I wasn’t able to finish this book. Because of this, it is my policy not to review the book on my site or on Goodreads/Amazon. I also didn’t mark it DNF.

I've always loved the fairytale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" and in ECHO NORTH, Joanna Meyer beautifully captures the original essence of the story while tying in a lush new mythos all her own. If magic houses, vengeful goddesses, mysterious wolves, and frozen tundra are of interest to you, then this book deserves a place near the top of your TBR.

Echo is an endearing and relatable main character, whose steadfastness in the face of trials will have you rooting for her all the way. In fact, this is the sort of book where not just Echo herself, but many of the characters, feel like old friends. The real glory of ECHO NORTH is its setting, though--the icy, Russian-inspired countryside that serves as a backdrop for Echo's adventures. Portrayed with loving detail, the world of ECHO NORTH feels real enough to visit, and I for one am looking forward to a return trip.

Perfect for fans of THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE, by Katherine Arden.

I did not go into this book realizing it was a retelling. This was really interesting with a very romantic atmosphere. With all that said it was still just a mediocre story.

An exciting read and a contender for Indigo Teen Staff Pick of the Month. Great characterization and plotting, with a compelling setting.

Lovely writing and a classic fairy tale feel shine. Reminiscent of Beauty & the Beast and Tam Lin (though I got Snow Queen bc I don't know that one). A slower pace but one that fits the story well.

A solid YA novel that was a good purchase for my library. Students have read and enjoyed it, and I purchased it because of this review copy.

Echo North was such a cool mesh of things I love! We have retellings- especially of one of my favorite stories East of the Sun, West of the Moon which I can never get enough of (and just a hint of the evil stepmother from Cinderella/all fairytales basically). On a side note, while this played great homage to the original fairytale, it was still unique and surprising. And then there is books and stories- the main character gets to jump into all kinds of books, be it non-fiction where she can learn to play the piano or perform medical tasks , to fiction worlds with grand balls, costuming, quests and magic. I can't imagine a more escapist read, to be completely honest.

This was full of adventure and enchantment as well as heartbreak and turmoil in equal parts, making this a thrilling and emotional read. There were so many fantastical elements woven in the story but at the heart was romance. I did see the romantic twist coming but that does not lessen my love of how the relationship developed or the outcome in the story.

I recommend this for anyone who likes retellings, the fairytale East of the Moon West of the Sun and fans of books inside of books such as A Sorcery of Thorns.

Echo North is a fairy tale that centres around a girl named Echo Alkaev. She is spirited away by an enchanted wolf to his underground home where she must remain for a year to ensure the safety of her father. While I’m generally easily sold on fairy tale retellings, I wasn’t overly impressed with this one. I found the characters to be quite flat and the plot very oddly paced. I did love the description of the magical library in this novel but otherwise there is very little remarkable to be had here.

In complete honesty Echo North could easily have been a short story without much editing and I think it would have been better that way. I understand that there is a sort of unspoken rule that YA novels – particularly fantasy novels – need to be at least 300 pages to differentiate themselves from middle grade and children’s books. But if this had been a short story, many of my other criticisms would not be an issue since I wouldn’t have been expecting a big fantasy novel. A short story format also would have fit perfectly into the theme of a fairy tale – it could be a longer Brothers Grimm type of traditional tale.

This novel lacked depth. We never truly learn much about any character in the story. Sure we learn facts about them; we learn about events that happen to them but we never get a true glimpse of their personality. If you can only define a character by the events in their life then you have failed to make them a person. We need to see how they react to situations and Echo …. doesn’t really react much. When she first arrives at the enchanted home she is a bit frightened but she quickly becomes very passive. She never expresses anger, fear, frustration, or any emotion that you would expect someone to feel in her situation. Honestly she’s just not very interesting and you could extend that to description to any of the side characters which are pretty forgettable.

