Book Review: Our Shouts Echo by Jade Adia

“The concept of “normal” is a tool to either dilute people into complacency or alienate others. If life is a cup of black coffee, “normal” is milk; the more the concept is forced onto you, the weaker you get.”

Jade Adia, Our Shouts Echo

Review:

I went into this book blindly as it was a recommendation from a friend. On one hand, this enhanced my reading experience. On the other hand, had I known some elements of the story, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up on my own volition.

Niarah is on the brink of failing her sophomore year. With the Earth on a precipice, what’s the point of classwork? But she doesn’t really want to be held back a year, so she incorporates building her doomsday shelter into her summer school project. Along with this, she begrudgingly joins a hiking club to make up her PE credits. There, she meets Mac, and an unintentional summer romance begins. 

I enjoyed the mental health and family drama aspects of the story and I found Niarah’s ‘Doomsday Girl’ persona relatable, but I could have done without the romance. Mostly because it just feels super creepy when there is ‘spice’ involving teenage characters, especially when it’s more than implied. Granted, I’m not the target age group, but that doesn’t make it any less cringy to me, especially when written by adult authors. If not for that, this book would have been a solid four stars at least.

Another issue I had was that so much of the story remained vague and left more questions than answers. The result was a super rushed ending that opened up new conflict rather than resolving what had been built up until then. If there’s a sequel planned, then I get it, but as of right now, I’m not left with the impression that this is intended to be a series.

Likes & Dislikes:

What I liked:

• The illustration of mental health struggles and its up and downs.
• Niarah building a doomsday shelter in her backyard, because honestly same.

What I didn’t like:

• Sexual content involving teenagers.
• Not as unsettling as the spicy scenes, but I just have no interest in reading about a bunch of teenagers getting high.
• Too much vagueness and open-ended plots.

Afterthoughts:

I struggled with rating this book because there was a lot that I did like about the book, but I had to measure the pages I was invested in against the ones I was not. Sadly, what I didn’t like outnumbered what I did.

Where to buy the book: