Review: ECHOES OF US by Kat Zhang

Title: Echoes of Us
Author: Kat Zhang
Series: Hybrid Chronicles #3

Why I read it: As the third book in a trilogy, it went along perfectly with my goal of finishing more series than I start this year! So onto my TBR for January it went. (AKA this review is really late. Sorry!)

Thoughts: The way I felt about this book was similar to how I felt about Lark Ascending.

This was a very solid conclusion to the Hybrid Chronicles trilogy. Reading about the institutions and the plight of the hybrid children was still interesting, and I definitely felt the words pull at my heartstrings a few times.

I still loved the characters, especially Addie and Eva. Even though the book is only told through Eva's POV, I still felt like we really knew both of them as individuals, driving home the point that they are distinct souls and have distinct personalities, but they are still intertwined. This is something I think the series did really well throughout.

My only problem with the characters is that there were so many of them. And with this series, adding more characters often means adding twice the number of characters, since most of the new people Eva and Addie meet with are hybrids, which means the reader has to learn not one, but two new names for these characters. And I just had trouble keeping all of them straight in my mind. I think the only ones I consistently kept straight were Hally/Lissa and Devon/Ryan. So when something would happen, it often took a few moments for me to realize who I was dealing with. Even now, I can remember all of the main events from the book, but I can't remember which characters were involved.

My other problem with this book is that it felt like it wrapped up a little too neatly. The last couple of chapters felt like everything had magically solved itself, even though we are told that everything does not change overnight. I appreciated the turn at the end, but I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it never did. While I always love a good happily-ever-after, sometimes it feels like our characters have gone through too much to have a truly HEA. I'm not sure if that's just me, or if others were slightly dissatisfied with the ending.

Overall, I did enjoy this book. The pace of this series is slower than most, and moments of action are few and far between, but I enjoyed reading about the relationships between the characters, even if I couldn't remember all of their names. If you've started the series, I still recommend finishing it out!

Rating: 4/5 stars

Tell me: have YOU read this book? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below!