YET TO BE MAJORLY DISAPPOINTED

Echo North
by Joanna Ruth Meyer
Page Street Publishing Co. | January 15, 2019

      Echo Alkaev's safe and carefully structured world falls apart when her father leaves for the city and mysteriously disappears. Believing he is lost forever, Echo is shocked to find him half-frozen in the winter forest six months later, guarded by a strange talking wolf—the same creature who attacked her as a child. The wolf presents Echo with an ultimatum: If she lives with him for one year, he will ensure her father makes it home safely. But there is more to the wolf than Echo realizes. 
      In his enchanted house beneath a mountain, each room must be sewn together to keep the home from unraveling, and something new and dark and strange lies behind every door. When centuries-old secrets unfold, Echo discovers a magical library full of books-turned-mirrors, and a young man named Hal who is trapped inside of them. As the year ticks by, the rooms begin to disappear, and Echo must solve the mystery of the wolf's enchantment before her time is up, otherwise Echo, the wolf, and Hal will be lost forever.  

If Beauty and the Beast retellings were its own genre, it would be my favorite genre. I'm unsure why I love them so much, as the Disney movie is not my favorite movie, nor the black and white 1946 French film (La Belle et La Bête), nor the other 2014 French film, or even the 2017 one starring Emma Watson; beautiful films, but incomparable to my favorite movies, yet I watched that many... There's an allure to Belle's character (her intelligence and love for books), that love/beauty is not skin-deep, and being swept away to an enchanted castle, but those reasons simply do not suffice.

Echo North was a pleasant surprise. If you read my Facebook update (you should like my Facebook page, link on the side), you'll learn this is more than a Beauty and the Beast retelling; it's also Cupid and Psyche retelling-along with an East of the Sun West of the Moon retelling, but I'm not familiar with that story! I was taken aback, but for all the right reasons. The melding of the stories was a smart move; I have never seen a Cupid and Psyche retelling. Props to the author for doing something new.

The writing is lovely, and I adored the world, particularly the enchanted castle; the enchanted castle has many wonderous facilities and things to offer, but it's also malevolent-think Monster House. I thought it was interesting to have the castle be a living, breathing entity instead of having talking clocks and candelabras. The author manipulated time and space like Cruel Beauty and poses the beginning of the story as a story told by Echo, which was a bit hard for me to wrap my head around. There are more instances of manipulation, but I can't say them because it'll spoil things. I'll just say things happen in a blink of the eye when, in actuality, took much longer. I was satisfied with the pacing of the story, except for Echo's journey, which I found long-winded and tedious. It's "normal" paced.

As much as I love intelligence in characters (Kestrel <3), I don't think Echo used it to her advantage. Her "defining" characteristic is her unwavering love, not her intellect... lame! I wanted her to use her cleverness to plot and do conniving things. Where's the deception or subterfuge?! She can have the best of both worlds, but she's so one-dimensional. I also pitied her because her unwavering love felt unreciprocated and one-sided: the romance, hard to call it that, felt underdeveloped to me. Echo puts her all into the relationship, she sacrifices whatever she can, she was the only one fighting for it. I wish the male counterpart was more involved.

This novel wasn't a stand-out. The writing is beautiful, and the new concept brings up the rating. The time-manipulation made my head spin, but that's just me because I sped-read, again... Not a fan of some characters, loved the villain though.