Review of Finding Echoes by Foz Meadows
Foz Meadows’ novella Finding Echoes (Neon Hemlock, 2024) is a secondary-world fantasy story packed with great characters (queer and otherwise) and worldbuilding, plus a whole load of feelings.
Snow has the ability to speak with the dead, getting information from them and sometimes helping them move on. When his ex-lover Gem shows up in need of his services, Snow is reluctant, and not just because he thought Gem died years prior. But the two of them have to navigate the political situations in the cities each of them now live in to find the person Gem believes is dead, necessitating Snow’s assistance.
I really liked the worldbuilding in this novella and the way Meadows used unfamiliar terms but made it clear through the context what each of them meant. The terminology gave it a very real-world feel, despite the fantasy setting. I also loved the characters, particular some of the secondary characters who felt just as real and fully developed as the main characters. Whether those secondary characters were on the page for several chapters or only a few pages, each of them could easily spin off into stories of their own. This also played into the load of feelings, since the entire book is from Snow’s perspective, but the tension between Snow and Gem was constantly palpable.
If you enjoy fantasy worlds with queer characters that are a quick read, Finding Echoes is fantastic for that. I can only hope there will be more books or stories set in this world to devour!
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