Echo Alkaev’s safe and carefully structured world falls apart when 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 ultimatum: If she lives with him for one year, he will ensure her father makes it home safely. But there is more to the wolf than Echo realizes.
In his enchanted house beneath a mountain, each room must be sewn together to keep the home from unraveling, and something new and dark and strange lies behind every door. When centuries-old secrets unfold, Echo discovers 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, the rooms begin to disappear, and 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.
Wow. This was. . .amazing.
I haven’t read a book this good in a long, long time. It’s one of those stories that you can’t quite grasp, can’t quite hold; it dances away from your reach, laughing and sparkling like stars in the sky, because it has a life of its own. It embraces your faults and weaknesses, your insecurities and triggers, and loves you for them. My heart ached the whole time I was reading, and the pages flew by like seconds.
ECHO NORTH is a retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, a Norwegian folktale that has many similarities to Beauty and the Beast, as both have roots in “Cupid and Psyche,” a well-known Greek myth. Though I haven’t read the original East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and I can’t say how faithful ECHO NORTH is to it, I can assure you that this book captures the cold, mysterious, ethereal feel of winter perfectly.
Echo is an amazing character, flawed and desperate and loving, and I adored reading her story. I also loved the character of the wolf – but I can’t say much more without getting into spoilers. The worldbuilding was amazing as well – rich and mystical and lush, and filled with just enough detail that it renders perfectly in your mind while simultaneously feeling like a cold wind you can’t quite grasp.
Overall, I loved ECHO NORTH. (And I deny all accusations that I teared up at the end, ha-ha). If I had to pitch this, I would describe it as East by Edith Pattou meets Hunted by Meagan Spooner – both stunning books, by the way. But ECHO NORTH is the type of story that feels as if it transcends time, and I can’t recommend it enough.