Echo

Rating:
Summary: liquid and beautiful
Review: I'm a 19 year old reader currently studying photography and philosophy, after switching over from a creative writing major. I've always loved Francescia Lia Block; she helped me through high school, and continues to brighten some of the more taxing (read: increasingly boring) days of my "adult transitional" years. Her work is young, and fresh, overflowing with imagry, constantly maturing, and a safe house for young girls everywhere. She was my halfway house inbetween highschool and college.

Ok, that said, now let's get serious. i'm going to assume that you already read the summary above, so i'm not going to mess with re-telling that; if you want to know what the book's about scroll up a few, kay?

I am coming to believe more and more that while Francescia's work is shelved in the YA section of Barnes and Noble, it's really meant for an audiance of sweet 16's to early twenty-something women who are educated and have good reading comprehension skills. Especially her newer work (Echo, Wasteland). Echo can be confusing to some readers who, unfortunately enough, are simply not ready for drastic shifts in character view point and writing style (to help the reader clue into a new character's voice). It can be difficult to catch a lot of Francescia's more subtle techniques, especially for more inexperiances readers. I wouldn't reccomend this book to someone who wasnt in highschool yet, for example, unless she had an inordinate amount of comprehension skills. And also, it's important to note that no matter your reading skill, a second read will open this book up to you even more.

I also wouldnt reccomend this book to anyone who is thinking of buying their child something "cute and girly" for christmas, thinking this is some kind of Harriet the Spy-type novel. It isnt. This book, as well as all of Francescia's other books, contain subject matter that some people consider innapropriate to share with their children. Topics discussed include things like: rape, drugs, sex, child abuse, incest (her latest), alcohol, loneliness, suicide, depression, etc. But never in a way that made me afraid, or upset, or that i didnt feel that i could deal with it. It's also important to note that the author never actually encourages any of these actions, she often shows them in a light that is less than flattering, to put it mildly.

And also, just quick-like, i'd like to mention that i grew up in the city. Parents, if your kids grew up in even a "sheltered household" the way that i did, but still in the city, or with internet access, or anyway out of the house at all, chances are that they already know about this stuff. And have questions, yes, and would like answers. Francescia was always a positive influance to me, never a negative one. I think that you can trust your children with her.

Ok, now for a quick blurb on the actual book: it's amazing. Beautiful, easy for me to identify with, a very mature book from one of my favorite authors. The text flows like liquid form one word to the next, it was interesting to feel Francescia experimenting within her medium, and i enjoyed every second of the time that i got to spend reading this fantastic story. It is NOT empty, vapid, without plot, or any of the other horrible things some people ( read people that probably read it before they had the skills nessecary to understand it) seem to have to say about it. And excellent book, one that i would most heartily reccomend for a good read, and then a cozy re-read afterwards.

Cupid boy lifegaurd man is my favorite. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Not the best selection I've made
Review: In my opinion, "Echo" by Francesca Lia Block isn't even worth a review. A short novel that I found completely lacking any meaning you care to relate to, I thought "Echo" was a complete waste of time. I would definitely not read it again, but I guess I'm the only one that feels that way. So go ahead, maybe you'll see what everyone else did in it.

Rating:
Summary: Echoing in my mind for days to come
Review: I was at the book store walking around trying to find a book in the teen section. This book caught my eye because of the cover and I imediatly picked it up to buy it. Now when I started it I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, but I soon got myself intertwined in the pages, so deep that even the yelling of my teachers couldn't break my thought. Though at times confusing, by the middle it's easy to catch on the changes of narration and thought. I enjoyed this book to the very end and plan to re-read it, for my own enjoyment, very very soon. Echo is a girl who is a bit of everyone, from teenager to adult. It's nice to be able to get a realistic flow of her life through the magical imagination and truth she brings. A def. must read.

Rating:
Summary: Parental concern
Review: Ok, I'll admit I'm an adult who reads at least as many Children & YA books as adult books. Reading the reviews here, it is sometimes hard for me to tell which reviews are written by adults and which by young adults. I picked up this book because it is recommended on my library's website. It is recommended both by the librarians and by many young adult readers. So, I figured this book was a good one for anyone studying writing to look at, which it is. Then I read these reviews to see what elements of the book appealed to people.

Obviously the unique voice, the seductive 1st person narrative alternated with fantastical 3rd person narrative, is one of the book's charms. Many people identify with Echo and her lost and lonely feelings. They identify with her because she isn't perfect. But some of the parents who have at least read the start of the book are appalled at the sex, drugs and violence. Flame me here, but I don't fully understand why. Unfortunately s,d&v are a part of our society. Block portrays Echo as self-destructive. She has anorexia. What can be more self-destructive than that? Echo finds s,d&v because she is feeling self-destructive. Block doesn't condone it. And in the end Echo walks away from it and as she finds her lover, she thinks that she couldn't find someone to love before, because she didn't love herself. If you were a person struggling through self-doubt and anger, wouldn't this book make you feel less alone? Wouldn't it give you hope?

So, to the parents, is it more important to shelter young adults from s,d&v (a daunting task) or to let them develop their own judgement. Yes Echo is at times offensive, but it may help some get through the quagmire of life. My theory, which of course may be wrong, is that a person not yet able to emotionally handle such subjects would put this book down pretty quickly.

As for the rating, I only gave it a 3 because of the scene/point of view shifts several other people have mentioned. I found them confusing until I was into the book partly because her own life and her parent's lives were complementary. I like the format used, which is very like a bunch of short stories strung together, but I think Block could have made some revisions early in the book that would have made the scene shifts less confusing/disturbing.

