Review
ECHO is a tragic and heart-wrenching tale of loss and one brother's experience of dealing with the post-traumatic stress following the incident that takes his younger brother's life.
It's been a year since Justin's younger brother, Mark, died from an accidental gun shot to the head. Both boys were watching TV in their parents' bedroom and started rough housing over the control of the remote control. Justin was easily able to overpower Mark because of his increased size and strength. In retaliation, Mark reached into their parents' bedside table and retrieved a handgun and jokingly pointed it at Justin, demanding him to hand over the remote. Justin, knowing Mark is kidding blows the demand off and continues watching TV. Mark decides to put the gun to his own head and say, "If you don't change the channel, I'm gonna kill the kid," in a gruff voice. Justin replies, "Be my guest." The next thing he knows the gun goes off and blood is spattered all over him and his brother dies in front of him.
The remainder of the story takes place while Justin goes through the motions of getting through the 1 year anniversary of Mark's death. The reader goes through it with Justin as he relives it three days in a row. All the while, Justin is prompted by a voice in his head that offers encouragement and motivation to continue the heart-breaking day. The story is like the movie Groundhog Day without ANY of the comedy. Each day Justin sees things a little bit differently that allows him to have a clearer picture of what happened. Even with the small changes he makes during the day, the end result is always the same. Justin's ex-best-friend, Billy, falls down the stairs at school.
The reader will feel the pain Justin feels as he makes his way back from post-traumatic stress syndrome. ECHO is another wonderful story by Kate Morgenroth. If you haven't become familiar with her as an author yet, this is the time.
It's been a year since Justin's younger brother, Mark, died from an accidental gun shot to the head. Both boys were watching TV in their parents' bedroom and started rough housing over the control of the remote control. Justin was easily able to overpower Mark because of his increased size and strength. In retaliation, Mark reached into their parents' bedside table and retrieved a handgun and jokingly pointed it at Justin, demanding him to hand over the remote. Justin, knowing Mark is kidding blows the demand off and continues watching TV. Mark decides to put the gun to his own head and say, "If you don't change the channel, I'm gonna kill the kid," in a gruff voice. Justin replies, "Be my guest." The next thing he knows the gun goes off and blood is spattered all over him and his brother dies in front of him.
The remainder of the story takes place while Justin goes through the motions of getting through the 1 year anniversary of Mark's death. The reader goes through it with Justin as he relives it three days in a row. All the while, Justin is prompted by a voice in his head that offers encouragement and motivation to continue the heart-breaking day. The story is like the movie Groundhog Day without ANY of the comedy. Each day Justin sees things a little bit differently that allows him to have a clearer picture of what happened. Even with the small changes he makes during the day, the end result is always the same. Justin's ex-best-friend, Billy, falls down the stairs at school.
The reader will feel the pain Justin feels as he makes his way back from post-traumatic stress syndrome. ECHO is another wonderful story by Kate Morgenroth. If you haven't become familiar with her as an author yet, this is the time.
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 - Clint L. Kelly)
