If you’re a fan of Kate Alice Marshall, the first thing to know about her latest book Our Last Echoes is that it’s a stealth new entry in the same world as Rules For Vanishing. For new readers, fear not, this book isn’t marketed as a sequel for good reason because it can stand on its own perfectly well and the main connection to the previous book is through a returning character who we’re introduced to through the eyes of a new protagonist, Sophia. While I whole-heartedly recommend picking up the earlier book because it’s phenomenal, it isn’t required reading before starting this one.
Our Last Echoes continues in the faux-documentary style that this author excels at with a selection of written transcripts from radio broadcasts or video interviews and excerpts from various sources like fan forums, articles and letters. These are scattered intermittently throughout the book, which is predominantly told from the first person perspective of Sophia Novak.
We know from the start that she has an ulterior motive for scheming her way into an internship on Bitter Rock island where she intends to unravel the mystery behind her mother’s supposed death. There is no time at all wasted in setting the scene with a hostile local as her first welcome to Bitter Rock, followed by more friendly folks who warn her against going outside in the night which Sophia promptly disobeys in order to stumble into shadowy mysterious figures who fade into the mist. No slow-burn here, the reader is instantly catapulted into bizarre happenings and spooky shenanigans from the get-go, and there is an abundance of spine-chilling creepiness yet to come!
It’s impressive just how much sheer creativity and unabashedly insane weirdness is on offer here with a wonderfully unique remixing of traditional horror tropes. Safe to say that you will never have read anything like it! Familiar tropes like Protagonist with Secret Connection to Small Town and Enter The Evil Doppelgangers are given a whole new twist here with a mind-bending mythology that pays off in the most incredible fashion. Things may get a bit confusing for some readers along the way, but the mysteries are answered (mostly) and the threads are tied up in a satisfying manner by the end, so stick out the wild rollercoaster ride!
As fascinating as the plot elements may be, the success of a book rests on its core characters and Our Last Echoes has an engaging cast – alongside our budding detective Sophia is the charming, self-deprecating Liam (son of the head scientist) and brashly confident paranormal expert Abby (our link to Rules For Vanishing). The three form a solid Scooby Gang as they team up to investigate the truth about what’s happening on Bitter Rock and discover what exactly happened to Sophia’s mother all those years ago. There is a budding romance between Sophia and Liam which isn’t really necessary, but neither is it overly distracting as the focus of the story is on the trio determinedly rushing in where angels fear to tread. The author also makes sure to develop a fun dynamic between Abby and Liam; where many YA novels would simply focus on plugging them into the Best Friend and Love Interest roles respectively, here they have an engaging banter that brings some much needed humour to lighten the mood in between life-threatening escapades.
This haunting and thought-provoking supernatural tale is best enjoyed at night so you can be thoroughly absorbed in the eerie atmosphere oozing from its pages. A beguiling, immersive narrative with sympathetic and relatable lead characters makes this an addictive read, highly recommended for all suspense/horror fans!
Our Last Echoes is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Kara Thomas meets Twin Peaks in this supernatural thriller about one girl’s hunt for the truth about her mother’s disappearance.
Sophia’s first memory is of drowning. She remembers the darkness of the water and the briny taste as it fills her throat. She remembers the cold shock of going under. She remembers her mother pulling her to safety before disappearing forever. But Sophia has never been in the ocean. And her mother died years ago in a hospital. Or so she has been told her whole life.
A series of clues have led Sophia to the island of Bitter Rock, Alaska, where she talked her way into a summer internship at the Landon Avian Research Center, the same center her mother worked at right before she died. There, she meets the disarmingly clever Liam, whose own mother runs the LARC, as well as Abby, who’s following a mystery of her own: a series of unexplained disappearances. People have been vanishing from Bitter Rock for decades, leaving only their ghostly echoes behind. When it looks like their two mysteries might be one and the same, Sophia vows to dig up the truth, no matter how many lies she has to tell along the way. Even if it leads her to a truth she may not want to face.
Our Last Echoes is an eerie collection of found documents and written confessionals, in the style of Rules for Vanishing, with supernatural twists that keep you questioning what is true and what is an illusion.
