I think Courtney Gould writes very creepy, very original things and I'm excited to see what else she comes up with. This one wasn't as sharp as The Dead and the Dark, mostly because I think the nature of the story intentionally keeps things from the reader which in turn makes it hard to really get what's going on--and then the pacing at the end feels very rushed and uneven. Still, I think it's a solid sophomore book.

I found this book difficult to get through. The plot didn’t move along as I expected. Although the creepiness of the town’s characters added tension and suspense, I stopped reading, Not my kind of book.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for an arc of this beauty!

After Beck's mother dies, her and her younger sister go to the small town in Arizona her mother was obsessed with. Something about the mystery of the town calls to Beck, and she can't put it out of her mind. But when they get there, things are even stranger than Beck expected and she discovers a town-wide conspiracy her mother was digging into, and Beck won't rest until she figures that out.

I loved this! I was instantly drawn in by the mystery of the town, the atmosphere, and Beck's determined attitude. I loved the way the mystery unfolded and the romance! I loved the sibling relationship and everything about it.

I get to go to a book signing for this tomorrow and I am beyond excited! I loved this so much and can't wait to see what Gould does next!

CW: grief, parental death, cancer, confinement

Where Echoes Die by Courtney Gould is a YA novel that promised to be a mystery thriller but ends up leaning more towards the realm of speculative fiction/sci-fi, akin to an episode of The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. While the concept of the story sounded intriguing, the execution fell short, resulting in a disappointing reading experience for me.

One of the main drawbacks of the novel is its slow pace. The plot unfolds at a leisurely pace, lacking the sense of urgency and suspense that one would expect from a mystery thriller. This slow progression can make it challenging to stay engaged and invested in the story, as it failed to build the necessary momentum to keep me invested in the story.

Additionally, I found the lead character, Beck, highly unlikable, which can make it difficult to form a strong connection or root for her throughout the narrative. Her choices and actions often leave much to be desired, and her constant selfish behavior hindered my ability to fully engage with her journey.

Furthermore, the novel veers into excessive introspection, with the protagonist's thoughts and reflections dominating the narrative. While introspection can add depth to a story, an overabundance of it can slow down the pacing and overshadow the plot. In this case, it detracted from the overall momentum of the story.

Despite these drawbacks, it is important to acknowledge that the novel's speculative fiction elements provide an interesting twist to the traditional mystery thriller genre. The concept and ideas explored in the book have potential, offering a unique and thought-provoking premise that fans of speculative fiction may appreciate.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in return for an honest review.

This book was such a good read. An amazing story of grief and family, full of mysteries and suspicious characters. It also talks about mental illness in a very realistic and relatable way. The small town of Backravel is creepy and intriguing, the author was great at creating the atmosphere of uneasiness main character Beck was feeling. I really liked Beck’s relationship with her little sister Riley, and her attachment to her mother’s investigation is actually really sad and also relatable. The way the story develops is interesting and smart, but the pace felt slightly off - the first half dragged a little, and the ending came way too fast. Overall, it was a great book that mixes suspense with sci fi, brings really creepy vibes, and has queer representation. Perfect for fans of stories such as Black Mirror.

Backravel is one strange town. People don't know when they arrived. This book has themes of dealing with grief, the relationship of sisters, the relationship of mother and daughter, and the dream of living forever.

Description:
Beck Birsching has been adrift since the death of her mother, a brilliant but troubled investigative reporter. She finds herself unable to stop herself from slipping into memories of happier days, clamoring for a time when things were normal. So when a mysterious letter in her mother’s handwriting arrives in the mail with the words Come and find me, pointing to a town called Backravel, Beck hopes that it may hold the answers.

But when Beck and her sister Riley arrive in Backravel, Arizona it’s clear that there’s something off about the town. There are no cars, no cemeteries, no churches. The town is a mix of dilapidated military structures and new, shiny buildings, all overseen by the town’s gleaming treatment center high on a plateau. No one seems to remember when they got there, and the only people who seem to know more than they’re letting on is the town’s enigmatic leader and his daughter, Avery.

As the sisters search for answers about their mother, Beck and Avery become more drawn together, and their unexpected connection brings up emotions Beck has buried since her mother’s death. Beck is desperate to hold onto the way things used to be, and when she starts losing herself in Backravel and its connection to her mother, will there be a way for Beck to pull herself out?

