Echo Island
Echo Island
By: Jared C. Wilson
I'm always hesitant when non-fiction writers decide to write fiction, especially theologians ha! (Well, I guess Wilson had already written Otherworld but I had not heard of it until after reading this one.) I was overall impressed with the book. I read it alongside several others as part of a book club- half of them being high school boys. Considering their interest and takeaways from the book I would say it hit the nail on the head as a YA book.
It was thought-provoking and suspenseful. The descriptions and dialogue, well-written. Four boys return to their island from the mainland after a short camping trip to find the island deserted. Family and friends are gone. No electricity. Cars and batteries don't work. Where did the people go? What's going on? [A smidgeon reminiscent of the series 'Limetown.'] They eventually run into another girl and her violent father which doesn't answer any of the questions and only adds more. Wilson does a good job of building the suspense as the characters explore the island, make discoveries, and try to figure out what happened.
The most surprising thing for me, as an adult reader, was that he decided to tackle the complex discussion of God's sovereignty and our free will. Without getting into details that could spoil the story, I'll just say that his method of introducing this topic and exploring a tangible way of grasping the relationship between these two things was really interesting and, I think, very helpful. While that sounds theologically intense for a YA novel, I wouldn't let it scare you off. It is very accessible and doesn't detract from the story being engaging.
The main drawback I had was this: [SPOILER!!!] Why do they have to be dead?? I spent the first half of the book really trying to anticipate what could have caused things to stop working. If it was a sci-fy book, was this some sort of alien invasion? Could it be a government operation? Was this a supernatural encounter? Was this like the matrix and it was all in their heads- after the car accident they were taken by scientists or techies to experiment on? If it was a psychological thriller, maybe all the characters were manifestations of Jason, his different personalities, and it was some sort of schizophrenic thing going on? I mean there are a lot of ways this could go. But nope. They're just dead. It seems too easy. [Maybe I read too much??] And they're not in purgatory. They're not in heaven or hell. Yet their mysterious guide tells them there are things they need to learn or figure out. [SPOILER OVER!!!]
It would seem there is something to be found or achieved. However, after finishing it was not clear what that is. It felt like a build-up, then the big reveal, and then... now what? What's the point? Where are they going? Did the characters solve a problem as you would expect in any novel? Sure, it ends on a cliffhanger which is fun, maybe a second book in the works, but it just felt like there was a little something missing from book one. Something solid to hold on to. He gave interesting things to think about but no real answer to the question- 'Why?' Unless he intended for it to be that way?
Oh yeah and also [ANOTHER SPOILER!!!] At the end, they sail off into the distance. But we have no idea where they are going or to what end. Jack stays on the island with Archer, but the others continue on. They don't need their guide anymore? All they really know is that they're dead and there is an Author writing their stories. Are they trying to get undead, get to heaven, just checking things out...? Is Archer just going to catch up later? Will Archer die (again) like Tim? Does it matter? We don't know. We just have a lot of questions. [ANOTHER SPOILER OVER!!!]
To his credit, it spurred a lot of good conversation. We were all trying to figure out what different things meant. Did the events or characters represent something theological or psychological or mythological? It's quite possible we were over-analyzing it, but he alluded to the connections to Greek mythology and C.S. Lewis. So how much was allegorical and how much was coincidental? Is Jared C. Wilson a purposeful or accidental genius?! Or am I just too dumb to see what he was doing? Haha! I don't know!
To reiterate then-- it was a great read under the YA genre. If you are an adult, you might have some questions about it but I think it will still be an engaging read for you and give you a few things to ponder. It does make for a good book club read though because you will want to speculate with someone!