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Review: Echo After Echo by AR Capetta Rating: 4/5

"The gods have not given me leave to speak, And yet I will, For to leave this unsaid would be a violence Against all things..."

At the Aurelia, deaths come in threes. Mysterious tragedies that plague a production right up to the finale on opening night. Zara Evans is willing to overlook that, though, when she lands her dream role in Echo and Ariston. But when she meets Eli Vasquez, the Aurelia's dedicated lighting designer, Zara finds herself drawn into the mystery and about to discover more than she bargained for.

I did not know I needed a mash-up of SMASH and Pretty Little Liars in my life but in their infinite wisdom, AR Capetta delivered! I wasn't sure how a story about Broadway would really work since theatre, especially plays, are such a visual medium but the lyrical writing and exquisite characterisation keeps this story from falling short of its premise.

Zara is the perfect, innocent ingénue who slowly finds her spine over the course of the novel. It was so hard to read about the way her douchebag director manipulated and mistreated her but luckily she has a few people on her side keeping her safe. Enna, Kestrel and Cosima show just how important it is to look out for other women.

The undercurrent of the story is well and truly about how powerful men don't understand the damage they cause. Leopold was an absolute prick and I had to keep myself from flicking through pages faster to see when he'd get his comeuppance. He's interestingly paralleled with Adrian, a Hollywood heartthrob who's taking a stab walking the boards, who possesses a similar level of power and notoriety but doesn't use it to his own advantage.

I liked Adrian, and it was especially cool to see how he had to use alternative methods to learn his lines around his dyslexia and ADHD. His and Zara's friendship was nicely handled, especially when Zara came out to him as bisexual. But he pales in comparison to the wonder that is Eli Vasquez.

Where Zara is quiet, Eli is loud. Where Zara has questions, Eli has answers. They complimented each other so beautifully and their relationship felt so natural and respectful. Again, going back to the theme of power dynamics, Eli is very conscious of her advantages in maturity and experience over Zara and does such an excellent job of making sure Zara feels safe and comfortable as they develop together. Healthy romance dynamics are in, I tell you.

The mystery is the only part I really struggled with. While it was exciting and definitely had me gasping at a couple of the twists, I didn't find the big reveal as compelling as I could have. The mystery unravels quite slowly as the different layers of subterfuge are unveiled which really drew out the climax and kept it from packing a proper punch.

Whether you're looking for a gritty mystery, a gentle wlw romance or a Broadway drama to fill the SMASH-shaped hole in your life, Echo After Echo is sure to be an enthralling, enchanting read.

Warnings: Violence, drug use, sexual misconduct, references to rape and suicide.

#echo after echo #ar capetta #booklr #bookblr #book reviews #reviews #4 star reads #trcc original #wlw reads #lgbt books

do i consider myself someone who gets crushes on book characters? not at all. did i totally have a crush on eli from echo after echo from amy rose capetta in hindsight back when i first read it? absolutely

#LISTEN she worked in a theater and had dyed hair and brought her gf on a date to the strand #what more do you WANT #lulu speaks #lulu reads #lulu reads echo after echo #echo after echo #books

When you open a book and you just ... yes.

Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta

#echo after echo #amy rose capetta #book recommendations #book rec #lgbtqia #lgbtq+#gay #poetry #writing

Fave Five: YA Murder Mysteries Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta Far From You by Tess Sharpe White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig People Like Us by Dana Mele A Good Idea by Cristina Moracho Bonus: Coming up in May, Keep This to Yourself by Tom Ryan!

#A Good Idea #Amy Rose Capetta #Caleb Roehrig #Contemporary #Cristina Moracho #Dana Mele #Echo After Echo #Far From You #Keep This to Yourself #Murder Mystery #Mystery #People Like Us #Tess Sharpe #Tom Ryan #White Rabbit #YA

My first book of 2019! What are you reading?

#books #reading #lgbt reads #library finds #currently reading #2019 reading goals #echo after echo #amy rose capetta

"...he says the prayers he learned as a boy, a few of the words gone, like fallen-out teeth."

Amy Rose Capetta in Echo After Echo

#echo after echo #lgbt literature #amy rose capetta

Are There Lesbians? Yes

What Happens? Zara lands the role of a lifetime acting as Echo in her favourite Greek tragedy - Echo and Ariston - however the increasingly demanding director requires she has no outside distractions, something that becomes more and more difficult as people being to die, and then there's the small matter of Eli, the cute assistant lighting director.

The Verdict: Wow what a book! I have read some good queer lit recently and this only continues the streak. From the very first page I was completely captivated by Capetta's lyrical-without-being-pretentious writing style and incredible sense of world building. I am sincerely disappointed Echo and Ariston is not a real play because it sounds fantastic and I want to read it all (it sounds like a cross between Swan Lake and Dido of Carthage!!).

Echo After Echo is such a well-put together book that it is easy to forget that it is a YA - a genre where, sadly, the writing, plots and characters can so often become simplified or generic. Even the most minor of characters are fully fleshed out and interesting, it is easy to believe that they could each be the main character of their own narratives. I think my only gripe would be that at first Eli felt too aggressively "cool" and at first she seemed like a bit of a cookie-cutter character with her ripped jeans and flip-knife, rather than an actual person. However, as the story continued she, like all characters, became much more fully fleshed out (into a very cute lighting nerd!).

In a post- Harvey Weinstein world, characters like the director Leopold Henneman are especially chilling. The way that everything and everyone is expected to bow before his "genius" is typical of not only middle aged white men but typifies the arts in general. There is a terrifying undercurrant throughout the book that Henneman destroys women for his art. There is mention of rape and suicide as well as drug and alcohol abuse - each having their root in this specific character. It is easy to hate him, but Capetta has also done the fantastic job of making him a somewhat tragic figure towards the end.

To turn to brighter things, the main relationship between Eli and Zara is absolutely adorable. I love them so much and am in love with their love. Their relationship builds slowly and naturally with just enough love-at-first-sight to appease the very terrible romantic I am inside. My favourite of course is the whole "I like girls too no really please pick up these hints that I like girls and I like you" dance that feels so familiar to me (because I have been through it with The GF) especially because Zara is bi and Eli seems really intent on only picking up that she's been in relationships with guys. I could go on and on about this.

Of course it is important to mention that the main characters of Echo After Echo aren't white. Zara is Jewish and Eli is Latina. I feel it is also important to mention that the Adonis-like Adrian has ADHD and is a fantastic representation of the disorder. I love him so much and deeply want for him to be happy! There is so much good representation in this book. By this I mean that the "diversity" is enough that the book simply feels natural rather than as if Capetta has simply gone down a check-list. At the risk of getting wildly off topic, this is really all I need from a book, not simply a single black or Asian character in a vast sea of whiteness, or one woman on an otherwise all male team. Give me a reflection of the real world and I will believe the story so much more.

Echo After Echo is a truly fantastic story that weaves a romance and a murder mystery perfectly together to form a tragedy that echoes (heh) the Greek playwrights. Whether or not the ending is a good one or not is up to the reader and you'll have to read the book to find out!