In my last post, I gave a brief overview of Jaime Jo Wright’s novels and a review of her most recent one, The Souls of Lost Lake. I also mentioned two of her other novels, Echoes Among the Stones and The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus, which I have read recently.
Echoes Among the Stones
Like The Souls of Lost Lake, I enjoyed Echoes Among the Stones because it is different from Wright’s other novels. In this novel, the protagonist from the first of the two alternating plots, Imogene Grayson, is alive during the second plot, in which Aggie Dunkirk seeks to solve the still-unsolved murder of Imogene’s sister, Hazel. In contrast to The Souls of Lost Lake, I found the ending of Echoes Among the Stones satisfactory because Imogene sees Hazel’s murder solved. Imogene’s story begins during the aftermath of World War II, and I enjoyed the historical connections.
However, Echoes Among the Stones has a slow plot pace. The mystery is not that interesting, yet I kept reading because I liked the characters. The romance is different from Wright’s other novels, and I enjoyed learning about Aggie’s relationship with Collin, an archeologist that helps her with her investigation.
Echoes Among the Stones, like The Souls of Lost Lake, presents Christian themes such as dealing with grief, and Aggie grows in her faith. Both Imogene and Aggie develop considerably throughout the story.
I recommend Echoes Among the Stones to ages sixteen and up, especially if you enjoy The Souls of Lost Lake.
The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus
The first plot follows Pippa Ripley, who was abandoned as an infant. Her father runs Bonaventure Circus, and the contemporary protagonist, Chandler Faulk, a real estate agent, must decide what to do with the old circus train depot, only to find it “haunted” by ghosts and stories of a serial killer.
Overall, I found both plots strange and confusing, and neither is resolved at the end. As I mentioned in my last post, Wright’s novels have a supernatural element, usually an alleged ghost, which is revealed at the end of the novel as someone (or something) pretending to be the ghost. The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus, however, does not reveal who (or what) the alleged ghost is, leaving the reader with the possibility that it is a ghost. Also, while the characters do pray and reference God, I struggled to discern a clear Christian theme in this novel, and I did not see the characters develop much.
Even so, I enjoyed the romance between Pippa and one of the circus workers and the historical references to women’s rights, as Pippa’s story takes place during the 1920s. If you enjoy Wright’s other novels, you might like this one, but I do not recommend it as strongly as Echoes Among the Stones and The Souls of Lost Lake.
For Further Reading…
I have also read Wright’s novels The House on Foster Hill, The Curse of Misty Wayfair, and The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond and recommend these if you enjoy her writing style.
KATHRYN DOVER,
Young Adult Blogger
Kathryn Dover lives in South Carolina with her family including six cats (and counting!), a dog, two fish, and many house plants. She attends Presbyterian College and is currently planning to double major in Math and Creative Writing. Kathryn loves writing, especially plays, and she completed and performed her first play, The Sexton, at 14. She’s not sure what she wants to do as a career, only that she wants to write, but is trusting that God has a plan for her life to use her in a powerful way. College takes up most of her time, but in her free time, she likes to read, play with her pets, and grow plants.