An Echo of the Fae

Series: Standalone

Author: Jenelle Leanne Schmidt

Genre: Fantasy

Book Description:

Echo enjoys the peace and solitude of the Faeorn forest, regardless of how strange spending time in the “haunted” wood seems to others.

But on the cusp of her thirteenth birthday, the discovery of a family secret reveals why Echo has never been drawn to the sea like her mother. This discovery shakes the foundations of her world and sends Echo on a quest, not merely into the forest, but into the heart of the fae-lands themselves, to rescue the sister she didn’t know existed.

Elves, dragons, and fairy courts will put Echo’s wit and resolve to the test. But with time running out for her sister, will Echo even be able to save herself?

A fairytale adventure perfect for fans of The Secret of Roan Innish and The Girl who Drank the Moon.

Review:

I keep having trouble putting my thoughts on An Echo of the Fae together whenever I sit down to actually write the review, so this will have to do.

I liked the writing of the book; it flows nicely and is usually what is – in my opinion – the right amount of descriptive. Relationships, many in the family but not all of them, and facing one’s personal desires and fears form the heart of the story, and I really like how that was done. It starts with Echo’s rather, quiet everyday life. She’s relatively happy and enjoys her life for the most part, and while she has few friends, due to her differences, especially her love of the forest, which makes the other children mock her as a changeling, she is not lonely. She is friends with the forest creatures, and she loves her parents and they love her. We get a look into their family life, Echo’s discomfort with the fact she’s so different and doesn’t love the sea like her parents and her desire to please them, and one gets to see what seems very much like camaraderie between the three of them.

But then, her mother is stricken with a deep sadness, and Echo starts to notice that some things about her life – or more specifically, her parents – don’t make a whole lot of sense. But they hold back on her for a while, before she finally uncovers a secret that terrifies her, and then they reveal the entire truth.

Then follows a hectic, chaotic and sometimes confusing quest to save her sister. Though her father tries to go with her – the love and care between them is really touching – only Echo can enter the faerie realm to look for her sister, because only she is fae herself. There she discovers pieces of her history, and there were times when I thought the other characters – and her feelings about them – were perhaps a little shallow, especially since Echo tends to think deeply about things – something I liked about her. Though some of it is interesting, and there is complexity behind some of the characters (the Winter King especially struck me), in my opinion much of the middle and the quest to get Jana (Echo’s lost sister) back added little to the book: it was certainly picturesque, but it was a confusing muddle that did not have a deeper meaning I related to, as in a dream or a vision. I’m also not at all sure how I feel about some of the tests Echo has to overcome, such as walking a path of obsidian shards. But though it wasn’t the kind of plot that works for me, I think some people may find it appealing. And once Echo finds Jana, I really enjoyed the beginnings of the dynamic between them. Despite her past, Jana is lively and vibrant once she recovers from her shock, and seems like she is likely to be a great deal of fun, and a very good match for her more introverted sister. And I like Echo’s creativity and inventiveness. She does come up with some interesting solutions, and argues her points very well.

One thing that I can’t get out of my mind when I think about the story is: what happens with Echo’s problems with being considered a fae changeling? How does the rest of the village react to Jana’s appearance and the proof that Echo really is ‘Echo of the Fae’? What about the children? Is all their mocking of her over just because one of them decided to accept her? Her parents seem to have a fair amount of standing and good reputation – but how does all of that play into something that most people aren’t likely to want to accept graciously? It ends in an idyllic way, and while from some angles I thought that idyllic ending actually made a lot of sense and fit the book, I think it was a tad overdone.

An Echo of the Fae is a rather bright middle-grade story, about love that overcomes. It’s not deep in its exploration of its questions and themes, but it is clean from the nastiness that characterizes some middle-grade books, instead being hopeful and peaceful, a story of people who love each other and who, even though they make mistakes, will do anything for their love.

Jenelle’s Website