"I fall through the pitch-black void and experience infinity. Hell is repetition, they say, but being trapped in infinity over and over again is the everlasting destruction of the soul."
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Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt was my first time reading this author and I'm so glad to have chosen this one as my first NetGalley book to review!
-Sam & Nick are a young couple living a beautiful life together. Nick writes for a magazine & loves the adrenaline high he gets from climbing the highest mountains in the world. On a recent excursion with a fellow climber, Augustin, there is a terrible accident leaving Nick's face gravely injured & Augustin dead. In the hospital, Sam battles his past traumas when looking upon Nick's covered & wounded face wondering if he's strong enough to stay with him. But Sam will soon find there are bigger things, more terrible things to worry about when looking into Nick's face. Something came down from the mountain with Nick. No one is safe for long when in Nick's presence, they will eventually... "find out what it's like to fall. To fall...and to fall...and to fall...and to fall."
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The prologue to this story had me absolutely terrified! I was burying myself under the covers reading that whole first part! It sets up the tone of the story so well & had my full attention going into it. I felt the writing was dark and haunting at times. I could pull so many more quotes from this book. After the initial prologue the story jumps between the two perspectives of Nick & Sam. Nick with his emails to Sam or Ipad entries. He tells about the time spent upon the mountain known as The Maudit. Heuvelt did a wonderful job of placing the reader high up above the clouds, in this cold unforgiving atmosphere & the feeling that one slip & you'd be lost to the mountain. There are not a lot of characters but the few that make up this story are all fully fleshed out & you grow an attachment to them & what they are going through.
My only negative about the story are the timeline jumps. While reading I would have to sometimes take a minute to decipher which part of the story is being told. Is this the Sam before the accident/after/ during and so on with Nick too. But that's only a minor irk & probably only a personal reader issue.
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I believe anyone who enjoys horror & especially cosmic horror, would appreciate this book. I look forward to reading more by Thomas Olde Heuvelt.
Thank you #netgalley & #tornightfire for the opportunity to read and review #echo

First, huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for approving this ARC.

Sadly, I'm DNFing at 25%. I think this one would've been more engaging as a novella. Much like Hex, I fear some of the subtext might've been lost in translation. Not sure, but I can't push through to see if something good does happen, when right now it's just a slog.

not gonna lie, i read the first few chapters of this and thought i was going to have a bad time. the beginning felt really jumbled and confusing. paired with my immediate dislike of one of the main characters, i thought i was setting myself up for a rough read; or worse, a dnf. that ended up not being the case as the story snatched my attention around the 20% mark and would not let me go until the end.

this story has three primary characters: nick (a journalist and outdoorsman), sam (nick's city slicker boyfriend), and the maudit (a mountain with a sinister will of its own). after a climb with fellow mountaineer augustin goes south, nick barely escapes with his life. now heavily disfigured and haunted by his memories of the doomed climb, nick begins to suspect that he didn't return from the mountain alone.

i'm a huge fan of folk horror, and this book really scratched that itch for me. it was incredibly atmospheric (after the mess that was the beginning) and full of some great moments that left me chilled.
i should go ahead and warn that this book has a heavy romance subplot. as someone that doesn't enjoy reading romance, i was worried that this would be a deal breaker for me, but it ended up being significant thematically and fit in the plot enough that it didn't feel out of place. (though there were some bits toward the beginning that really had me wanting to throw sam off a cliff, tbh.)

overall, i was surprised by how much i enjoyed this read. i was so invested once the plot picked up and started moving. it definitely could've benefited from an extra editing session or two since it's quite long for what it is, but it wasn't distractingly so. definitely give it a read if you enjoy folk horror!

This was genuinely a terrifying read. Beautifully crafted, both enchanting and horrifying. The characters are flawed and charming, the imagery vivid, and overall a captivating story. I recommend a pair of warm socks and maybe a scarf while you read because Echo was chilling.

Mountaineer Nick Grevers held a razor sharp piece of Gneiss in his hand, a keepsake from his climb to the summit of the Maudit, a mountain peak best left untouched. Warning: access forbidden! An enticement to the bold among us. Nick, and climbing partner Augustin, were hypnotized by the beauty and wildness of the Maudit, a remote, dangerous peak in the Swiss Alps. In the aftermath, Nick would carry guilt for Augustin's demise. The fatal expedition, made upon Nick's exuberant request.

