The Echo Room keeps looping back around and not having any fun with it

Although Parker Peevyhouse has a strong concept in The Echo Room, the book itself ends up repetitive and thus not as engaging as it could be.

Time travel isn’t easy to pull off on film or television, and even harder is the time loop concept. (Supernatural‘s efforts and the film Groundhog Day send their regards.) But Parker Peevyhouse gives both the old college try in the sophomore effort, The Echo Room, sent to me by Tor Teen. The problem is that the time loop doesn’t quite keep this reviewer engaged.

At the core of the issue is that Rett, the main character, doesn’t remember what happens when he loops back to the start, meaning that the same events have to play out again and again. Peevyhouse plays all of this particularly seriously, and that may be the reason that things get so difficult to go through, particularly in the middle of the book. Frankly, Bryn seems like the more interesting character in general, since she remembers more and thus ends up learning more quickly.

Additionally, it’s not as though The Echo Room is long at all. The print edition weighs in at 320 pages, and it feels like half of them pass before the book starts to answer anything about why Rett and Bryn are in this time loop or why they’re in Scatter 3, instead choosing to detail a few adventures that all start out in painfully similar ways before there are some minor changes.

In things like Groundhog Day or “Mystery Spot,” there’s a humor that’s missing here. Although Peevyhouse tries for some banter, it doesn’t connect in the same way, particularly because even that starts looping back on itself.

This isn’t to say that the book has nothing going for it — it does ask some interesting questions about the ramifications of time travel, again very seriously, and there are good moments. But it’s hard to find the good in the book when you have to wade through the same reminders, which are justified (slightly) by the memory wipes Rett keeps undergoing.

Ultimately, The Echo Room stalls, and only readers who are dedicated enough to solve the mystery (or those who like Bryn) will probably find themselves finishing this one.