The Sound and The Echoes Review

Rating: 3/5

Title: The Sound & The Echoes

Author: Dew Pellucid

Page Count (ebook): 279

Official Amazon Description

The Sound and the Echoes is a high-concept, fantasy adventure for young adults, with 27 magical illustrations.

Imagine that everyone around you has a mirror image living somewhere else. Your world is like a sound, which produced that other world of echoes. And in this land men are governed by a terrible law—no Echo is allowed to live after his Sound dies.

One Sound especially must die. The Prince’s Sound. The Fate Sealers and Fortune Tellers will make sure of that! Because after this Sound dies, the Echo Prince will have to die too.

Now, twelve-year-old Will Cleary is about to discover that he is the Sound the Echoes are hunting. And so begins his perilous adventure into a see-through, sparkling world, filled with spying crystal balls, an eerie fortress of castaway children, a hunt for clues in an ancient book of riddles, and a last-chance escape through a frozen gem-studded lake into a secret land that holds the key to placing the Prince on the throne and returning freedom to the Echoes.

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My Thoughts

      Though the description of The Sound & The Echoes states that this is a Young Adult novel, at several points in the book I found myself wondering exactly how it could be defined as belonging to the YA genre. Most of the YA novels I have read feature characters between the ages of 15-19 who are teenagers in every sense of the word. However, The Sound & The Echoes' main character was twelve years old for the majority of the book and it seemed to be written for an audience of the same age, which left me feeling more than a bit confused as to how this could be classified as a YA book.

        I did enjoy the story, it was extremely creative and unique, something I appreciate in a literary world where there are far too many cookie cutter books around. And at points, I even felt like I was reading some alterior version of the Harry Potter series, with the main character being a male twelve years in age who arrives at an orphanage of sorts with a Dumbledore-esque headmaster and proceeds to become aquaintances with an equally outcast boy and girl.

    I think this is an excellent book for a younger age range, simply because it seems to revolve around the sort of interests a younger audience would appreciate; I believe my twelve year old self would have loved this book. Overall, I found that The Sound & The Echoes was a good read, with an excellent plot line, though I would say it belongs more to an age range of 9-13 than the typical YA genre.

     In your opinion what makes a novel, a YA book?

Book Links:

Amazon

Book site

Highlight Poetry #4

A Soul

By: David Mc Donald

A soul awaits a journey to be made, unaware of why or where it goes

Confused alone and even frightened, the soul forgotten all it knows

As if reborn from something old, the fruits of some great unknown feat

A spirit which hovers unaware of its place, oblivious to who it will meet

An invisible entity of a person’s life, all that went before they grew

Then when still on unfounded feet, a sense of movement where it flew

The feeling of accompaniment, someone is now by their side

A being who allows peace and love, one who shows them their own pride

Not flight but a soft elevation, climbing effortlessly to where they go

Beside the spirit climbs with freedom, a dawning as they come to know

The existence just departed behind, feelings of regret and pain and desire

All that made a man has gone, now a feeling a sense a being on fire

There awaits a new existence, visible tangible and real laid out ahead

The home of superior being born, your God you know has made your bed

The rush of love and affection from around, a feeling of where you belong

Within a beautiful resonance vibrates, your being has burst forth with song

A Brief Commentary

       Today's poem for Highlight Poetry was submitted to me by David Mc Donald. The first time I read this poem I was immediatley drawn to it and lost myself in the journey the soul was making. In my first reading of this poem, I percieved that the poem was on a carefree sort of journey as it departed the misery behind it. Upon reading the poem a second time however, I realized that there was indeed a deeper and more sombre tone to the poem as the soul overcame the pain of death and the regrets of life to travel ever skyward to heaven. I also noticed upon re-reading the poem the progression of the soul as a being. Where as in the beginning the soul was an "invisible entity" and referred to as something separate than its human shell (due to its journey from the body at death) by the end of the poem, the soul is referred to as the most spiritual (not necessarily in the religious sense) of "you". I think that perhaps this progression from the soul being a separate entity identified seperatley from the deceased person to it actually becoming "you" was the most poignant part of the poem, as it discovered itself.