My thoughts:

The people and the town are definitely strange. They are warned not to take their car into town. Everyone walks or rides bikes. There are no churches or graveyards. Everyone seems to have to go for "treatments". It just gave me kind of a creepy feeling. The writing was good and gave you a sense of place and I liked that. There was some tension building. The book did seem slow at times and I didn't get attached to any of the characters. It's a worthwhile read and I'm giving it three stars.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on June 20, 2023.

I found this so hard to get into and was angry at Becks for dragging her sister out with her and not including her in her thoughts or motives. She just ignored her and cared more about Avery after knowing each other for a few days. I just found a lot of this to be confusing

I love Courtney Gould's eerie style, and Where Echoes Die was another dark, twisty entry into the Gould literary canon. I couldn't put it down -- devoured in less than 24 hours. Cannot wait to see how Gould's writing and approach continue to evolve.

Where Echoes Die follows 17-year-old Beck and her attempt to make sense of Backravel, AZ, the town that haunted her mother for years before her death.

Unfortunately, this book never really came together for me. I did enjoy the overall concept of the novel, which is pretty interesting, as well as the descriptions of the town of Backravel. Gould does a fantastic job at painting a clear, beautifully rendered vision of the town and the desert for the reader. There's also a great undercurrent of suspense and dread throughout the novel as Beck tries to understand her mother's connection to the town and what is happening in the town. I also think the themes its tackling, namely that of grief and the grieving process, are well done.

My main issues with the novel lie in the pacing and the execution of the concept. This book is pretty repetitive for the first 60% of the story, which makes it feel so much longer and more arduous than it is. Beck is, at times, an exhausting character to be in the head of, not because she makes questionably dumb decisions (she is a teen and she's grieving, so I can understand that), but because so many of her thoughts are the exact same, over and over again. Thinking the same thoughts about her mother, thinking the same thoughts about Avery, thinking the same thoughts about the town. This does make sense once the reader is told what's happening, but it would have been more effective in a shorter novel. Or, it may have been more effective to have multiple POVs the reader follows, like Riley, who is so barely in this novel, I wondered why she was a character in the first place.

I'm not going to spoil what's happening in the town, obviously, but it's a concept that is difficult to pull off, and I don't think it's executed the best in this novel. There either needed to be more explanation as to what was happening or it needed to be more vague. As it stands, it's both easy and also confusing to understand what's going on. It should be noted: this is sci-fi novel, not a horror novel. It could be argued that it's a sci-fi novel with some horror elements, but I would not classify this as a young adult horror. If you're going into this looking for traditional horror elements, you're going to be disappointed.

3.5 stars. A good sophomore effort by Gould, this is another novel with some magical elements, but really this is a story about dealing with grief and wanting to forget. I liked it (although not as much as her first book) and I'm not going to try to explain the magical/paranormal elements, because while I enjoyed that part of the book, they're not going to make sense unless you read it. Backravel is an atmospheric small town, and a character all its own. Beck is a fantastic character, and the supporting characters are well-done as well. Beck brings her sister Riley to Backravel after their mother dies, to try to figure out why her mom was so obsessed with the town. Things are not as they seem, and the town starts to make Beck and Riley sick.

"Beck Birsching has been adrift since the death of her mother, a brilliant but troubled investigative reporter. She finds herself unable to stop herself from slipping into memories of happier days, clamoring for a time when things were normal. So when a mysterious letter in her mother’s handwriting arrives in the mail with the words Come and find me, pointing to a town called Backravel, Beck hopes that it may hold the answers.

But when Beck and her sister Riley arrive in Backravel, Arizona it’s clear that there’s something off about the town. There are no cars, no cemeteries, no churches. The town is a mix of dilapidated military structures and new, shiny buildings, all overseen by the town’s gleaming treatment center high on a plateau. No one seems to remember when they got there, and the only people who seem to know more than they’re letting on is the town’s enigmatic leader and his daughter, Avery.

As the sisters search for answers about their mother, Beck and Avery become more drawn together, and their unexpected connection brings up emotions Beck has buried since her mother’s death. Beck is desperate to hold onto the way things used to be, and when she starts losing herself in Backravel and its connection to her mother, will there be a way for Beck to pull herself out?"

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Where Echoes Die was a very atmospheric and haunting story about two sisters who are searching for information about a town that kept drawing their mother to it during the last years of her life. Well- one sister is, the other sister is kind of tagging along because she is a good sister. Beck is deadset on figuring out why their mom was so enamored with the small, seemingly random town of Backravel, Arizona. Honestly even the name suggests you needn't pay it a visit, right? But since their mother's passing, they have to go live with their father in Texas, so they take a little side trip on their way there. They lie to Dear Ol' Dad, of course, but it still feels like incredibly irresponsible parenting to let your teen girls deal with the death of their mother (and only involved parent, from the sound of things) and then drive themselves across the country. Even if they lied about the stop (something about hanging out with a friend's relative at the beach)... Dad sucks, is what I am saying.

