3.5 stars

I love this authors writing, he wrote one of my favourite books - The Hearts Invisible Furies, so was excited to get stuck in to this one, although it is very different!

The Cleverley family are a wholly unlikeable bunch - Dad George is a chat show host at the BBC, Mum Beverley is a 'novelist', eldest son Nelson is a techer at his old school and has never got over his time there, daughter Elizabeth is a social media addict and youngest son Achilles is a teenage con-artist! Also, not forgetting their inherited 'pet' tortoise Ustym Karmaliuk who has an unhealthy addiction to After Eights!

Following their dysfunctional exploits over the years as they try and navigate the fast-moving world of social media, there are some amusing plots and accurate representations of several of the current themes - wokeness, cancel culture etc, that can be found across the platforms.

Behind the satirical exterior of this story are some important messages that shine a huge torch on the issues, on both personal and societal levels, with social media as a whole.

I just maybe would have liked at least one likeable character!

John Boyne never stops surprising me with his talent for writing dissimilar books to a high degree.

This book is a very well written, compelling and on point satire about people's obsession with mobile phones, social media and the woke culture and I loved it!

Highly recommended to everyone who loves a modern funny farce.

I’m a big fan of John Boyne and this book is exactly why because you never know what you’re going to get. All his books are uniquely different the only thing they have in common is great writing. This book is just so clever, funny, and so scarily accurate at times that you could just as easily laugh or cry! It is the perfect social commentary on life in a time of Social Media and cancel culture. Brilliant read.

The Echo Chamber follows George and Beverley Cleverley and their three children as they navigate the world of social media. George is a BBC personality and self described ‘national treasure’. Beverley is a successful novelist who doesn’t actually write her books and uses ghost writers. All three of their children are as highly dysfunctional as their parents and access to social media is not helping. His son Nelson is being bullied at school (even though he is a teacher), his daughter Elizabeth is a twitter troll for the likes and Achilles is catfishing older men. It all hits the fan when George posts a performative tweet supporting a trans woman but ends up misgendering and deadnaming the woman. This results in a social media storm and protests outside the BBC to ‘cancel’ George. When George is forced by the BBC to appologise on the evening news he throws in some racist and homophobic language and then it really really hits the fan. Meanwhile Beverley is dealing with a new ghost and an extra marital affair (and caring for her lover’s tortoise), and their children are set on their own self-destructive paths.

I have long admired Boynes' writing and his ability to write in different genre styles. Here he chooses farce and social media seems an apt subject for such a skewering. In the best traditions of British and Irish farcical novels the plots take on ever increasing ludicrous twists (scarily the social media plot lines seem realistic) with lots of witty and cutting dialogue between the characters. The Cleverleys are members of privileged society and we always know that there is very little jeopardy, (they constantly point out they will be OK because they have the town house in Belgravia and ten million in the bank), which gives us free reign to laugh at their exploits and their consequences.

I really enjoyed this and found it a very clever update of the farce genre and at the same time it made some very funny observations about social media. I just wonder how much flack John Boyne will get on social media for this novel.

I was really looking forward to reading The Echo Chamber, having very much enjoyed previous books by John Boyne. But I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I liked that it’s a cutting and very funny satire on our obsession with social media. On the other, the characters were caricatures – which I get is the point – but this made it hard to feel engaged with the story.

I watched an eye-opening documentary on Netflix – The Social Dilemma – which highlighted how much social media can infiltrate lives and influence thinking. SO it absolutely is a worry – the amount of power social media companies have over our lives. Most people will have fallen prey to its addictive nature and in The Echo Chamber, extreme scenarios are given the satirical treatment.

We meet the Cleverly family: ageing TV presenter George, his novelist wife Beverly and their three grown up children (aged 17 to early 20s) – Nelson, Elizabeth and Achilles. All are morally dubious and obsessed with all forms of social media. Their phones are utilised for trolling, dating, activism, blackmailing, promoting and pretending.

Hand-in-hand with the theme of the evils of social media comes the other theme that The Echo Chambers dissects: the notion of ‘wokeness’. Dictionary definition: a state of being aware, especially of social problems such as racism and inequality.

While the plot of The Echo Chamber defintiely makes a point about the unchecked dangers of social media, the thing that gave me mixed feelings while reading was that, for want of a better word, it felt a bit ranty. The characters – especially the secondary ones – felt like such extreme caricatures, that you weren’t going to empathise with them, which, I know is not the point of satire but it was maybe unusual here as John Boyne is known for his nuanced characters. Even the unpleasant ones, like Maurice Swift in A Ladder to the Sky, still kept me captivated.

I’ve loved John Boyne’s other work, especially The Heart’s Invisible Furies so was looking forward to reading The Echo Chamber.

However this is a very different type of novel and is a satire take on the world’s obsession with social media. There were some awkward moments and I didn’t find the characters very likeable but I guess that was to be expected from the genre.

Gosh this was completely unexpected! What a change of direction for the author. A satire on the modern age of social media and the terrors and ambiguities that reside there. I have since read an interview with John, and the book was written as a result of the backlash and awful threats he received online after his last novel My Brother's Name is Jessica.
I enjoyed The Echo Chamber, in the way that it is an uncomfortable but thought provoking read.

