A haunting story that has the ability to keep you up all night long and not want to put it down. Kate Alice Marshall is an excellent author and she will always be a must read for me!

So here’s the thing: I have had this book on my shelf for a long time now and I have not once attempted to read it. I’m so sorry for accepting the request on this and not reading it but I can only blame my baby Bookstagrammer self who was so excited to be a part of the Penguin Teen influencer list and requested all the books.

I could not get into this book. I was confused most of the time. There was just too much going on.
I did like the writing so i would try another book by this author.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

Thank you to PenguinTeen for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Our Last Echoes was such an awesome book. The ghost story is just the right amount to have my little arm hairs raising. The rumors and legends surrounding Bitter Rock bring our MC Sophia to figure out what happened to her mother and to her. All she has is hazy memories of her being there but they don't seem to make sense. Such an awesome spine tingling read. I love Kate's writing and with the ending of this book I'm looking forward to reading the next book she comes out with.

Okay so I definitely needed to have the lights on for this one and I’m glad seeing that other readers felt the same way 😂

This was a delightfully chilling read. I can say I was not expecting what the author was giving us but I was fully here for it and could not put the book down. I also then did go read everything else by the author because *amazing*

Just read it you won’t be disappointed

The writing of this book makes it unique because it is set up as a case with different exhibits presenting the story. Being that I know it is a thriller I immediately knew to take everything Sophia said with a grain of salt, especially when she said she had practiced saying her name in the mirror. I feel unreliable narrators make thriller books so interesting and surprising because you never know what is true. I really enjoyed all of the twists and turns in this story, I was definitely confused throughout!

Sophie has been enjoying the middle-grade horror series Thirteens by Kate Alice Marshall since 2020, so she was curious to pick up Our Last Echoes, a standalone YA horror/thriller by the same author.

Sophia’s earliest memory is of drowning – of being pulled from the salty water by her mother before she vanished – but according to her foster family, Sophia has never even been to the ocean and her mother died in a land-locked hospital. When a woman named Abby appears in her life bearing a photograph of a young Sophia and her mother on the tiny island of Bitter Rock, Alaska, Sophia knows where she has to go.

Bitter Rock is the home of the Landon Avian Research Center where Sophia has managed to apply for a summer internship. But the island has a strange reputation: people vanish there. The crew of a Russian ship. An entire community of back-to-the-land types attempting to found a commune. And apparently Sophia’s mother too. But Bitter Rock isn’t the only thing keeping secrets, Sophia has plenty of her own, not least what happens whenever she looks into a mirror. With the help of Abby and the research center director’s charming son Liam, Sophia hopes she can discover the truth about what happened when she was a child before she disappears too.

No matter where you think this book is going, Sophie promises you that you’re wrong! The first half is a masterpiece of scene-setting that uses interview transcripts, recorded video footage, newspaper cuttings, and other mixed media to explore Sophia’s time on the island. Every character she meets prompts new questions and leads you deeper into the rabbit hole that is Bitter Rock. Why are the birds so important? What really happened to all the people who vanished before? And just who is Sophia? It’s rare that a single sentence of a book can cause goosebumps to rise over Sophie’s skin, but Our Last Echoes pulled that off to perfection.

Sophie didn’t enjoy the second half quite as much as the first, the sense of creeping dread began to dissipate as answers began to reveal themselves, and Sophie always finds it creepier when things are hinted at and only glimpsed, rather than being revealed outright. The reveals here are wild and impossible to discuss without spoilers (and this is a book you really want to go into blind) so Sophie will just say that those with a love of classic horror will likely find much to enjoy here.

Marshall's Rules for Vanishing is one of my go-to YA horror recommendations (amazing!). Our Last Echoes is her newest supernatural YA thriller and just as scary and creepy.

Overall, this book was amazing. Some parts I think fell flat at some points, which is why it didn’t get five stars, but it was very fun and spooky. Loved it!

I have been obsessed with Kate Alice Marshall books and was so excited for this, but it fell flat for me. It was just so weird and odd. It started out strong, but as the story went on, the entire book sent downhill fast. I quickly lost interest after the halfway mark. The climax was disappointing and rushed. I do not feel anything was resolved, instead it felt like it was forced into a perfect box, which means it felt awkward. I wanted so much more from this.

I seem to be getting a lot of books lately where it is almost impossible for me to pinpoint my feelings about them and Our Last Echoes by Kate Alice Marshall is no exception. This is such a strange and gruesome book, but I thought the way it was executed was fantastic. The story is told from the viewpoint of Sophia but with other media mixed in like chapters titled Video Evidence and various exhibits. I love when authors mix in things like this, and it really heightened the overall experience I had while reading it. I didn't even realize that the setting was Alaska because it felt like this book had a whole world to itself and it didn't feel real. It seemed like a mix of horror and sci-fi to me, with many thrilling elements mixed in. The setting is very bleak and foreboding and I spent the whole time worrying about what was to come.

