Quirky Cat
Written on Feb 28, 2019
The Crystilleries of Echoland is a novel by Dew Pellucid. One of the many things that makes this novel stand out amongst the rest is the fact that it’s full of illustrated and beautiful images. All of the artwork credit goes to Tal Boldo.
Every year hundreds of children go missing. A heartbreaking number of them never come home. Will Cleary is one of the few exceptions. His sister wasn’t so fortunate. Their disappearance was devastating to their parents, but it was also otherworldly in nature. Now Will seeks to right the wrongs of the past, and save his sister.
Warnings: This novel touches on a lot of surprisingly heavy subjects. The most obvious one is kidnappings and missing children. But there are also animal deaths, and a quick mention about a character committing suicide.
The Crystilleries of Echoland is a truly unique read, in every sense of the word. It’s like nothing I’ve ever read before. It builds up this beautiful fantasy world as a mirror of the real world…and while it still does have its heavy elements…it somehow manages to erase many of the more torturous elements of real life as it goes.
The artwork in this novel was unexpected, but I quickly grew to love and anticipate it. By the third or so image I was eagerly looking forward to the next striking image. Many of them were perfectly placed to support the story around, and that just made the world feel even more real to me.
My only complaint about this novel was that at times things felt like they moved out of order. Or, more accurately, things moved too quickly and didn’t take enough time to explain what was happening. Especially in the earlier parts I found myself getting lost, trying to figure out who was who, and which character was trying to achieve what goal. Once I got it all sorted in my head things went a bit more smoothly, which I’m grateful for.
This novel would be absolutely perfect for young adult readers out there, or possibly even a slightly younger audience than that (though the young adults would still enjoy it). I can easily picture a ten-year-old version of me reading this novel and enjoying it quite a lot.