Rating:
Summary: Dreamy and Haunting
Review: I was so amazed by Echo, the Francesca Lia Block book that I had read of recent. Block has a gift for imagery and poetic language, which makes Echo a more impressive read. I was a little lost by the change of characterization but it did not detract from the novel. I also loved the fact that it was told in short story form, making this Block's most ambitious novel to date. I am really enraptured by this book and recommend it to all.

Rating:
Summary: Wimsical, yet confusing and pointless
Review: I have not read any other of Francesca Lia Block's books. And, after reading Echo I am afraid of actually buying another. I hate to sound mean, but I found the perspective changes sudden and completely confusing. The reason I am apprehensive about buying another one of Block's books is because Echo lacked plot and reason. It was simply a tale of life and I kept waiting for something to actually happen. But, no, it was simply a tale of her life. And maybe if it held my imagination more, I would have adored it with its interesting characters and such.

So, if you really need a book that keeps your mind captive I do not suggest this novel. I was left waiting for it to end.

Rating:
Summary: "Echo"s of "The Damned"
Review: The opening chapter of "Echo", written in the voice of its protagonist, is fresh, colorful, and fetching. Teenaged Echo has a too-perfect mother and a father who ignores her, but she's also got one outrageous superpower! Unfortunately, Echo soon fades into the hills as the narrative momentum is lost in a succession of narrators, considerable lapses of time, and just too many turns of the merry-go-round. One thing that impresses itself on me in this book is how close Block is coming to Anne Rice in her decline. To wit: an endless cast of characters, all offered for our approval based pretty much upon the evidence of cool names, exotic artistic tastes, and a sense of fashion. Multiple narrators, as noted. Situations that seem to exist for the sake of how poetically they can be evoked. Time and place gone increasingly opaque. As for concrete examples?: well, there are vampires for one thing. And a wee little girl starts revamping fairy tales in a manner that suggests she has been reading the Sleeping Beauty trilogy for bedtime!
I'm still susceptible to Block's charms, and "Echo" does have some powerful moments, particularly in two disturbing chapters that show the dangerous, sexual lure of dark beings who seek to entrap our heroes. But the novel feels, at times, plodding, marking time almost. The travails of Smoke and Eden become, at their worst, pure kitsch: Block comes darn close to the ridiculousness of Little Nell in one emotive scene. And, well past what feels like a logical culmination point, the book is still floating through Echo's endless search for-- er, self-worth? The Valentine chapters feel a little too coy about Echo's feelings for her. And, while the finale does have poetic uplift, it's not as glorious as "Violet & Claire"s climax-- it's more of a relief just to be through with it. And, after all the bad lovers, anorexia, sexual predators, etc., should we really believe that magic exists in underground clubs? Isn't it time to let these heroines get out of the smog and search for Art and Love someplace else? This Joycean hangup with trashy, flashy L.A. may be getting a bit much, and really, it's not the least toxic environment for creative young people to try and flourish in. Read "Echo" for the shimmery poetic images, but go back to the earlier ones for emotional depth and dramatic release.

Rating:
Summary: A novel for those who are still searching and hoping
Review: 'Echo' is the interwoven collection of stories, about a girl named Echo and her search for self. Echo's mother, "the Angel", is perfect and beautiful, and Echo doesn't know how she can ever live up to such a mother, when she has "faded brown hair and the face of an elf". She wishes some of her mother's beauty will rub off on her. Her father is basically neglectful; always gazing lovingly over at his wife. Echo just wants to "be seen". But one day, Echo finds out that her father is dying. She tries to escape her pain by many ways. Throughout the story, she searches for love and healing from many different people living in L.A. but in the end discovers where she can find what it is she is looking for.

In 'Echo', I think that Francesca has created a realistic teenage girl. Echo is not perfect; she feels despair, rage, but can still hope. This book was almost like poetry. "Dreamlike" is the perfect word for it.

Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing & Magickal
Review: While you read it, "Echo" is strange, a mesmerizing book that seems like a forign drug. After you've read it, it simply feels like a strange wind of enchantment blew right by you, only leaving that haunting memory of the stories that are so magickal they can make you homesick for them if you think about them to mutch... Still the story's are just a little bit flat, and that's why I rated it 4 stars instead of 5. Still, it is excellant, and I really suggest it..
-Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Page Turner
Review: Francesca Lia Block is a great author and she definitely proves that in Echo.The book is focused through Echo's --main character--eyes as she travels and attempts to find love --and the boy on the beach-- in different people.

I love the quotes in this book.This is one on pg. 45 :

And then I cried a flood of tears as if I really were a mermaid who had absorbed too much of the sea into herself. In them swam a little girl whose father was dying without ever having seen her. In them swam a girl whose mother's magic - the thing the girl envied more than anything else in the world, the thing that made her invisible, the most precious thing - might be dying, too. In them swam a green-haired girl who had never been touched by the boy to whom she was so devoted that she would have lived with him forever in a shack by the sea or a ruined sand castle even if he never loved her, too. My tears were for me, but they were also for him. They were to wash away the thing that had frightened him so much so long ago. The thing that had hurt him so deeply. The wound inside his thigh. My tears poured out of me and he drank them down his throar. He drank them in gulps deep into himself, swallowing sorrow.

"Someday," he said, "when we are ready, I will give you back your tears."

This book is great for any one who likes fantasies. But it's also a great book to read for anyone, it will catch your attention right from the first page.