Sam Avery and Nick Grevers were a loving couple. Sam disliked the mountains, was fearful of heights and of falling. His reservations about Nick's potential climb went unheeded. "Nick, or whatever was left of him...[was now] in a medically induced coma". In Nick's words, "It's dawning on me that I've woken up in a nightmare in which my life before seems to be that of a stranger, but in which I have become a stranger."

According to Sam, "Our lives would be defined by the moment the [facial] bandages came off...If I were to look into Nick's [eyes] I'd see the ocean that lay between our old life and our new one...I created a space for his imperfections...an entity was always hiding...".

Huckleberry Wall, the perfect cabin...the perfect sleepover at Grandpa and Grandma's. Grandpa telling ghost stories. Memories and secrets from a haunted childhood. "Better not look back...don't mess around with powers greater than yourself". Nick and Sam, a devoted couple determined to focus upon "fixed points in reality" while a spreading ink cloud...strew darkness, created an instinctive sense of doom.

"Echo" by Thomas Olde Heuvelt is a creepy, obsessive tale of horror. Told in alternating voices by Sam and Nick, the reader learns of damaged lives and determination to love and protect each other at all costs. The forces of nature and traumas, past and present, shape their relationship as well. This reader was entranced by the detailed account of mountain climbing. A tome of shorter length however, might have reduced some repetitive passages and added to the building tension and horror.

Thank you Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Basically...

If you've read his novel, HEX, and enjoyed it, (I certainly did) you probably won't like this one as much. The premise is great, but it's spread too thin on the big page count (416).

HEX is better.

That is all.

I had read Olde Heuvelt's previous book Hex and really enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to this one. The opening was very scary, to the point that when I started it late at night I decided to put it down and read it when the sun was up. However, I think that that was really the high point of the scariness for me. It was a really unique story with a lot of interesting ideas, and I think it came together in the end for me, but there were some points in the middle where I wasn't sure where it was going.

Echo is a story that stars loving couple Nick and Sam, who are going through a 'rough patch' in their relationship after a mountain-climbing accident scars Nick both physically and mentally. Also, Nick might be possessed. Things escalate from there, with the narrative covering multiple perspectives and different points in time so the reader has a clearer picture of what is going on and why all these horrific events are happening.

With some of the most out there scenes I've ever read and some truly horrifying events and imagery, this book is a must for both horror fans (especially those who enjoyed Hex) and I guess also for mountain climbers who want to get into horror novels. There is a surprising amount of mountain climbing information here.

While I greatly enjoyed this book, I will say that something felt off about the pacing or maybe the story was a little too long. I thought that the length cuts into the tension the book is building, a tension that I felt Hex really excelled at stringing out as long as humanly possible. When the book does build that atmosphere of dread though, well... it is quite an experience.

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. I will update Netgalley once I read & review a physical copy.

This book opens with a terrifying sequence that made me want to get into bed and pull the covers over my head!

I've also read Hex by this author, and I think that Echo is a level up from that book. The author wants to make you feel the implacability and disregard of the natural world. One of the characters in the book is "possessed" by a mountain, though, so nature can sometimes take notice and you really might not like that. The author uses the term "possession" a bit differently than the normal horror trope, though. It's more like being enthralled and possessed by an impulse to climb. Nick, the mountaineer character, also takes souvenirs of each summit he masters, so he also wants to possess the mountains that he succeeds in climbing.

There's a lot about souls in this book. The Maudit seems to have a soul, and it also seems to have Nick, or vice versa. The Maudit is a repository for all the blackness (or is it all the goodness) of the souls of the people that die there. The author wonders what it would be like to be the remnant, or echo, of a person after all that makes them "human" is taken away. What happens if you have nothing to counteract all your worst impulses? We all have those black flashes of thought; what if nothing inside you held you back from acting on them?

Sam, Nick's boyfriend, hates the mountains. He's held by a past traumatic event that he can't let go and he hates the mountains because they remind him of it. I had a hard time understanding Sam's aversion. On the other hand, Nick relates in great detail just how dangerous it is up on a tall summit and how one mistake can be deadly. The cold, the wind, the ice, the cracks and snowslides that can make you fall, that felt real to me.

