echo mountain //lauren wolk

published: 2020

pages: 356
read/heard:10/1-5/2020
book: 73 in 2020

SYNOPSIS

A young heroine in Depression-era Maine is navigating the rocky terrain of her new life on Echo Mountain.

After the financial crash, Ellie and her family have lost nearly everything--including their home in town. They have started over, carving out a new life in the unforgiving terrain of Echo Mountain. Though her sister Esther, especially, resents everything about the mountain, Ellie has found more freedom, a new strength, and a love of the natural world that now surrounds them. But there is little joy, even for Ellie, as they all struggle with the sorrow and aftermath of an accident that left her father in a coma. An accident for which Ellie has accepted the unearned weight of blame.

Urgent for a cure to bring her father back, Ellie is determined to try anything. Following her heart, and the lead of a scruffy mutt, Ellie will make her way to the top of the mountain, in search of the healing secrets of a woman known only as "the hag." But the mountain still has many untold stories left to reveal to Ellie, as she finds her way forward among a complex constellation of strong women spanning generations.

THOUGHTS

last night as i was falling asleep, i had written the most perfect post in my head and i was like WRITE IT DOWN BEFORE YOU FORGET and then of course i didn't do it and i then forgot. 

U G H !!!!!

anyway, i found this book through an IG ad and i jumped on it because i liked the cover and the premise was good and if i've learned anything its that usually kids books pack a punch like no other so i was all up for it. 

and this book does pack a punch. 

i genuinely felt for Ellie because she was carrying so much on her and i couldn't believe how her mother was acting with her just because she adapted instead of mourning over what they had lost. 

i get it. shit changed. but...well, if Ellie wasnt handy, not that you guys weren't surviving...but would you have survived in the long run had the dad not survived? look, all im saying is....why be mad at the kid who knows how to survive in the wilderness!? she doesn't know it all but she's far ahead....why would you shun her? and i get it, as a parent who lost everything you have EVERY right to be disappointed at the path that life put you in...but why would you be so harsh on your kid? 

that made me sad. BUT i love that Ellie did not let that stand in her way. 

"nothing about life on Echo Mountain was harder for me than that rift: the idea that i should be sorry for being different. And i made up my mind early on that i might miss my mother, miss my sister, and be lonely, but i would not be sorry for what sent me apart." 

and then Esther, her sister...what a bitch....i can see how mom was on her side because she was grieving the loss right along her but i felt like it was sooo mean!😢 like she straight up picked sides instead of being a mother to both. (im not a mother so i dont know what it would even feel like so just know that i know that these are valid feelings...but so are mine and that whole situation bummed me out.) 

and the story progresses...

i feel like there's a lot happening here but also, not a lot happening here? if that makes sense? 

the story is more so about Eliie and her going through her feels and then trying to bring her dad back and it was good but i feel like not a lot happens. 

and then they way her dad comes back...ive never been in a coma, dont know anyone whose been in one but i wasnt too crazy about that ending. kinda like "well, im 300 pages deep, lets close this bitch out real quick now". 

if this book is meant to be all about Ell's feels: fuck yea!

but if it was sposed to be about like also bringing her dad back: eh. 

idk. 

its kinda like being on a roller coaster and expecting a crazy ass dip only to realize that its already over before you realized that it had already started. 

not a bad read. im glad i read it because there were some gems in there but over all, meh. 

a good chunck of the book was about El's feels. and then it was about tryina wake up dad and then it was about the figurines and finding out where they came from and then it was about Cate and then it was...over. 

i have questions. 

i feel like some scenes should have just been left out....idk. 

idk. 

jump ova' for spoilah's

thanks for reading! 

@lesreads___on IG

SPOILERS

S P O I L E R S
S P O I L E R S
S P O I L E R S
S P O I L E R S
S P O I L E R S

uhm, so they move to the mountain after they lose their home due to the great depression. 

its been 3 years and they finally built a cabin for them to live in and have a barter system with the other people that live in the mountain. 

one day, the dad is cutting a tree when Ellie notices her little brother run in front of it where it would have landed on Sam so she pushes him out of the way and the dad freaks out and goes in front of them to push them out the way and he gets hit. he ends up in a coma. 

its been months and now Ellie is trying everything to wake him up. 

one day, she's on the road to switch out some fish she caught for some eggs up the road when she notices this big dog and she ends up following him (she's ran into him before but im not feeling like being THAT detailed today). he leads her to the "hags" house (she's sposably the witch that lives in the mountain...it just turns out she was a nurse). 

at first Ellie cant find anyone in the home and when she does, she notices that she's in a bad way. apparently a wolf or some shit tried to eat her dog (Captan) but she jumped in front of Captan to protect him and the thing got her instead. 

homeboy fucked up her leg. and in order to cure it, she filled it up with maggots. 

if it hadnt been for Cate waking up then and there, Ellie was preparing to amputate her leg. 

prior to meeting Cate, Ellie kept finding these little animal carvings...once again, feeling lazy....turns out it was Larkin. 

and to get to the point, Larkin is Cate's grandson. Cate's son, Larkin's dad, passed away. and now Larkin's mom is anti Larkin visiting grandma because she is afraid that grandma will push him to get an education and get a life outside of the mountain. she's afraid to be left alone. 

anyway. 

through out the entire story, Elli's mom is a bitch to her about everything but Ellie keeps doing Ellie and she finally tells her mom that she's been helping the hag. and then one night Captan shows up at the door with Cate's doll, Ellie panics and asks her mom with her to go visit Cate and see what's wrong. 

mom is on her way with Ellie when Esther panics about the possibility that she will be left to tend for everything should anything happen to them (they were going in the middle of the night) so she manages to go with Ellie instead of mom. 

once they reach Cates place, they cant find her and it turns out that she tried to shower but fell and further opened her wound.

blah blah blah.....earlier in the day, Ellie was talking with Mom about their past and mom was going on about how she misses the people that she used to know and nurse something was one of them. 

so Esther and Ellie show up and low and behold! guess who Cate is? she's the nurse that used to take care of Ellie when she had really bad ear aches. 

all of a sudden Esther is nice. 

blah blah blah, they fix her up, Ellie goes back home, goes back the next day and it turns out Cate is worse. 

she goes to get Larkin, they go get honey, do some side shit and then go back to Cates. they fix her up and Ellie decides that Cate needs to go stay with them if she is to heal. not only for that reason but also so that Cate can help Ellie heal her father. 

so they go down, mom gets mad, Ellie heals Cate some more, mom yells at Ellie about how she's not a doctor but then gets amazed when she sees her work her magic on Cate. 

im not sure if time passes or whatever but dad ends up waking up. 

and all it took was Captan barking loud and mom playing her instrument thing (forgot what it was, too lazy to look up) to wake dad up (i mean, science wise, im sure there was more to that than JUST that)...this was after Ellie dumped a bucket of cold water on him. after she had him stung with bees, after she fed him some weird concoction shit, after she released a snake in his room so Esther's screams would wake him up...and something with a balm or some shit. 

idk. 

anyway, that's the gist of it. 

im missing some info here and there but its whatev's. 

if ya wana know, ask. if i remember, ill tell ya.