Brilliant Irish novelist John Boyne has now tilted towards satire, with "The Echo Chamber" chronicling tumultuous days in the lives of a silver-spooned British family, the Cleverleys: broadcasting icon George; bestselling novelist Beverley; and their three messed-up children. All five are thriving, according to their individual desires, in the social media world. As the novel’s title makes clear, Boyne’s target is the capricious, savage world of Twitter and Facebook. When George haphazardly tweets about a transitioning secretary, the worlds of all the five Cleverleys tumble willy-nilly into the darkest crevasses of online justice and injustice. Boyne is supreme at dialogue and the entire book glitters with clever conversation upon witty exchange, and his plotting of the absurd trajectory of his subjects is masterful. Most importantly, from my point of view, the author feels for his characters even as he skewers them, and his calibrated tone of realism merged with outrage is wonderful to read. The Echo Chamber is neither high tragedy nor visceral commentary, but is all the more sparkling for being a humane, funny, intelligent window onto our connected world. All of John Boyne’s novels come highly recommended and this is a fine example.

The Echo Chamber
What a book !!! John Boyne has excelled himself in this hilarious story. He has created the most awful, dysfunctional family in the Cleverleys. Father, George is a T.V. chat show host with the BBC while his wife Beverley is a writer of romantic novels. Their three children have issues aplenty and between the five members of this family trouble is never far away. This is a window into the world of social media, cancel culture and all that goes with it. This book for me is a four star ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️. Many thanks to #NetGalley #RandomHouseUK

This is not my usual sort of read at all, but because I’ve enjoyed so many of John Boyne’s other books (my favourites are A History of Loneliness and This House is Haunted), I’m happy to read anything he writes.

The Echo Chamber is the story of the Cleverleys, an obnoxious and unpleasant celebrity family trying to fit into a world ruled by social media, where more and more of our lives are played out online rather than in ‘real life’. George Cleverley is a famous BBC television presenter who thinks of himself as a national treasure; when he gets himself into trouble for unintentionally misgendering someone, things go from bad to worse as he tries to make amends and ends up offending everyone else along the way. His wife Beverley (yes, Beverley Cleverley) is a bestselling romance novelist whose books are actually the work of ghostwriters. Beverley has been having an affair with a much younger man, her dance partner on Strictly Come Dancing, who has gone home to Ukraine leaving her in charge of his beloved pet tortoise.

The Cleverleys have three children: Nelson (the only one of the family I felt any sympathy for), a teacher who is being bullied at work and has a collection of uniforms he wears to give himself confidence; Elizabeth, a Twitter-addicted ‘influencer’, obsessed with getting likes and increasing her followers; and the youngest, seventeen-year-old Achilles, who has come up with a scheme for blackmailing older men and cheating them out of their money.

This book is hilarious. I don’t always find books funny that are supposed to be, but this one made me laugh. It satirises everything and everyone: prejudice and intolerance in all of their forms, the conflict between the ‘woke’ and ‘anti-woke’, the press, supporters and opponents of cancel culture, those who find it necessary to document every moment of their lives on Instagram, the hypocrisy of people who hide behind fake names to post hurtful tweets while using the hashtag #BeKind. All of these things are explored through the lives of the Cleverleys who, for various reasons, get themselves into all sorts of ridiculous and farcical situations. I did sometimes wonder whether John Boyne was writing from personal experience and it does seem that it was written as a response to abuse he received himself on Twitter following the publication of one of his previous books – something I wasn’t aware of, probably because I don’t spend enough time on Twitter!

Beneath the humour, there are some important messages here and this book can be seen as a warning against society’s current obsessions with technology, social media and our online presence. Would we all be happier if we cancelled our accounts, switched off our computers and put away our phones? That’s not likely to happen, but it’s something to think about.

John Boyne's latest novel is an outrageously bonkers satire on the modern world's social media addiction, living life online rather than grounded in real life realities and relationships. It is clearly inspired by Boyne's personal experience of the online world and cancel culture, culminating in his creation of the monstrous, dysfunctional and over privileged Cleverley family all living under one roof. George is a 'national treasure' of a BBC talk show host, his wife, Beverley, is a romantic novelist, although she hires a ghostwriter, who has appeared on Strictly Come Dancing. Both have been having affairs, George with a therapist, Angela, who is pregnant, Beverley with a SCD sex addict dancer.

They have 3 children, a somewhat uniform obsessed teacher, an aspiring social influencer, and then there is Achilles, who blackmails just because he can and for the cash. The entire family have issues, and are about to discover just how their lives can unravel and spiral way out of their control through social media. This is an entertaining and at times a screamingly funny read, although on occasion it was a little too heavy handed in its messaging and skewering for me. What made me give it 4 stars is the language, Boyne is a true wordsmith, with prose that captures the imagination and captivating dialogue. A rather different book from his previous works that is definitely worth reading, but more of a marmite affair. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

You would never guess this book is by the same author. This one is an overly long Tom Sharpe- esque broadbrush satire about wokery and "trial by social media."