Although I didn't entirely like either Sam or Nick, I did really like their relationship. At the beginning of the book, Sam is trying to come to terms with Nick's disfigurement. He's mourning the loss of all they had taken for granted, and that everything will be different now. Is he up for it? He isn't entirely sure, and he despises himself for that. But these two seem to have a bond that makes them sacrifice for each other, to hold to each other despite their worst impulses, and that's a love to admire. There's talk about submission, about losing oneself in the other, that was both romantic and a little scary. They're both all in, but is that a good idea if one of you is dangerous and can't control himself?

So, scary things include body horror/facial disfigurement, danger from the heights of the mountain, not being in control of your body, not knowing what your lover is capable of, falling (being afraid of falling is such a basic human instinct, isn't it? this author makes you really feel it and I wonder why more horror doesn't deal with this), evil birds, evil villagers (this author really doesn't seem to care for villagers), ghosts, being restrained while you sleep unknowing (the vulnerability of sleeping with a loved one), nature itself.

The end of the book was a bit quick after the meditativeness of the build to the climax. It felt a bit psychedelic. It surprised me a bit- the author had such a bleak ending in Hex that I wasn't expecting any mercy. (The town of Black Rock is namechecked in this book!) But I'm not complaining.

Animal danger alert: the pet cat lives! However, a couple of wild animals are killed, one in a very gory way.

A haunting and imaginative story. This was a different style of writing for me and the narrative slows the pace but I liked the premise. There is a spine-tingling atmosphere with a European horror ambience. The characters are dimensional with a realism in their personalities. Sam and Nick are a couple struggling with their relationship after Nick returns disfigured from a mountain expedition. But is the strain from his physical injuries or has the cold terror of the mountains seeped into Nick’s soul? There is a supernatural aura and a foreboding suspense that pulled me into this dark story. #NetGalley #Echo

Thanks NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the advanced readers copy.

Unfortunately this book ended up not being for me. I really really enjoyed the beginning and the vivid outdoor scenes, it's clear the author has spent a great deal of time in the mountains. I started reading this actually while I was on a camping trip which added to the spooky feeling. However, around the midway mark I lost interest. I picked it up several times and just couldn't stay focused, so unfortunately I chose to DNF this book. I definitely think this book will likely pick back up and I may chose to buy and read it at a later date.

Thank you so much netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I loved reading Echo but was simultaneously immensely frightened by it. The premise is unique, and I enjoyed the supernatural European folk horror vibe. The story itself was bone-chilling, and I can't wait to see it become an instant queer horror classic. Sam and Nick's relationship is beautifully articulated and developed, and it remains a focal point in the narrative despite all of the terrifying things that happen.
I do think the story was a bit longer than it should've been, but I enjoyed the perspectives of both narrators and I think the novel flowed well.

This was an interesting book it covers a lot of territory, literally and figuratively. Sam and Nick are a couple, Nick mountain climbs as a hobby, while climbing a mountain in the swiss alps him and his climbing partner, Augustin, have an accident. Nick's face is badly disfigured after the accident and his partner had died. The story is told is present day, and through journal entries of both Nick and Sam. Both have worries about their relationship surviving Nick's disfigurement. Strange things happen while Nick is recovering both in the hospital and at home. People experience strange urges, some die, some experience extreme scary thoughts. There is a supernatural element to the story and the author does a very good job of incorporating the mundane, mountains and birds, into very scary things. For me the story is a tad long, but having read Hex, the author's previous book, I was expecting a similar length. I would recommend. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Any aspirations that I had of scaling the side of a majestic mountain, to reach the summit if only to feel glacial air in my lungs or the earth's pulse at my feet were quickly squashed by this spooky tale of woe. No desire now. Nope. I'm good, keeping these scaredy-boots at lower, safer elevations.

There are several passages that drone on, that wallow in madness, circles of narrative I could have done without, ones that I felt weakened the story which at the core is deliciously creepy. Overall I adore the melancholy prose and the threads of eerie suspense woven throughout. There are sentences, paragraphs, and passages that are unnecessary and cause the story to stall. A steak with a bit too much fat and gristle is still a steak, just a little harder to ingest.

I'd like to thank the author, NetGalley, and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Echo for an honest review. 3.5 stars.

After reading Thomas Olde Heuvelt's Hex, I knew immediately that his upcoming USA release for Echo would be right up my alley. The story is a supernatural horror taking form and causing havoc upon a gay couple? SOLD.

