Echo, Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Title: Echo
Author(s): Thomas Olde Heuvelt
No. of pages: 615
Genre: Thriller, Horror, Paranormal

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In Echo you follow Sam and Nick’s story of how they’re dealing with the aftermath of an accident that happened high up in the Swiss Alps.

Nick and Augustin, climbing buddies, are attracted by the Maudit – a mountain in the Alps. They soon discover why everyone seems to steer clear of it and why there’s not much information to be found by any others who tried to reach the top. This only makes it all the more interesting to Nick and Augustin. Not long after reaching the top, Nick wakes up from a coma and Augustin is dead. What happened? And will Sam and Nick ever be able to pick up their life together again?

Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s writing style had me hooked from the very start. I read the first chapter in bed, late at night, and that ended up as being not one of my smartest ideas ever. Let’s just say that I needed to go to the toilet, but was afraid of doing so 😬 (Of course I eventually went, but not without running)

Although some of the sentences and passages seemed a bit messy to me, there was never a dull moment in Echo. You get to know both Nick and Sam’s past, both of which contain some traumatic experiences which are explored into the tiniest details. These flashbacks felt kinda Stephen King to me, but it was still *very* Thomas Olde Heuvelt! 👏🏼 I think he did a great job on writing a story while being inspired by an author, but still staying true to himself.

You also get to know about the relationship between Nick and Sam and let’s just talk about that relationship, shall we? At first I didn’t know Sam and Nick were a gay couple, but of course the names were a big enough hint. For most. I’ve been let down in the past by writers who seemed to have written a story with gay main characters, but they had just given one of the two a gender neutral name and I ended up reading another story about another heterosexual couple. Because Thomas Olde Heuvelt doesn’t push the gender of Sam in your face when you read from his POV, I didn’t know if I was dealing with a man or a woman called Sam. Eventually I was sure and I was quite pleased with that. Because it was just what it was: a loving relationship between two men. It just didn’t feel as though Thomas Olde Heuvelt was trying to force a gay couple into his novel, just to make himself look good.

Besides Sam and Nick’s relationship, I also loved the details of what happened in the mountains and what was still happening with Nick after he woke up from his coma. I don’t want to give away too much details, because I don’t want to spoil *anything*, but it just felt like Thomas Olde Heuvelt put a lot of thought into his novel and it worked out so very well!

I hope the translation (there just has to be a translation of this eventually!) will be finished soon so the whole world can enjoy Echo!

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Soon after the release of Echo I had the chance of meeting Thomas Olde Heuvelt and getting my copy signed! It was the first signing session I ever went to and it was amazing. Thomas was really nice – he even put in a personal message warning me for echo’s and chill drafts at night 👻