did like the overall tone of the book, and the character development is top-notch.