This story focuses on Nick Grevers and his boyfriend Sam Avery. Nick is a major fan of mountain climbing, while his boyfriend Sam is apprehensive about this hobby of his. They met several years prior, with Sam moving from New York to Europe to be with him. However, Nick and his climbing partner Augustin reach trouble at a remove mountain peak in the Swiss Alps, specifically called Maudit. Unbeknownst to Nick, he wakes up in a coma and Augustin is dead. Nick's face, once beautiful and provided him the luxury of privileges he took for granted, is now completely scarred from the nose down. Nick's face is mutilated and even with reconstruction surgery, he will never be the same Nick again. Sam is scared about what that means for their relationship as they are still young and naïve about romance. Will Sam stay with Nick? The old Nick may not look the same anymore, but something else is also brewing inside of him, what exactly is Nick hiding from that night?

I want to be vague on the synopsis because I went in only knowing it was gay and horror, and I want you to go in knowing as little as possible as well. It's a bit longer than it should be, but ultimately its a powerful story about love and acceptance, mental health, and of course, all intertwined with supernatural horror. I really loved the main characters in their own specific ways and at the core of this book is a romance (in my opinion). This story is really dark and the first chapter in the book is one of the scariest pieces of fiction I've ever read in my life. I don't really know how to compare this book with anything else I've read, but I definitely got Insidious / Conjuring vibes, I guess?

This story isn't for everybody, but if you like slow burning suspense, mixed with deep character driven narratives, I say go for it. Echo is very much like Hex in a sense that at times, the author lets your mind come to your own conclusions to certain plot points. The scariest thing in the world is one's own imagination, and Echo reeks havoc on it. I hope to see more of these types of novels from Thomas Olde Heuvelt.

Thanks to Thomas Olde Heuvelt and Tor Nightfire for allowing me to read and review this advanced reader copy.

ECHO is an intimate story of Sam and Nick, a couple who have to come to terms with the aftermath of a mountaineering accident - and it goes way beyond Nick's scarred face. Nick summits The Maudit and barely returns alive. His face is marred and his climbing partner is missing and presumed dead. As time goes on, it's clear that he brought something else back from the mountain.

This book opens with a very intense, enticing scene, after which it is told via a "found footage" sort of style where all the chapters are either notes from Sam or parts of manuscripts written by Nick and occasionally other characters. This format allows the author to switch between POVs and to tell the story out of chronological order while still providing full scenes of what happened up there on the mountain (as opposed to, say, Nick revealing everything in dialogue or flashback). However, sometimes this format lead to too much "telling" or outright exposition.

I loved Sam and Nick's relationship. I loved seeing their love for each other play out over the course of this horror, and I'm not even a fan of romance!

Overall, I found the book to be a little too lengthy. There were a lot of technical scenes describing the mountain topography and the literal mechanics of mountain climbing, which often proved to be too technical for me (a rock climber) in spots - I found myself backtracking to try to understand or just skimming and hoping a detail would pop up later.

Though overall lengthy to me, the last couple of chapters seemed a bit rushed and got a little confusing for me. For most of the book, they play up the mystery of Nick's injuries and how they were formed, but the reveal is basically how you'd have expected it to happen.

I would recommend this book to fans of queer horror and mountain climbers.

Echo is a well-crafted book that uses supernatural horror as lens through which the author explores deeper, and ultimately more human, horrors such as: losing a loved one, how a relationship shifts over time and through trials, the way guilt can shape our view of the world, and the fear of losing yourself. A very engaging read & wickedly atmospheric.

If this was the first Heuvelt novel I'd ever read, I would have a much higher opinion of it. Though it drags on a little too long in spots, the story is solid, the characters are real, and the whole thing is sufficiently spooky and unsettling. Unfortunately for me, I got my hands on Hex a few years ago and it was the scariest book I've EVER read (and I read A LOT of scary books--as scary as I can find). At this point in my life, I'm pretty desensitized to horror, but Hex literally made me afraid of the dark, legit gave me nightmares. Alas, this is not a review for Hex--it is a review for Echo. Overall, a great read, and still something I'd recommend, especially for people who like their horror with a whole lot of atmosphere (no pun intended) or prefer "the setting is the horror"-type stories.

ECHO is a wonderfully complex novel (if you've read Author Heuvelt's earlier novel, HEX, you will certainly retain some idea of his complexity and imaginative gifts). With LGBTQ + rep delightfully done, settings supremely designed in Amsterdam and Switzerland, a superb vein of rural European Folk Horror, ECHO is fascinating, riveting....and extremely terrifying.