Review by brown09 -- The Crystilleries of Echoland

[brown09]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Crystilleries of Echoland" by Dew Pellucid.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Between two parallel worlds, children have gone missing. The only child to have ever returned to our world from Echoland, a universe that is parallel to our own and is full of strife and suprises, Will Cleary must figure out how to save the people of Echoland —and likely his own— with the help of his protectors, Damien who once took the form of a wolf in Will’s world, and Dea, who was once a falcon, along with many others who lend a sense of humor, fear, and a lot of magic to the overall story.

In the lore of The Crystilleries of Echoland, “Sounds” are the people and objects of our world, while the beings of Echoland are translucent “Echos”. There is a hierarchy of Echos within this world, and when the truth that Will’s Echo is the Prince of Echoland is revealed, Will and his companions must face dark forces that threaten to end him and the many others who are tied to both worlds. Will must also figure out how to navigate through the winding world of Echoland, for the dark forces will leave no stone unturned to find him and his Echo.

This incredibly creative worldbuilding is one aspect of The Crystilleries of Echoland that I adored the most. Going into the story, I already loved the notion of secret parallel universes that mirror our own in a variety of ways, and this story creates a whole new world for me as a reader that feels fresh and new. The details and imagery reminded me of the Harry Potter series in the fantastical elements that were organically given to the reader. The resulting worldbuilding really helped make the story easy to read.

Another aspect of the story that I liked most while reading The Crystilleries of Echoland was the characterizations of each major character. Nothing felt flat when any of them spoke or acted according to each of their personality traits. Also, everything flowed between characters as they reacted to each other, resulting in multi-dimensional people within a living, breathing story instead of one-dimensional characters in a book.

I can’t think of anything that I disliked about the book other than the naivete that Will Cleary exhibits throughout the first half of the book. I won’t spoil this review with too many details about it, but some of his reactions left me a bit taken aback because he is a thirteen-year-old boy who should have a bit of life experience at this age. Then again, this could just be a personal gripe. Will's naivete doesn't destroy the story.

I happily give The Crystilleries of Echoland a rating of 4 out of 4 stars because of its intriguing lore and world building, its fantastic characters, and its exceptional editing (I didn't find a single typo). I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a novel that adds something fresh to the Fantasy genre. This book doesn’t copy and paste bildungsroman elements into the trivial life of a flat or despicable young man.

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The Crystilleries of Echoland
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[Erin Painter Baker]

I also found the world creation of Echoland very interesting. I didn't really notice Will's naivete, but that may be because my experience with kids that age is that, depending on what their life has been like so far, they all have intensely different levels of naivete.