House of Echoes by Nat is the first book in the Hundred Hearts series. Rian is a teenage boy, about fifteen, and comes to the house to work. The house is where various people serve the voice that lives under the house and takes its warnings to the general public. Rian goes there because he is able to hear the voice even in the city around the house and he wishes to train to tune it out when need be. When he arrives though he realizes that the voice doesn’t talk directly to very many people and that taking the information directly to the people is forbidden. It must be carefully considered which warnings are important enough to reveal, even if that means letting people die. Concerned about what that means, Rian works directly with the voice and a few of his new friends to try and change the way the House works and the information is utilized.
This story was weird in many ways because it talks around a lot of things and only hints at others so there is a lot that is left unexplained over the course of the story. I mean, some of it can be pierced together but there is also a lot that you just don’t get enough information for. Not necessarily a bad thing as it keeps you wanting to come back for more in the next book but it also means that you might have trouble understanding parts of the story. My biggest issue with the story is actually something completely different though and that is the seriously screwy timescale that the story has. There are some rather vague indications of how much time passes in different parts and the indications are frequently somewhat contradictory so it might imply that it has only been a short amount of time only to later imply it has been a much longer amount of time. Not exactly something that is easy to follow and make sense of at times. There are also some interesting references to the size of the group in the second part and again they are not always agreeing on that one. Might want to double check your continuity for the story to help smooth that out a little. I don’t think people would normally notice unless they were just really paying attention over time though. Despite these issues though the story was actually really intriguing and I would like to see how it continues to develop in the rest of the series as I greatly enjoyed reading it. I am giving this book three out of five stars.
This is a post-apocalyptic science fiction story so it would probably appeal the most to readers who enjoy that type of work. There are a few potentially disturbing concepts such as AIs and other similar ideas but nothing that would be triggering, I don’t think. The deaths that occur are not really graphic and there is minimal violence so I don’t think you would have anything to worry about there either. It was an interesting read though so I hope you will consider trying it out. If you do, consider sharing your thoughts in the comments. This book was acquired through Reedsy Discovery and you can also find a copy of my review there.