The story begins in silence. A young girl, called Delta, is one of the children chosen to hold an echo from the past, an echo that if it breaks free could threaten the city of Danak-Tol, the heart of her world. So she lives, forbidden to speak unless absolutely necessary, with other children in the Vault of Echoes, remembering nothing from the time before she was taken. Confident that she is vital to her city, and sustained by the friendship of an adorable flying mechanical (Flick), she questions nothing.
But then she illicitly looks outside and sees an old man devoured by a toxic blood storm. And she begins to question....
Her questions grown, and dreams from her echo begin to invade her mind. To find answers, she must renounce her safe and quite life, and flee into the wilderness outside the city. But though there are indeed the deadly creatures and communities of heretics she had always been warned about, there is also, for the first time in her life as an Echo, friendship and purpose. And there are answers that upend everything she thought she knew about her world, which those in power kill to suppress.
Thid is excellent science fiction--an excellent first step for middle grade readers into both dystopian fiction and planetary settlement. It's also an excellent story of one girl's journey to autonomy and self-worth, in which speaking truth to power is central to the plot. The author does an excellent job building the world, gradually extending it outward from the Vault of Echoes so that the reader learns alongside Delta. And there is mystery to be explored, with surprising twists and turns. There's also a lovely balance between tension and danger, and warmth and friendship. The mechanical Flick, in particular, is utterly charming.
I read the ARC months ago, by yesterday my hard copy arrived I sat down and started reading it all over again, and I'd be finishing it today with much pleasure if I didn't have to a. go to work b. go to Holland.
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