Echo

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan

I struggle a lot with what to say about this book. Bear with me.

The story is so simple, complicated, convoluted, and mildly obnoxious for how deep it strives to be, yet doesn't quite achieve it's intention (maybe, boo).

An amazon summary, "Music, magic, and a real-life miracle meld in this genre-defying masterpiece from storytelling maestro Pam Muñoz Ryan.

Lost and alone in a forbidden forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica. Decades later, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California each, in turn, become interwoven when the very same harmonica lands in their lives. All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together. And ultimately, pulled by the invisible thread of destiny, their suspenseful solo stories converge in an orchestral crescendo.  Richly imagined and masterfully crafted, ECHO pushes the boundaries of genre and form, and shows us what is possible in how we tell stories. The result is an impassioned, uplifting, and virtuosic tour de force that will resound in your heart long after the last note has been struck." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

Ultimately, this book is about a harmonica. 

There, I said it.

This freaking, kind of off the beaten path, is about a harmonica.

This harmonica tends to travel between different young people at pivotal, and often politically charged moments of their life. It strives to create a snapshot into history in a very relatable way.

So there's changing narrators that all face different hardships, and as a kind of solace, they find comfort in the same harmonica they have all mysteriously come into contact with.

Like, I get what the book was probably going for; maybe something along the lines of every person's story is interconnected in this big strange world, but the stories didn't connect quite well enough or fully resolved enough for me.

I kind of felt like the book was a borderline "required reading book" with the level of mystery that surrounded it since there was so much to digest between it's pages.

But really, I just struggle so much with what to say about this. I liked the different themes and stories within the book, but I kind of wish I had been able to read each narrator's story as it's own separate book. What we get to see within the book is only a snippet of their story, and they were interesting stories.

I'm just hung up on the harmonica.

Happy reading!