 Welcome to the Church of the Chair, where we stay well away from mountains. I'm your host, E, and today we're talking about falling, and falling, and falling, and falling, and falling, and falling, and falling, and falling, and falling, and falling. Today we are talking about Echo by Thomas Old-Hivalt. I got this one at the library because I read his first book, or first translated novel. I'm not sure which one, but I believe that Hex was also his first novel, and not just the first one translated. I read that one, and I had many of the same problems that I did with this one I had with Hex, so I'm going to end up giving it three stars, and I hope to tell you why. Needless to say, I got it from the library because I don't fully trust this author yet, and I'm glad I did get it from the library because I have some criticisms. But before I jump into that, I want to give the positives. The first thing that I will mention is I love the relationship between Sam and Nick, the two main characters. But there is something weird going on with the back cover copy, blurb description, whatever you want to call it, and I'm going to read it to you now. Journalist and Mountaineer Nick Grievers wakes from a coma to find that his climbing buddy, Augustine, is missing and presumed dead. Nick's own injuries are as extensive as they are horrifying. With his face wrapped in bandages and unable to speak, Nick claims amnesia, but he remembers everything. He remembers how he and Augustine were mysteriously drawn to the moddit, a remote and scarcely documented peak in the Swiss Alps. He remembers how the slopes of the moddit were eerily quiet, and how, when they entered its valley, they got the ominous sense that they were not alone. He remembers something was waiting for him. But it isn't just the trauma of the accident that haunts Nick. Something has awakened inside of him, something that endangers the lives of everyone around him. It's one thing to lose your life, it's another to lose your soul. In that description, you are bound to think that Nick is the main character. But the book is written more along the lines of Sam Avery, his boyfriend being the main character. Now many people have mentioned in their reviews that they did not like all of the slang and the oddly shortened words that Sam Avery uses in his sections. And what I mean by that, most of this book is written in notes, journal entries, manuscripts, that kind of thing. When you're reading Sam's sections, instead of saying because, Sam will say cuz, C-U-Z. Also when he goes to say had to, he says had a, H-A-D-D-A. Also things like what do you mean, will be shortened to W-A-D-D-A-Y-A mean. Now this didn't bother me, it fit the character, but I really didn't see a purpose for this. It is made very clear that Sam and Nick are 21st century individuals. They are big on Instagram, eating healthy, the kind of people that you would see have posts about avocado toast and such. Basically your typical millennial. But my criticisms have nothing to do with any of that. My criticisms have everything to do with how Old Huvelt gets in his own way. He has a knack for uber creepy scenarios and very scary scenes, but at the same time he ruins more than half of them with some kind of flat pop culture reference or some kind of dumb in-joke between the characters. And those are the same problems that I had with Hex. I will say that there is more to like about this book than there is to dislike. So I'm going with 3 stars, the same rating that I gave Hex because I did enjoy quite a bit of it. But then you have scenes like the very last page of a chapter, it's page 109 in the hard cover that's just nuclear grade silly. I don't want to spoil the book for you, but I will make note of the chapters so if you've read the book you can go back and see what I'm talking about or if you plan to read the book you can be prepared for it. It's to chapter the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Also the author makes note at the beginning of the book that all of the chapter titles are in reference to some of his favorite gothic literature. I found that interesting because I wouldn't consider this book to be anything gothic. It is definitely a new age of horror that's coming along with others like Josh Mailerman and Paul Tremblay. But where Thomas old Huveld shines is he commits to everything that he does in the book. He has to for this to work because the book is about being possessed by a mountain. There is loads of lore and quite a bit of very cool stuff that he came up with to tie it into old mythology that exists while also creating his own backstory for some of these things. Several scenes come out of nowhere and shocked me. It's not a huge amount of twists in this book, but the one where he's on the mountain talking to the old woman that one got me. I appreciated the ending, but I did want a little bit more in the way of action because there is a scene shortly before the ending during Emily's manuscript. There is a scene in there that is absolutely utterly horrific. It's an amazing scene of body horror and what he leads up to at the end of the book kind of just sizzles away, kind of burns out. He sets up this amazing scene with all these people and you feel like you know what's coming and you're hoping for it and then you get to it and it's pretty much just a let down. Sorry, but if you read the book or when you get to that part when you do read the book I'm sure you'll find what I just said funny. Or maybe not. I'm just a goof. So yeah, I enjoyed this book. While I continue reading Thomas Old Hevelt, I don't know. The next book that is coming out from him is called Oracle and it is book two in a series from what I can find on Goodreads anyway. And I'm not interested in reading a book two why they didn't decide to translate the first book yet I don't know, but the only books he has out right now are Hex and Echo and Oracle is on its way from Tornightfire. Now this isn't odd. This happens quite a bit and I point to Yonezba, the author of The Snowman and the, I can't remember the detective's name at the moment, but when they did that one they translated book three first because it's part of the Wallander trilogy. I remember the bad guy's name. I don't remember the good guy's name anyways. But they didn't translate the first two books. I believe it was the bat and the cockroach. They went directly to the third book first, but then they went back and translated the first two books. Why? I don't know because I haven't read those first two books. But people have told me that they weren't as good as book three and beyond. So maybe that's what happened here. I don't know. If you understand or you know the reason behind this, let me know down there in the comments. But that's all the time I have for you today. I really enjoyed this read, even though I have a lot of criticisms about the way he kills his own vibe, his own atmosphere. But I would definitely pick this up and try it for yourself because my likes and dislikes are of course their subjective. Also, if you have read Echo or Hex, let me know what you thought of them down there in the comments section. But until next time, I'll live the chair.