Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained from the publisher in advance of the book's release on January 30, 2024 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
Finding Echoes is a new novella from queer small press Neon Hemlock (whose stuff is nearly always great) by queer fantasy author Foz Meadows (whose stuff is also pretty much always great or at least interesting). So yeah, you can imagine my excitement to get my hands on their latest novella, Finding Echoes.
The novella features a city filled with class and wealth divisions, drug use, uprisings, and politicians and nobles who stand above it all, not caring about or doing anything about certain walled in parts of the city where the lower classes live. Into this setting comes Snow, a protagonist defined by Snow's white hair (marking their being born to a person addicted to a dangerous drug) and Snow's ability to see the umbra (echoes/spirits) of the recent dead and to hear the truths they tell. The result is a story dealing with class, with truths and realities between classes, and of love and hope for the better as Snow's past love Gem returns and asks Snow to help him on a dangerous mission. It's pretty good.
Plot Summary:
Snow stands out for two reasons: Snow is Quartzborn, giving Snow's hair the white that marks those who are actual users of the drug quartz, and Snow is a Vox, able to see the Umbras (echoes) of the recent dead so as to speak to them and obtain the truths they spout. Snow makes money and stays out of the way of the Junzas by selling their services as a vox, but it's barely enough, so Snow begrudgingly accepts a dangerous task brokered by Snow's friend to go into the richer areas of the city to help actual revolutionaries find evidence of corruption. But what Snow couldn't have anticipated is that the revolutionary on the assignment is Snow's long-thought-dead love Gem, whom Snow thought was dead for 8 years.
The mission with Gem will bring back to the forefront old memories of Snow's, aspects of Snow's past long forgotten, and hopes of a better life with love. But 8 years has changed both Snow and Gem into different people, and the mission might kill them both before both can recognize who Snow and Gem have become...and in a city like this, the mission might actually be for nothing at all.....
Quick Thoughts: Finding Echoes is told from the first person perspective of Snow, whom the book does not gender (or provide any pronouns for, hence the way I'm writing this review). And Snow's perspective shine a light on the book's dealings with class, oppression, drug use, and surival, as Snow lives in a slum part of the city untouched by the wealthy, is marked by Snow's mother's drug use, and has had to deal with the various Junzas (mobs and the territories) in order to survive - with Snow having essentially brokered an initially bloody peace between the Junzas with Snow's actions and powers in the first place. This situation, plus Gem's death 8 years ago, makes Snow pretty cynical about ever changing things much for the better. And the book is kind of on Snow's side in terms of its portrayal of how whether things ever could get better.
And yet, this book is in many ways a hopeful one, both in those themes and in its love story as Snow is forced to go along with Gem and rediscover that that love never died, even as both characters became kind of different people over the last 8 years. Snow's past with Gem is painful to remember because that love is still there (and vice versa), and without being a full on romance, the adventure here results in it being rekindled in a hopeful fashion, with also hopes that the world might get better through their actions...perhaps. It's all done really well and ends in a really nice fashion. Recommended.
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