My review of Echo Boy

Echo Boy by Matt Haig
Release Date: March 26, 2015 
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Audrey's father taught her that to stay human in the modern world, she had to build a moat around herself; a moat of books and music, philosophy and dreams. A moat that makes Audrey different from the echoes: sophisticated, emotionless machines, built to resemble humans and to work for human masters. Daniel is an echo - but he's not like the others. He feels a connection with Audrey; a feeling Daniel knows he was never designed to have, and cannot explain. And when Audrey is placed in terrible danger, he's determined to save her. The Echo Boy is a powerful story about love, loss and what makes us truly human. 

Echo Boy is a fascinating and intriguing read that will challenge you to think about the extent at which we should use artificial intelligence. I enjoyed the split point of views of both Audrey, a teenage girl who's just had her parents murdered by an echo (a robot), and Daniel, an echo who can feel and experience the world like no other echo can. Both of them are used to explore the magnificent world of technology as well as to find answers to what really happened to Audrey's parents.

The storyline will hook you in as secrets begin to unravel quite early on in the book and continue to throughout. This sci-fi read felt refreshing and delivered such a unique world that was so exciting to explore. I've never come across a book like it! There's actually a TV show on Channel 4 (in the UK) called Humans that this reminded me a lot of. So if you can you should definitely check out the programme because it's really similar to the book in how robots are used everywhere in society and there are some exceptions where the human-like robots have been able to feel and this can threaten the human race entirely. Well now that I think about it the overall concept of the show and the book are the same really. 

I'm actually quite sad that this is a standalone novel because I feel like there's so much more that could be expanded and explained, however I'll try to be happy with where it all ended. 

Echo Boy will draw you in before you know it! I wasn't too keen on Audrey at the beginning but I was spurred on because I wanted, no NEEDED, my questions to be answered. Audrey's parents' death was a mystery that was so unusual and intriguing I had to find out more.The story eventually comes together and overall I loved what it had to offer. Don't skip this one if you love a good sci-fi.

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