Summary
Niarah Holloway is a Black, teenage doomsday prepper in LA. Her only chance of recovering credits to salvage her sophomore year of high school is to do one of two summer activities: build a backyard shelter and document the process, or join her school’s hiking club.
As she gets deeper into the group of friends who started and run the club, the hurt that she carries from her past threatens to undo the fledgling relationships that she’s building. Particularly the one with Mac Torres, the alarmingly earnest leader of the hikers who starts to fill more and more of her time and mind.
She has to decide if sharing herself, including the ugly parts, and accepting when others do the same, is worth the possible heartache she might experience if things don’t work out.
You’ll enjoy this book if…
- you have a soft spot for protagonists who use sarcasm and associated detachment as defense mechanisms, but who will reveal their soft insides eventually (with the right push)
- reading about teen love makes you reminisce about those times when your heart soared and dove with dizzying speed, and when it felt like truly anything and everything was possible
- you enjoy social commentary blended into a character’s arc in a way that feels authentic
- longer books don’t bother you
What was my reading experience like?
I knew, in the first 5 pages of this book, that I was going to love the main character (Niarah), and that the story was going to break my heart. Our Shouts Echo asks you to emotionally invest in her from the jump, and I simply did not have to be asked twice.
Emotions run high for the duration of the story, and in a lot of ways it’s very plot-driven, so while I don’t know that I would describe it as a page turner, there are enough surprises throughout the story to keep it moving forward.
The story regularly touches on themes of anti-capitalism, social awareness, and social and environmental justice, so if you’re looking to completely unplug from thinking about or being reminded about those things, this is not the story for you. But also… being alive is political, so I don’t see how there’s escaping that as much as choosing to ignore it.
Likes & Dislikes
I unabashedly loved Niarah. I identified with Niarah. I can also understand how some readers might be annoyed by her. If you can’t relate to an inability to express your feelings – legitimately deep, sincere feelings – I don’t think she will make much sense to you. But if you have sat in front of someone you really like (or love) and had the words you want to say lodge in your throat against your will, then she might also be the girl for you.
I also mostly enjoyed the portrayal of the romantic relationship between the young people in the story. I think it’s important to point this out in a YA novel especially, because sometimes the way romantic relationships are written is straight up unhinged. As a former middle and high school teacher, trust me when I say I’ve seen the full range of teen romance, so I feel some relief when I see an example where both people in the relationship actually treat each other like people who are flawed and still finding their way.
Without giving away too much about one of the plot lines, I had a difficult time with the pacing of the final revelation of an event from Niarah’s past that contributed to many of the anxieties we see her struggling with at the start of the story. The payoff of when readers learn the full context of that event from her past didn’t hold the weight that I think that it could have, especially because there are so many other compelling elements in the story that contribute to Niarah’s development. I’m not sure if the solution to this problem would be to have fewer clues, or to have more so it felt like readers had put everything together, only for there to be another major element left for us to learn. Either way, this pivotal moment felt imbalanced enough that the story felt disrupted rather than enhanced.
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