What struck you about this poem? Were you more struck by the soul's 'physical' journey out of death or it journey of self-awareness?

War Horse

       Last night I had the privilege of going to see the play War Horse which is currently being hosted in Toronto, Canada by Mirvish, and so I just had to write about the experience which was to put it in a word, phenomenal.War Horse, as you may or may not know started like many great stories do, as a book. The novel War Horse was written by Micahel Morpugo in 1982 and then adapted both as a film and as a play. Though I haven't read the book yet, I watched the movie version of War Horse, which was released in 2011, earlier this year and immediatley fell in love with the story.

      

      If you're not familiar with War Horse, here's a description from the Mirvish's theatrical trailer:

"This powerfully moving and imaginative drama, filled with stirring music and songs, is a production of phenomenal inventiveness. At its heart are astonishing life-sized puppets created by South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company, who bring breathing, galloping, charging horses to life on stage."

 -Mirvish

     The play adapts the story beautifully, and the puppetry of the Handspring Puppet Company is simply amazing, they truly brought the horses to life.  From the beginning to the end I was completely immersed in the story, wonderstruck by how well it was executed. The acting is superb, and the music is so beautifully integrated that I forgot there was actually an orchestra playing just below me in the orchestra pit until the end of the play. As for the set, I felt as if I was truly frolicking in the English fields with Joey and Albert as they grew up and standing right beside them on the front lines of the First World War. I absolutely urge you to go and see War Horse; it is beyond extraordinary.

      As a further note, I would just like to credit all the amazing writers who were involved in the production of War Horse:

• Micahel Morpugo who wrote the original novel
• Lee Hall and Richard Curtis who wrote the screenplay for the film
• Nick Stafford who adapted the original novel, for the National Theatre of Great Britain's production of War Horse

War Horse the book (movie cover)

Day and Starry Night Nails

        Seeing as I haven't posted a nail design in a ridiculously long time I figured it was about time I set about doing a blog-worthy manicure. This design was actually inspired by star confettti that I had gotten in one of my birthday cards and of course managed to get everywhere. Like glitter, confetti just never seemes to go away, everytime I think I've found all of the bits and gotten them tidied into a container I discover another sneakily heading under a book on my desk. That being said let's get this nail design started!

Nail Polishes I Used

• Sally Hansen Ultimate Shield Base and Top Coat
• Avon Lagoon
• Sally Hansen Lustrous (the black polish)
• Star confetti (can be found at local craft stores)

Let's Get Started!

 

Step 1: Paint all of your nails a light blue base coat, something that resembles a clear blue sky.

Step 2: Paint half of your nails black diagonally by painting the black polish from one corner of your nail to the opposite corner.

Step 3: While the black nail polish is still wet place one of the confetti stars in the black portion of your nails using tweezers. Press gently on the confetti star so that it is relatively stuck in the black polish.

Step Four: Using a gold striping tool, or a thin paint brush dipped in gold nail polish make small dots around the star in the black portion of the nail to create the idea of smaller stars twinkling galaxies away. When your nail polish is dry paint a top coat over your design to ensure that it last as long as possible.

If you decide to try out this design, I'd love to know how it goes!

Highlight Poetry (#2)

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

 

A Brief Commentary

     This is perhaps one of Robert Frost's most famous poems and one of my absolute personal favourites; regardless of what season I'm in. Frost amplifies the romanticism of winter in this poem bringing to mind imagery of snowy forests, farmhouses covered in snow, frozen lakes collecting each crystal snowflake, all the while carrying the deeper undertones of the weary traveller. You can truly feel the traveller's desire to give into the temptations of sleep and even death as he gazes out at the "lovely, dark, and deep" woods. The desire to be free of worry and drift among the falling snowflakes is palpable as is his weary realization that he still has a great literal and metaphorical distance to go before he reaches the peace of sleep and death.

    In your opinion what do you feel Frost is trying to communicate in this poem? What imagery does it bring to your mind?