Echoes Between Us resonates with so much emotion and so much truth that it’s hard to put down!
Sascha Darlington
Katie McGarry
January 14, 2020
Tor Teen
Blurb: Echoes Between Us is bestselling author Katie McGarry’s breakout teen contemporary novel about a girl with everything to lose and the boy who will do anything to save her.
Veronica sees ghosts―more specifically, her mother’s ghost, thanks to the blinding migraines that consume her whole life and keep Veronica on the fringes. But the haunting afterimages make her wonder if there is something more going on….
Golden boy Sawyer is handsome and popular, a state champion swimmer, but this All-American is hiding an adrenaline addiction that could kill him. Drawn to each other after a chance meeting, can they help each other battle the demons that haunt their every step or will they push their luck too far and risk losing it
all…including their lives?
Before I became a book blogger, I read several Katie McGarry novels, but none of those touched me even half as much as Echoes Between Us did.
Veronica is the odd girl, the weird girl, the petite girl with huge blue eyes who hangs out with weirdos who must be druggies because they’re fringe. Sawyer is the popular, handsome boy from a rich family and a huge swimming career ahead. For years, he’s ignored her, laughed at the gossip about her, but when situations bring them together, they find that perhaps realities are different than they thought.
Echoes Between Us resonates with so much emotion and so much truth that it’s hard to put down!
For starters, I loved both Veronica, who is strong and unique and so lovable, and Sawyer, who is fighting a good fight without knowing who the enemy is. I loved how they interact and react together. They have become one of my favorite YA couples.
Echoes Between Us is a mix of paranormal and reality and a blending of the two. Veronica wants to do a project to show that ghosts are real so that her father will realize she’ll always be there with him, even after she’s gone. I have to say that when reading one of the passages I was so engrossed and on edge that when one of my dogs barked, I almost literally flew out of my chair. McGarry writes suspense oh-so-well and I hope she continues to do so!
There have been few novels lately that make me forget they’re novels, that weave me into their framework, and just make me feel. This one did that. Close to tears, laughing, fearful, I felt them all. There may have even been some of that angst-stuff that I’m never of a fan of but here I was.
“I want you to laugh. The type of laugh that only comes with experience. The one that is drawn through years of understanding that life is so precious and that laughter is the best medicine for the soul.”
Echoes Between Us deals with addiction in a forgiving way, which must be commended because so few novels do. It’s easy to throw daggers but not so easy to give understanding. I loved what McGarry did with this.
The striking thing for me is how far this novel felt from previous McGarry novels that I read over five years ago. How strong all of the elements are that make this story work so fantastically well. How the emotions crept into me and held me. She wrote a story that could have devolved into melodrama and sentimentality but didn’t.
So, I loved Echoes Between Us. If you love YA romance with supernatural elements with life and death thrown in, this one may be for you. It may also be for fans of John Green’s Fault in Our Stars, if you don’t mind the element of paranormal.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
rating:
5 out of 5 butterflies