Two climbers attempt to scale a mysterious and foreboding mountain in the Swiss Alps, only to stumble across an unspeakable horror in Echo by Dutch horror writer Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Hex). Nick Grevers is an experienced climber and travel journalist who learns of a technically challenging peak called Le Maudit, tucked deep in the Alps. Against all advice from guidebooks and locals to stay away, Nick and his buddy Augustin set out to evaluate this exciting and unexpected find. But a terrible accident leaves Nick hideously disfigured and Augustin missing and presumed dead--and the horror is just beginning.
Nick wakes from a coma with no memory of the events on the Maudit, his face swathed in bandages to help heal--and hide--the extent of his facial injuries. They are almost too much for his boyfriend, Sam Avery, to bear. Slowly coming to grips with Nick's new condition, Sam senses something is very off about his formerly beautiful beau when people around Nick start dying unexpectedly. It becomes plain that Nick wasn't meant to come back down the Maudit alive, and now he's brought something back with him.
Masterfully, Heuvelt creates horror that is both fantastical and naturalistic in scope. The catty and clever Gen Z dialogue is often quite funny, but make no mistake: the creep factor is high in Echo, with an opening chapter best saved for daylight hours. --Peggy Kurkowski, book reviewer and copywriter in Denver, Colo.