I interrupt these criticisms to bring you the one thing I really enjoyed about the novel: the library! What an amazing idea - mirror-books! I mean as avid readers we are all suckers for magical libraries so this is almost pandering, but it is just too cool. The idea of being able to wander through our favourite novels is the stuff dreams are made of. Imagine those highly detailed fantasy series such as A Song of Ice and Fire or the Lord of the Rings where you would have endless subplots to explore. Sigh I want a mirror-book. I also really liked the idea of the enchanted house with endless rooms popping up; it gave me a Howl’s Moving Castle-vibe. Unfortunately I felt that this house was also underdeveloped and I was really disappointed that we only got to explore several rooms. I definitely could have used more scenes of her wandering through the house discovering novelties.

Now let’s talk pacing. This novel didn’t so much build to a climax but rather skyrocketed into bizarro-land in the last third. The first two thirds are slow-paced and small in scale, mainly taking place at either her village or the enchanted house. A small-scale story is not a problem in-and-of itself, but it is a problem if you suddenly decide to bring in a large-scale climax. It was really jarring compared to the rest of the story and just left me confused.

In conclusion, as much as I love fairy tales this book really didn’t do it for me. I never felt connected to any of the characters and the world wasn’t well-developed.

I am a sucker for a good East of Sun, West of Moon retelling, and this didn’t disappoint. There were some nice, unique bits with the disappearing house and the twist on the four winds too.

Ever read a book and immediately thought "That could have been 100 pages shorter'? Well, I thought this one could be 200 pages shorter. Listen, it tries. It tries really hard to live up to some Diana Wynne Jones and it just doesn't make it.

This started out slow for me but the second half of the book definitely made up for it. Great retelling of the fairy tale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon". Magical, emotional, and lots of character development.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon and Beauty and the Beast are my FAVORITE folk tales so any time I see a retelling or blending of either I'm definitely going to give it a read.

That being said the first half of the book was great. Then I realized "oh we still have to encounter the troll queen, uhhhh I mean Wolf Queen". There was still a whole journey to go on and I didn't feel like Echo's character was truly ready for it. And that was my big problem. She was a bumbling heroine and I never felt like she was able to captilize on all of her good traits. Until the end her journey was still just happening to her. We never saw her assess or think through. It all felt so happenstance and messy and left me with no love for our main character. Even at the end when Hal revealed THE BIG POINT it was all forgiven so quickly for "reasons" and I was just disappointed.

It was pretty but too long for pretty to be enough. There are better told versions of this take out there. And I would recommend East by Edith Patou over Echo North still.

I wanted to read this book because at the time it was the Indigo Staff Pick of the Month. I’m not a huge fantasy reader but I have enjoyed fantasy books in the past and when I heard that this was a fairytale retelling (specifically East of the Sun, West of the Moon, with some Beauty and the Beast elements as well), I knew I had to read it! I love fairytale retellings especially when authors make it their own and do their own twists.

I think Echo North is a pretty solid fantasy book. I did enjoy it, but at times I felt it was predictable and dragging. The plot really had my attention in the beginning, but once the whole situation with Echo living in the magic house with the Wolf for a year was established, I found my interest waning. The everyday happenings of the house and her just having fun in the book-mirrors (which was a very cool concept!) weren’t particularly interesting to read. It felt almost slice of life which I don’t really enjoy. Once the plot starting moving into the last third though, it had my full attention again and was back to enjoying it. That being the case, I could easily see this book being 50-100 pages shorter if the middle section was trimmed down a bit.

Perhaps because I knew this was a fairytale retelling, I quickly figured out the twist of the Wolf’s identity and it didn’t catch me by surprise at all, but the ending itself was completely unpredictable to me and on the whole very satisfying albeit a bit bittersweet.

As for the main character, Echo, I really liked her at first, but as the book progressed her character often felt inconsistent. She kept saying how she wanted to save the Wolf, but at the same time she would keep forgetting about it because she was having too much fun in the book-mirrors. She was really mature in the beginning especially with how she handled her father’s marriage, but as the book progressed she had these moments of immaturity that made her seem like a teenager when I figured that she was maybe 18-20 years old considering she wanted to go to university.

Overall, it was a good book for the target demographic. I think teenage fantasy fans would really enjoy it! If I had read this in middle school or high school I would have probably given it a full 5 stars.

