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eric_train's review against another edition
3.0
Sometimes Peter Abrahams seems to get to the end of a book and just say "fuck it". This is one of those times. I read this in 2 nights, couldn't wait to see what happened, and then just as things got really interesting, it was all tied up in 2 pages with a long list of unanswered questions. I gave it 3 stars for the first 290 pages, but the final 4 get a zero point zero.
mlejmeyer's review against another edition
2.0
I really like Abrahams' YA thrillers, but this one really fell apart for me at the ending and was just too rushed and confusing with not enough character resolution.
bxermom's review against another edition
2.0
Sloooow in the beginning and ruuuuushed at the end. UGH!
orangerful's review against another edition
3.0
Mature end of YA. Not my favorite Abrahams books but solid writing throughout. The blurb on the front said it was a "potboiler" and I didn't really understand the term until I finished the book. I don't think I'm into that style of mystery.
quietjenn's review against another edition
2.0
entertaining enough, but no great shakes. (which is to say, perhaps, please write another echo falls book.) there's actually a lot here i liked, *but* the ending - how it was paced, i.e. super rushed - kinda ruined the overall.
jeannemurray3gmailcom's review against another edition
1.0
Not very good. At times, it seemed it was going somewhere, and then things happen that just don't make sense. I believe the main problem was character development. I felt like I would know a character, but then the author would change them. I didn't like this book.
libscote's review against another edition
2.0
For someone who has written pretty good female characters in the past, I was really disappointed with this book.
kaje_harper's review against another edition
3.0
This is a good young-adult mystery/coming of age story. Wyatt's biological dad has been serving a life sentence since before Wyatt was born. When circumstances force Wyatt to move to a new town he suddenly is aware of the prison, and his father, right there within reach. He hooks up with a girl whose father is also in prison. His new girlfriend claims both men are innocent. Wyatt's curiosity and growing desire to understand both himself and the role his mother may have played in the crime, push him to investigate.
The plot of this book is well written, with surprising turns, and a climax that is unexpected and yet works with the characters and story. A few details are questionable. For example, the father, (who was a young, good-looking guy with no ties to any gang or power structure, and no one to send him money from outside when incarcerated), seems to have a lot of power and leeway in the prison. And the best friend Dub just disappears from the story half-way through the book. But in general the story-line works.
What makes this a good book, and not a great one, is that the story after the climax wraps up in an unemotional page and a half. This is where the real emotional work of the story would have happened. Wyatt's relationship with his mother and stepfather, the revelations about his dad and all the questions about how much the man changed in prison (or didn't), the things that happened with Wyatt's girlfriend - all of those would keep a therapist or an introspective narrator busy for months. It feels almost like a cheat to have no insight into how Wyatt feels or handles it all beyond the simple line that "inside he felt like he deserved much worse". So... a good light-weight mystery/thriller story, but not one of the YA that let you get deep inside the main character and reread for the emotional punch.
The plot of this book is well written, with surprising turns, and a climax that is unexpected and yet works with the characters and story. A few details are questionable. For example, the father, (who was a young, good-looking guy with no ties to any gang or power structure, and no one to send him money from outside when incarcerated), seems to have a lot of power and leeway in the prison. And the best friend Dub just disappears from the story half-way through the book. But in general the story-line works.
What makes this a good book, and not a great one, is that the story after the climax wraps up in an unemotional page and a half. This is where the real emotional work of the story would have happened. Wyatt's relationship with his mother and stepfather, the revelations about his dad and all the questions about how much the man changed in prison (or didn't), the things that happened with Wyatt's girlfriend - all of those would keep a therapist or an introspective narrator busy for months. It feels almost like a cheat to have no insight into how Wyatt feels or handles it all beyond the simple line that "inside he felt like he deserved much worse". So... a good light-weight mystery/thriller story, but not one of the YA that let you get deep inside the main character and reread for the emotional punch.
crystal_deornellas's review
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
sentunderscore's review against another edition
i DNFd this at 40 pages. there were many things about the way this was written that i wasn't enjoying. mainly being that the dialogue was very unnatural and the intelligence of the main character was very off.