Echo North

When Echo Alkaev was a child, she tried to free a wolf from a trap. Terrified and in pain, the wolf attacked her and scratched her face, leaving scars that she would carry for the rest of her life. Since then, she’s been an outsider; the other villagers say she’s been ‘marked by the Devil’ and that she’s bad luck. 

When her widowed father remarries, Echo doesn’t have much hope that his new wife Donia will like her. But Donia is worse than Echo ever imagined—she is unbelievably cruel, and forces Echo’s father into debt to buy her a house and everything else she dreams of. He even has to close his beloved bookstore, as he is no longer able to afford the rent. 

In a last-ditch effort to make money, he travels to the city to sell his rare book collection—but he never returns. And then Echo discovers that Donia had enough money saved to get them out of debt anyway. Furious, she storms into the woods—and there she finds her father, with the wolf who attacked her all those years ago. The wolf offers her a bargain: stay with him in his house for a year, and he will save her father’s life. Echo has no choice but to accept. 

The Wolf’s house is strange and magical. A collection of wondrous rooms with a constantly shifting floorplan, the magic that binds it together is volatile. The Wolf’s duty—and now Echo’s—is to constantly mend the bindings that tie the rooms together. But as incredible as the house is, it’s also dangerous. The wolf insists on sleeping in Echo’s room at night, for her protection. His only condition is that she must never light a lamp and look on his face. And all around her are hints that she doesn’t know the full truth: dresses and combs left behind, suggesting another, female occupant; the wolf’s inability to speak of the terms of his contract or the Queen who trapped him here. 

Echo’s favourite room is the library, a room full of magic mirrors which each contain a story. When Echo walks through these stories, she meets two other Readers: a princess called Mokosh and a strange young man named Hal. As Echo and Hal get to know each other better, she finds that he is trapped in the books and unable to get out. Slowly piecing things together, Echo begins to suspect that Hal and the Wolf may be one and the same. But how can she break whatever spell is on him? And how can she be sure that this isn’t exactly what the Queen who trapped the Wolf in the house wants?

Out of time as her year elapses and the house begins to disintegrate, Echo lights a lantern at night to look at the Wolf’s face—and she was right, the face is Hal’s. But she’s done exactly what the Queen wanted. Hal now belongs to her. 

To save him, Echo must undertake a dangerous journey into the Queen’s domain in the North. On her way she is assisted by the mysterious storyteller Ivan, who turns out to be the North Wind—another victim of the Queen’s bargains. With his help, Echo makes it all the way to the Queen’s throne and finds Hal imprisoned. She offers a bargain: if she can hold onto Hal for the next three days, he will belong to no-one but himself. 

The queen tries everything to get Echo to let go, transforming Hal into a number of beasts, and lastly just commanding Hal to tell Echo the truth: that he intended for Echo to take his place in the Queen’s court. Devastated, she nearly lets go. But then she remembers that she’s done all this before. The first time she let go and immediately regretted it. She asked the Four Winds to send her back in time for another chance. She was the other occupant of the house. And she refuses to be defeated again. 

The Four Winds strip the Wolf Queen of her power, leaving her as a normal wolf. Hal and Echo journey home, visiting Ivan, getting married, and reuniting with Echo’s family. The couple plan to go to university where Echo will study to be a doctor. 

A fantastic tale based on the myth of Cupid and Psyche, with elements of its derivatives Beauty and the Beast and East of the Sun, West of the Moon. The climax also takes inspiration from the folktale Tam Lin. Keen-eyed readers will pick up on the fairytale elements throughout, but an author’s note at the end explains the inspiration and the setting in 19th century Siberia. The book’s focus is on the power of stories, love, truth, and selflessness; it comments on the treatment of outsiders, privilege, self-worth, and sacrifice. Full of mystery and plot twists, the reader is kept guessing right until the very end. An absorbing take on fractured and retold fairytales. 

love, sacrifice, stories, fairytales, folk tales, myths, magic, historical, education, reading, truth, mystery, secrets, selflessness

1. Brandy is used as a restorative (p. 45). 2. Because of her scars, people in the village say Echo’s face was made by the Devil. 3. The Wolf Queen is some kind of evil witch or enchantress. She originated from another world, and is said to have sold her soul to the Devil for her powers. Ivan uses magic (p. 311, 313). 4. Echo “reads” books of fairytales. In one, a girl is stabbed in the heart by the wicked Fairy Queen (p. 78). In another story, a man’s ear is cut off by soldiers (p. 119). Hal says the Queen slits peoples’ throats and drinks their souls through their ears (p. 125). In another, a lighthouse keeper dies off-page (p. 194). A prince kills an evil queen (p. 211). 5. Echo stabs the Wolf (p. 240). 5. Rodya kisses his fiancée (p. 204). Hal and Echo kiss (p. 236-237, 256, 363, 381). 6. Ivan has to kill the ponies so he and Echo can survive in the Arctic, this is not described (p. 299). Ivan and Echo fight the Queen’s wolves (p. 508), Echo is bitten. Echo sees the bodies of the Wolf Queen’s past victims, not described in detail (p. 321). As in the story of Tam Lin, the Queen tries to force Echo to let go of Hal by setting him on fire and turning him into a range of beasts, injuring them both (p. 336-341).