It's hard to review a book. Especially a very good book. A) I don't want to give away what happens. And B) When a writer is brilliant at writing, how can you use words to do their words justice? But I can tell you this: Echo Boy is brilliant. Matt Haig is brilliant.
Now let me do my very best to explain why, and you can let me know if I've encouraged you to read it afterwards. I hope so!
I love dystopian novels. You may have recently seen that I tweeted about 'Prophetic Fallacy', only to be corrected (several times) and be told it's Pathetic Fallacy. How embarrassing! I have always been bad at confusing words and getting them totally wrong - at prep school one of my teachers even called me MS. Malaprop (I even just had to look up that word just to make sure!!). My point is, I've just looked up the word dystopia, and can confirm that yes I do love dystopian novels, and Echo Boy is one of the best I have read - watch out the Handmaid's Tale, Oryx & Crake, and the Hunger Games! I like books that subconsciously make me consider the future, and question the impact that who we vote for, how we protect our planet, and the way advance ourselves and the technology around us can have on our future. The thing I love the most about dystopian novels is that they are so plausable. It's frightening and exciting.
Echo Boy is set about 200 years from now in England (mainly). Without getting too much into the details (which are explained so brilliantly in the book), life has very realistically evolved due to climatic changes and technological advances. Cars & public transport as we know them have been replaced by vehicles that allow you to travel around the world in a matter of minutes. Actually, if you want to visit places without physically leaving your house, you can go into a pod and it will take you anywhere in terms of being able to explore and speak to people. You can even play games and learn in there. I suppose it's like an extremely advanced google meets google earth meets xbox meets facetime meets school meets simulator. The government is not really in power anymore, it's the technological giants, Sempura and Castle Industries; Castle also controls the police force. Money does bring power! Robots are a thing of the past and in their place are Echos. Echos look like human beings in their most perfect form (they don't get flaws like pores and spots and age spots - they don't age for a start), they have blood much like a human. However they are not human. They are man made - created to serve and teach humans, and unlike humans, they do not feel pain or emotion. Apart from Daniel.
The novel has two protagonists: Audrey Castle, who is the neice of major technological tycoon of Castle Industries, and daughter to her parents who are against the technological advancements of Sempura and Castle, and who are murdered by an Echo. And Daniel, the Echo. As a prototype, he is unlike other Echos as he feels pain and emotion, which also makes him disobey orders. Daniel is drawn to Audrey and feels a need to protect her from the dangers that surround her, and as a result, he endangers himself.
The story is so gripping I found myself skipping ahead of words, willing myself to read faster in order to find out what would happen next. It was such a compelling read, I found myself awake in the night with only herbal tea and Echo Boy for company. It was so exciting that I felt depressed when I reached the end. Do you ever get that feeling when you love being part of the book so much it's sad when it's over because you have to let go of that world and the people in it? Well that's exactly how I felt, although I don't think I would want to live in their terrifying world.
Matt Haig has a way with words. His writing is so simple yet so genius that reading his words is like watching a film. It ignites your visual imagination in a way that few other writers are able to do (and I have a very visual imagination). His words flow in a way that make you feel like you are watching his fictional world with your eyes. Echo Boy could easily be a brilliant movie, and I believe it will become one. I suppose it's hard to explain it, you just have to read it.
If you are familiar with Matt Haig's previous book the Humans, (perhaps you read my previous post about it), then Echo Boy is very different to that in many ways. But like the Humans, Echo Boy forces you to look at our own behaviours and flaws as a human beings. Echo Boy teaches you that to be able to feel emotions is a blessing, because it's what makes you feel alive. It's what makes you able to love, and consider that "maybe being human isn't down to DNA in the end. Maybe it [is] just about the ability to love, when you know love [is] irrational." It makes you see that humans are insecure about their appearance, are both good and evil, and that even the wealthiest humans are nothing without freedom. Echo Boy is a brilliant dystopian novel, but is also a beautiful allegory of human life, in both its ability to love and be good, and to hate and be evil. And I hope that is not a malapropism!
I wholeheartedly recommend you read Echo Boy. It's not out until the 27th March but you can preorder it here and read more about it on Matt's site here. I would love to know your thoughts when you do read it, and also would love to know if you feel inspired to read it after what I've written. Please let me know :)
In the mean time, please see my book recommendations from my previous post - it features Matt's previous novel the Humans if you can't wait until 27th March. Oh and Matt is on twitter and you can follow him @matthaig1
Until next time... Ms Malaprop x