The farther away I get from reading Echo North the more I dislike it. That's always a bad sign. Joanna Ruth Meyer uses old fairy tales/stories with themes from Beauty and the Beast, Tam Lynn and East of the Sun, West of the Moon. These three tales all have something in common; they marginalize women and there is some sort of 'beast' in the men. Obviously the original stories are not really suitable for today's society; so you would expect updates of them in a re-telling. That is not what Joanna Ruth Meyer gives us in Echo North.

Characters, Plot & Boring
There is perhaps one thing about Echo North I liked; the setting. An old forest that hides and changes where stands an odd house that has rooms 'stitched together' which begin to un-stitch themselves and fall away into oblivion. Cool right? Yep I agree. Except that's all that's really good for story set-up. Our characters are two dimensional at best, I almost liked our wolf but he was just deep freeze cold and gave me no reasons to care about him; and the plot of what is happening to our leading girl is just boring. Honestly I get it, she's trapped, he probably needs her to love him (as we know this is a beauty and the beast retelling) and he's a shapeshifter. Okay, all good but why do I care? Oh right, I'm never given a reason to care.

Really, Disney references?
The number one thing to NOT do when you write a retelling is to take aspects of the Disney version and pop it into your book. It's cheap, annoying and honestly just lazy. Meyer couldn't come up with a better dress than Belle's gold? She just had to include a chipped tea set? These moments feel forced and used as a crutch to avoid coming up with details by using the ones Disney has spoon-fed us our whole lives.

Predictable
Almost every moment of Echo North is predictable. From the wolf's mystery to our leading girls decisions to the really long and drawn out ending. I actually really enjoy retelling's. But I want re-told stories that use the themes and maybe some of the aspects of characters and place them into a new setting, story and situation. I know these stories; I don't want them regurgitated to me. Instead I want them to be uniquely interpreted. Amazing examples of this are; Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik and Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier. In both these stories there is a connection with the characters so deep that you care about their romantic triumphs and falls. The curses or repercussions from the original stories exist but happen in unique and different ways. I also just read A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer and was pleasantly surprised by her interpretation of Beauty and the Beast. These are the kinds of re-tellings readers want. Not cardboard cut-out characters with stolen Disney flare.

Overall
There was so much disappointment in this book. I'm not even glad I read it to the end to be honest. It's not often that I actually rate a book lower a week or two after reading it than before. Usually I increase my (possibly harsh) ratings but for Echo North I just can't come up with any reason why anyone should read it. And if I can't imagine a possibility in which I would recommend a book it's gotta go to two stars. It's rare I actually regret reading a book to completion; but this is an instance where I feel I wasted my time. Meyer probably has great ideas but she needs to spend more time connecting with her reader and less time worrying about including nods to any/all source material she may be borrowing from.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

I was really excited for this book, but I think it fell a little bit flat for me. I think that’s cause the book market seems to be oversaturated with Beauty and The Beast retellings and this one kinda fell flat.

This novel was incredible! It began as a retelling if Beauty and The Beast and then turned into something so originally delightful!

I had no idea this was a retelling, but it was absolutely brilliant!

There was so much to this story...so many secrets that we may never fully realize. I do think the plot was more interesting than any of the characters, and for whatever reason, I found that fact to be more engaging and engrossing.

This is a gem of the book that is probably overlooked by bigger name titles and that’s truly sad. It’s a book that deserves to be experienced by every reader! It for sure needs a bigger platform.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a digital copy of this book. I loved it. The setting is beautiful and pulled me right in. The characters are well developed and relatable. Two things that are becoming rare in modern YA stories. I love the imagination of the story. It reminded me of classic fairy tales and I am always on the look for that. I have already purchased this book for the library.

Echo North is a book set in the realms of fairy tales. This is a beautifully written retelling of several fairy tales, including "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" and "Tam Lin." The setting and characters are richly developed and the story moves at a leisurely pace so readers can enjoy all of the extra detail. The magic mirrors and haunted houses can sometimes feel overdone and trite, but Meyer weaves new life into these artifacts. The fact that Rosamund Hodge recommended it made me want to read it more.

*ARC received from NetGalley in return for an honest review*

This book was everything I wanted and more. "East" was one of my favorite books as a child and this definitely lived up to its predecessor. Bringing a cast to life that is still haunting me after reading it months ago with a new retelling of a beloved story this book will be one that I have to purchase and keep on my shelf forever.