So on one hand, it's a wee bit Parent-In-YA-Syndrome, but on the other, it certainly explains why Beck is going to be more concerned about her dead mother's secrets than getting to dad's place. I'll allow it. Of course, nothing in this town is as it seems, and people seem... off. Everyone seems suspicious of Beck and Riley stopping by, which in itself is strange. There is only one place available to stay in the town (a very janky Airbnb, which is basically an RV on some rando's property, seems totally legit and not at all terrifying for two teenage girls). Anyway, point is, maybe the girls should just head to the beach with Fake Grandma?

But they don't, obviously, or this would be a dull story! No, instead Beck dives right into her search, consequences be damned, and what she finds will definitely not be what she expects. And I will leave you at that, because what fun would it be if I said any more? During the story though, Beck will form some relationships, and have to figure out her relationship with her sister, and of course, come to terms with what happened to their mother. So it is definitely emotive, and certainly mysterious!

Bottom Line: A solid sophomore offering from Courtney Gould. I felt quite invested in this creepy town as well as Beck's journey. Can't wait for more from this author!

First off, thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book. WOW where do I start with this book?! There are so many great highlights in the book, and various different aspects of it make the book such a mesmerizing read. The most obvious to point out is Courtney Gould’s wonderful prose. I loved the way she built and developed Backravel — It gave such creepy, ominous, mysterious vibes. The way that Gould developed the setting also made it seem as if it existed in a completely different parallel reality. Time seems to function differently, and as I was reading it, readers are kept at the edges of their seats because there’s always the feeling that something was not quite right about the place. And just the whole premise of the story — with the characters being drawn into the town through a mystery, only to find themselves in even further mysteries.

In addition to these aspects, I loved the way the book also explores other themes as well, especially representation and grief. The way the Beck attempts to cope with her mom’s death, albeit were not always the most ideal, were realistic, and it made her so much more of a relatable character. I would say that the pacing seemed a little bit slow for my liking, but otherwise, this was a lovely mystery, thriller, fantasy read for all readers who love these genres!

3.5 stars

This is weird, but it's meant to be weird and that's what draws you in. The mystery and wanting to know what happens keeps you turning the pages but it is a small let down at the end for me personally. No one in Backravel is trustworthy and you're always looking sideways at everyone every time they are on the page. I'm starting to really like the strangeness that is Courtney Gould's writing, I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Thank you to Netgalley, Courtney and the publishers for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Two sisters travel to an isolated Arizona town to investigate its connection to their mother’s death, but uncover more than they bargained for in this supernatural thriller.

This book left me not knowing what was going on, but in the best kind of way. I was pulled into the mystery of Backravel & its citizens & could not pull myself away. I stayed up late reading and even woke up early to finish it.

This was the first book by Courtney Gould that I have read but I’m definitely going to be checking out her other book!

Where Echoes Die immediately grips you and I had a really hard time putting this down! I read it in under 24 hours because the way Courtney Gould creates atmosphere and tension makes you NEED to know what’s going to happen.

Beck and her sister Riley are on a road trip to Backravel, Arizona - a town that their recently deceased mother was oddly obsessed with. When they arrive there are so many strange things about the small town that just don’t add up. There are no churches, no cars and no cemeteries. On top of that, there seems to be a man in charge of the treatment centre in town that pulls all the strings.

I had so many questions during this wonderfully cultish, sci-fi, mystery book. It was a fantastic combination of genres and showed a really interesting look at grief and love.

This was a very emotional book. The messages I received from this book were:
- it is ok to grieve however, there is no timeline of feeling better.
- Returning to the past keeps you stuck, not experiencing life.
- People should alway have a choice in their life.
- Just because you love someone does not mean you have their best interest at heart.
This book was a bit confusing at times but as I read more and more, I began to understand that this was the purpose behind this story. I would recommend this book.

Did I read and review this book more than a month ago? Yes.
Did I then paste a domestic thriller review right over this one and lose everything? I sure did.
*facepalm*
(And I didn't even realize it until I was about to post my review on Instagram today, ARGH!!)