Even just THINKING about this book makes me not want to eat food, and there are tons of gross parts to the story which I definitely couldn't eat during. I listened to the audiobook, and I loved the three different narrators - Kathleen McInerney, Robbie Daymond & Rob Shapiro. They were all great picks to voice Our Last Echoes and I especially loved McInerney as Sophia. She was completely into her narration of the story, and you could practically feel every emotion thanks to her. Some parts of the audiobook are very intense to listen to, but it is totally worth it. The mystery aspect of the book really leads to some shocking discoveries, and I don't think I was quite expecting the level of supernatural elements it had. I think this would be a great read for someone who is a fan of YA novels and loves the supernatural mixed in with their horror. This would be a great book to read around Halloween as well and it was extremely dark and creepy!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This mystery fell a little flat for me. The concept was there but I just didnt feel it reflected in the writing.

**DNF
I couldn’t get into this one sadly :(((. I adored Rules for Vanishing, but this one didn’t work for me. I plan on attempting to read this in the future physically. That might hold my attention better than an ebook.

This is a thriller in the true sense where nothing is as it seems. Very suspenseful. Really enjoyed the read.

We follow a mystery surrounding Sophia and her memories of drowning as a child despite having never been to the ocean. When she finds out both her and her mother went to an island called Bitter Rock when she was very young, Sophia decides to investigate.

We have a sci-fi mystery on our hands, and I did enjoy the suspense and creepiness of it all. Overall, it was a solid story, although I found myself not connecting easily with the characters. I don't know if that would have ben better had I read versus listened to the story. I did absolutely love Abby and her history that was brought to the table! I think the story/world was a little bit too big for what we were given and I would have appreciated a little more focus on the important details to our particular mystery we were following.

Overall a 3.5 stars.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this novel since I went in as blind as possible and this is my first book from Kate Alice Marshall. what I knew about the plot sounded promising and spooky, a girl who returns to an island to solve the disappearance of her mother 15 years ago and uncovers more secrets...it was absolutely so much more than that.
The story is told in Sophias viewpoint but also in interviews and documents along with transcripts of video footage as we the reader are trying to uncover what happened on the island. I personally enjoy thrillers that read more like this with documents and transcripts.
This novel was definitely a fast read because it is packed with action and intrigue. I didn't get to attached to the characters, I feel like the suspense took more of a spotlight than any character development in this story. The writing was immersive and very descriptive. Overall I enjoyed it, and this is definitely one of the books on my list that I would love to see made into a movie, I would absolutely watch it. the only thing I didn't like was the ending, It felt rushed? I don't know if there will be a sequel but if there isn't, the ending was really rushed to me.

Thank you so much to the publisher & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 16 March 2021)

SYNOPSIS | Sophia's mum died when she was 3 and she has been in foster care ever since. Just as she is ageing out of the system, she receives a phone call stating that her mum might not have actually died which starts her investigation into a remote alaskan island.

WHAT I LIKED:
- the beginning had solid creepy atmospheric vibes
- I was more invested in Abby's character & motivations than the main characters

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the story went way too fantasy for my liking (I thought this would be a 'is it paranormal or not?' vibe & instead it was 'alternate plains of existence with evil god & ghost copies' vibe)
- the video recording segments felt ill-timed at certain points & gave away a lot of the reveals before the current day characters had a chance to actually figure it out
- the romance didn't add anything to the story
- I wasn't ever on the edge of seat excited to find out more

This book gave me chills while reading it which doesn't often happen in a YA thriller for me. The premise that she experienced something in her past leaving her orphaned and unsure of her mother's fate leading her to an island with a torrid past was well conceived. There were some areas where the plot felt like it had holes and then was a little rushed. But, overall this book had a fair amount of twists allowing the reader to question what they thought. A solid YA thriller with supernatural elements.

I read and loved Rules for Vanishing last year, so when I heard Kate Alice Marshall had a new story coming out, I could not wait to read it! Our Last Echoes is set in the same universe, but you don’t need to have read Rule for Vanishing to pick this one up. It is told through interviews and transcribed videos, going back and forth in time. It follows Sophia and her journey to find out about her past. Sophia has been bounced around in the foster system her whole life, so after turning 18, she’s going back to the last place her mother was seen before she disappeared. It is a remote island with very few residents and a history of disappearing people. This book is very dark and atmospheric. I loved how claustrophobic it made me feel with the fog that rolls into the island bringing with it terrifying figures.