Review by Sushan -- The Crystilleries of Echoland

[Sushan Ekanayake]

[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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Young Adult fantasy is a genre with which I started reading. But for a while, I could not read a good YA fantasy, and when the opportunity occurred to review one, I had no second thoughts. That is how I ended up reviewing The Crystilleries of Echoland by Dew Pellucid.

As per the basic details, my copy came with 281 pages. Though it was a medium sized book, it was divided into 63 chapters and an epilogue. It carried coloured illustrations as well, which is quite unusual to see in YA novels.

Will Cleary, a boy who has disappeared with his twin sister in their infancy, has come back in a mysterious manner. He is now grown up and sees the misery that his family is under, due to the loss of his sister. Will decides to go to search for her, and ends up in a hidden world, which is underneath the human world, the ‘echoland’. Despite looking for his sister, he has to get involved in a fight to crown the actual heir of the Echo kingdom. Will he succeed? Will he find his sister? Will he be able to come back?

The first thing which came to my mind when I kept on reading was, that this book is truly inspired by the famous fantasy, the Harry Potter. The descriptions of the orphanage, the fate sealers, reminded me of the 3rd book of the Harry Potter series, the Prisoner of Azkaban. Still I am giving full credits to Pellucid, for the creation of the imaginary ‘echoland’, since it is a marvellous imagination. The author himself has mentioned at the end of the book, that he himself spent 12 years imagining the ‘echoland’.

The language use was pretty simple. It facilitated a fast reading. Use of numerous short chapters, instead of few long chapters was an addition to that. The shifting between scenes was clear with the way that the author has divided the chapters.

The ‘echoland’, the plot, the scenes were well planned and well described. But I felt like the descriptions were lacking a bit. Since this book takes the reader to a totally new world, it would have been better, if the surrounding descriptions were some more. It would have made the book a bit larger, yet it would have been more interesting.

The unexpected twists which appeared in least expected situations, made the plot really interesting. The reader is kept in suspense till the end, and this only is enough to keep the reader attracted and alert.

The book was professionally edited and I found no typos, spelling or grammar mistakes.

Anyway, I found it bit difficult to keep up with story, and it was a bit difficult to understand with the large number of characters. Many of them were given a big significance, and in my opinion this made the story a little bit complex.

And also, the happy ending was too happy for me. Only the bad guys were dead by the end but not even a single good guy, even after undergoing serious trauma. Even for a fantasy, this is too impractical.

This book is for all the YA fantasy lovers, including younger readers, since this did not contain any sexually explicit content. But anyone who cannot withstand violent acts, better to avoid reading this, since it carries few gruesome fights and killings.

I would like to give this a rating of 3.7. Since such values are not allowed, I will give this a rating of 4 out of 4 stars.

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The Crystilleries of Echoland
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

Like Sushan's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Amy+++]

I agree with your review. I read this book a few weeks ago and loved it. Great review.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I agree with your review. I read this book a few weeks ago and loved it. Great review.

Thanks for the kind reply. I am glad that you enjoyed my review

[Fozia-Bajwa]

As per the basic details, my copy came with 281 pages. Though it was a medium sized book, it was divided into 63 chapters and an epilogue. It carried coloured illustrations as well, which is quite unusual to see in YA novels.

It is a great effort made by you Sushan that you have read 63 chapters in a book and then combined them in the form of one page. its a good review by you. But one of my opinions to you is you should write your review in the form of big paragraphs not in the form of small paragraphs. hope for the best.

[Book Lover 35]

Well it sounds like a great book, although I wish it wasn't too fast paced. That's amazing that the author imagined this world for 12 years. Thank you for the review!

[Sushan Ekanayake]

Well it sounds like a great book, although I wish it wasn't too fast paced. That's amazing that the author imagined this world for 12 years. Thank you for the review!

Thank you for the kind reply. Hope you enjoyed my review

[Sahani Nimandra]

To imagine a land for 12 years is clearly something. What's really great about fantasy genre is that they take us to their own unique world so that we can pray on them. It's really great to get lost in one, and I can see this read has won your enthusiasm. Thank you for your review!

[Sushan Ekanayake]

To imagine a land for 12 years is clearly something. What's really great about fantasy genre is that they take us to their own unique world so that we can pray on them. It's really great to get lost in one, and I can see this read has won your enthusiasm. Thank you for your review!

Thanks for the kind comment. I am glad that you enjoyed my review

[Debjani Ghosh]

I too read this book and agree with you that the author should have described the surroundings and backstories of certain characters more. Thanks for the review!

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I too read this book and agree with you that the author should have described the surroundings and backstories of certain characters more. Thanks for the review!

Glad to see someone who is agreeing with me. Thanks for the kind comment

[fernsmom]

Great review! Sounds like a good book. The author imagined the land for 12 years, must have put more into it that way. I like most aspects of the book you mentioned the only thing that would hold me back is the large number of characters that made it a bit complex, but the rest of it sounded really good to me. Again, great review!

[Sushan Ekanayake]

Great review! Sounds like a good book. The author imagined the land for 12 years, must have put more into it that way. I like most aspects of the book you mentioned the only thing that would hold me back is the large number of characters that made it a bit complex, but the rest of it sounded really good to me. Again, great review!

Thanks for the kind reply. I am glad that my review allowed you to get a complete idea about the book

[Kajori Sheryl Paul]

I like to read YA fantasy as well and from your review it seems that this book is right up my alley. I like the premise and the way Echoland was structured. It does remind one of the Harry Potter series.
Also, it is amazing that the author took twelve years to create his Echoland.

Thank you for the lovely review.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I like to read YA fantasy as well and from your review it seems that this book is right up my alley. I like the premise and the way Echoland was structured. It does remind one of the Harry Potter series.
Also, it is amazing that the author took twelve years to create his Echoland.

Thank you for the lovely review.

Thank you for the kind comment. I am glad that you enjoyed my review

[Sushan Ekanayake]

As per the basic details, my copy came with 281 pages. Though it was a medium sized book, it was divided into 63 chapters and an epilogue. It carried coloured illustrations as well, which is quite unusual to see in YA novels.

It is a great effort made by you Sushan that you have read 63 chapters in a book and then combined them in the form of one page. its a good review by you. But one of my opinions to you is you should write your review in the form of big paragraphs not in the form of small paragraphs. hope for the best.

Thanks for the kind opinion. I will keep it in mind in my future reviews. Thank you once again for the reply