So, what can I tell you about this book? Certainly not as much as I could have done weeks ago.
*** I can tell you that the narrator, Rebecca "Beck" Birsching is struggling following the death of her mother. She arrives at the town of Backravel, a town her mother was obsessed with, looking for answers. But things are not quite right in this town, and she ends up with more questions than answers. I didn't quite connect with her, but I did like her tenacity throughout.
*** I can tell you that while there were mysterious elements about this story, particularly what strange things happen to those who remain within this town, this didn't have the creepy element as the author's previous work, The Dead and the Dark.
*** I can tell you that the plotline is very complex, and I wasn't always sure what was going on, even at the end. But the story was a well written one that kept me engaged to learn about how this town impacted people's health and memories.

My vague review may not be enough to sway you one way or another to read this book, but I'll say if you are looking for something mysterious in the YA supernatural genre, check this one out.

This was an interesting story! It’s heavy on sci-fi with a bit of mystery. I didn’t find the twists surprising and was a bit predictable. It wasn’t as creepy or suspenseful as I was initially expecting but it’s certainly weird. Nonetheless, it was a fun time seeing it play out with a satisfying end. I can agree with the Don’t Worry Darling and Stranger Things comparisons. It does have a similar vibe. I think what I appreciated is the sister bond between Riley and Beck. They had their ups and downs in processing their mother’s death in different ways. I could see myself in Beck where she struggled to open up with others. So I loved that she was able to find her place in the world again. However, I couldn’t connect with the side characters. They seemed to only be there to move the plot forward. I liked Avery but wanted more from her!! The ending was super sweet but a bit rushed. Overall I enjoyed this.

Thank you NetGalley, St.Martins press & Wednesday books for the arc.

**3.5-stars**

After their mother's death, 17-year old, Beck, and her 15-year old sister, Riley, are supposed to go live with their Dad and his new partner in Texas. Before they go, Beck has something she needs to do. Concocting a story of staying with a friend and her Grandmother for a bit of a vacation, Beck and Riley are free to take some time and travel where they want. Beck's plan is to go to the town of Backravel, Arizona, to find some answers about her Mom's mysterious final months of life.

Their Mom was an investigative reporter who became obsessed with Backravel. She traveled there frequently. At times it felt like she was choosing Backravel over them. Beck is determined to find out why.

As they arrive in Backravel, it's clear that something is up with this town. The people are strange and treating them even more strangely. They're strongly urged not to take their car to town and there's no cemeteries or churches. The girls settle in to their rented trailer, a place where their Mom had stayed previously, and Beck digs into her investigation. She's keeping her true goals from her sister, so in a way is continuing in the path of her Mom before her.

The town has a charismatic leader, Ricky, who runs a treatment center everyone seems to attend. Beck sets her sights on getting to the bottom of this center, these treatments and Ricky himself. Beck befriends Ricky's daughter, Avery, and gains a lot of new information that way. In the meantime, she also ends up falling for Avery and confiding in her in unexpected ways.

This was an interesting story. I liked the set-up and the vibe of this creepy little town. The concept made me think of a few other things. For example, it reminded me of A History of Wild Places, mostly because of the remote town that felt like a cult, or commune. I did like the mystery of that.

Also, the treatments that were talked about that Ricky performs for the citizens, it made me think of Scientology, like auditing that is performed on members. I was super interested in figuring out what was happening there.

Eventually though, I started to get bored with it and then it went in a direction that I just didn't really care for; the twists. Put another way, while I enjoyed the mystery, I didn't enjoy what the answer ended up being.

However, that is 100% a personal taste issue. Gould's writing is great. The sense of place and, as I mentioned, overall mystery were well done. I did really enjoy The Dead and the Dark by this author, so I think this is just a case of this one not really matching my preferences as far as tropes go.

I did listen to the audiobook and would recommend that as a format choice. The narration is excellent. I felt it fit the tone of the story very well.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. I'm glad I had the chance to read this one and will definitely be continuing to pick up Gould's work!

Scheduled to post 6/20/23.

Where I loved THE DEAD AND THE DARK so much, WHERE ECHOES DIE is, unfortunately, a lackluster next book that doesn’t have any of the low thrum of horror Gould’s debut did, and next to no resolution.

First, I need to talk about every error that could ever exist about Arizona is present in this book. On their website, Gould does have desert photos, but they’re not where their story is set. If I had to guess they’re farther north, possibly on the border or in Utah. Mainly because southern Arizona doesn’t have those red rocks, nor does it have the red dust that is SO PREVALENT throughout the story.

