Where Echoes Die by Courtney Gould
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**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!