It bothers me because, well, one, I live here so I’m reading it, literally from page one going no, no no. But also they use the scenery to set the ambiance and the tone of the book. Which is fine, but it’s not accurate. There were ways to make it accurate, but they weren’t taken and here we are. What I mean is they set it in southern Arizona off of highways that exist, but she scrubs them of their reality for the sake of the story. They go through Yuma coming from LA (no, you go through Blythe unless you purposely want to add hundreds of miles to your drive). They didn’t stop going from LA to Backravel (no, your car would have run out of gas before then). They’ve been driving more than three hours since hitting Yuma and are still in the middle of nowhere (no, you’d be well into Phoenix in that time). They haven’t seen any cars during that drive (no, those are major shipping routes and they’re never without tractor trailers or cars within sight at all times). Backravel is a lone town out in the middle of nowhere and hours from anywhere (no, based on her own driving directions, Backravel would be about 15 minutes from Gila Bend, the nearest town, and maybe a half hour or so from Goodyear, the proper edge of Phoenix metro). The characters used the time change to excuse being tired (no, in October there is no time change going from California to Arizona, because Arizona doesn’t recognize daylight savings time, we flop back and forth between MST when daylight savings time is off and PST when it’s on).

What kills me is there are places like this that exist in Arizona where Gould could get this same desolate mood that they were going for without just being wrong about an entire section of the state. I understand that people who don’t live here aren’t going to know this and probably think this is what Arizona looks like everywhere in the state. Like I said, there absolutely are. Just not where Gould set the book.

Since all that was literally from page one, like paragraph three, I had to tuck A LOT back to keep reading. Luckily I liked the voice, although I could have lived without the incessant use of Ellery Birsching’s full name every time it came up. I don’t understand why authors do that. Like, I kind of do, to provide a kind of elevation to the writing, but for me it just got real annoying real fast. I think it got annoying for the author too, because about two thirds of the way in or so they stopped doing that.

I kept reading because I expected something to happen. Anything. Literally anything. Some kind of action. Some kind of tension. Literally. Anything. But nothing happened. I kept waiting for the shoe to drop about the weird time trips people were having and why the town mysteriously “healed” people. And it did eventually, but it was less of a drop and more of a gentle placement on the ground. There’s no explanation of what was actually going on. It was just done and we’re curing people and you’ll be fine. Over in seconds compared to all that build-up, although I can’t really call it build up. There wasn’t much build-up happening.

Beck is clearly someone who needs therapy. I feel bad that she was put in the position of basically being a mother when hers was absent, and it was unfair of Riley to treat her the way she’s been treating her and trying to get her “back to normal.” That was clearly a big part of this book, Beck working through her mother’s rapid decline and death. She did that by trying to figure out what was going on in this town, except she never really figured it out. There’s no explanation for how anything was happening. Just that it was happening because of this lab, and that’s it.

Beck is a very selfish character throughout most of the book, keeping Riley in the dark about everything, leaving her alone after dragging her to this town under false pretenses. I can’t blame Beck for wanting to do something for herself after all this time, but at the same time she did it to the detriment of her younger sister. And when that sister ends up in some nonsense, Beck is just like okay whatever. I guess it’s fine. Which was really shocking. I kept expecting her to fight and she just never did except at the very end, but it was too little too late, and she ended up getting rescued by other people anyway. So she didn’t really solve anything.

There was so much riding on the town doing the work of being creepy enough to hold the story that it fell flat. It wasn’t enough. And the “trust me, it works” attitude that everyone had wasn’t enough to maintain that creepiness, especially when Beck let so much slide. And she really did. She’s very much a rule follower and the extent of her bucking the town’s norms was going to the library and talking to the Desert Woman. She never really risked much of anything of herself. I never felt she was ever really in trouble, and the “villain” was not very intimidating or villainish. I feel like I could have just pushed him over and kept walking and I would have been fine.

Whatever surprises WHERE ECHOES DIE is supposed to have are not surprising. I knew who the Desert Woman was immediately. I had Avery and her father pegged from the beginning. Where there should have been surprises, there wasn’t. Where there should have been resolution, there wasn’t. The more important part of the book was Beck healing and her relationship with Riley healing and putting all that into context. Fine. But don’t market it as a YA horror novel and forget that the horror part needs to follow through.

Since I’m 50/50 on the author now, I’ll give their next book a go when it comes out. I hope it’s better than this one. That it goes back to what THE DEAD AND THE DARK was and has that character growth, but also follows through on the promise of there being horror involved too. I feel like the book I was pitched is not the book I got.

2.5