It follows a rich and hideous family called the Cleverleys (ha, ha). The father is "a national treasure" beeb presenter who gets into all sorts of muddles as he misgenders and offends people and digs himself into ever deeper holes as he tries to apologise and make amends. His wife is a best selling Barbara Cartland style novelist who uses ghost writers. Fresh from Strictly Come Dancing she is having an affair with her much younger dance partner, a Ukrainian, who like all non English people in the book can only "speakee de Engelish" in the "Allo, Allo", "Shadduppa your face" vein which I found offensive and jarring. Beverley is in denial about her fading charms and will go to desperate lengths to keep her lover.
They have three horrible children, a 25 year old son who is in the closet who likes to wear uniforms out and about as a confidence booster which gets him into scrapes. A daughter who wants to be a media star with a massive Twitter following but her exploits to achieve this misfire spectacularly. Finally, their youngest, Achilles a.k.a The Idiot , a 17 year old who leads on older men and blackmails them. We follow this 'orrible lot over a few weeks as their lives start to unravel.
It all became a bit predictable and flat, it also went on too long - it would have been much sharper (IMHO) if it had wrapped up sooner.

This was a fun exploration of social media culture, showing both the good and the bad. The characters aren't likeable, but you're not supposed to like them - you want to see what they do next though to dig further the holes they're in. There was a lot of good points made, which is stuff everyone already knows about social media, but seeing of fictionalised makes you examine the effects of social media on society.

It is hard not to compare this book with Boyne's earlier work but this did not even read like Boyne, the prose felt stilted and rushed and just proved to be an all round disappointing writing style. I am sure The Echo Chamber was meant as a satirical look at the backlash faced by Boyne owing to his own book and his reactions on Twitter to certain "big moments" but the whole thing felt trite and not at all the standard I have come to expect from Boyne's writing / storytelling.

"The most cancelled family in the history"

The Cleverly family, everyone of them is privileged and deeply dysfunctional in their daily lives; George, Beverley and their three children.
George is a famous national television presenter. Beverly, is kind of writer, who uses ghost writer to write down her idea. Nelson, a teacher who is being bullied at work by the same boy who bullied him at school. Elizabeth, a wanna-be influencer, who only cares about boosting her followers in social media. And, Achilles, who try to scam some money after dating a few older men.

😆 Each of the character has their own funny antic which really entertained me and made me giggling. Frankly speaking,  I'm very surprised that John Boyne can write a book as funny as this one.

This book has a warning about social media which has created addictiveness and dependency in our generation.

John Boyne has written in many different styles- some I enjoy more than others. This one was very funny for much of the book but began to pale towards the end. He really belaboured the points he wanted to make. This was an entertaining read. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Another masterpiece in storytelling by John Boyne.

The Cleverleys, an upper class family whose dysfunctions are hidden away behind a moneyed existence. With illicit affairs, identity crisis, blackmail and cancel culture all slap bang in the middle of the normal working day all unravels with the addition of social media.

There are so many thoughts, ideas and questions in this book but the overwhelming one for me is: has social media caused societal problems or were there already there, but hidden from sight?

I found this book fascinating and for anyone interested in the new world of “woke” and “cancel culture” this is a thoughtful narrative about how it feels to live in a world you don’t always understand. There are a few laughs along the way and a very old tortoise who himself brings some light entertainment. Would highly recommend.

I like satire, so when presented with the opportunity to read the latest from John Boyne, I jumped at the opportunity.

Boyne has chosen the Cleverleys to drive his views on social media and society. The patriarch, George Cleverley, is a famous BBC presenter with over thirty years in the public's eye. He's got clout. He thinks of himself as the most wonderful, measured, generous public figure. His wife, Beverley Cleverley, is a successful romance novel writer. Well, she uses ghosts to write them, but she still thinks of herself as a terrific writer. They have three children who still live at home, in their multi-million pound home. Nelson, the eldest, is a twenty-two teacher, a neurotic virgin, who is seeking help from therapists. His sister, Elizabeth, is attached to her phone, she thinks herself an influencer. She takes great pleasure from bullying people online under her second Twitter account. Then there's the handsome, sociopathic Achilles, seventeen. He enjoys blackmailing unassuming middle-aged men. This is one affluent dysfunctional family, none of its members has any insight or self-awareness. It was very easy to hate the Cleverleys. Which I thought was problematic. They were too cartoonish. I would have appreciated this novel more if Boyne had been less obvious and had made the Cleverleys slightly less obnoxious.

This novel will appeal to some people more than others, depending on where you find yourself on the woke/outrage scale. I like to think that I'm self-aware and woke enough not to take the jabs personally, especially since they were occasionally warranted.
I just like my baddies to be more nuanced and the novels less obviously message-y, which I realise is a contradiction when it comes to satire.

Kudos to Boyne for writing this novel, it showcases the breadth of his talent.

Thank you to Net Galley, John Boyne & Random House UK for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second John Boyne book I’ve read in recent months, following The Heart’s Invisible Furies, and the more of his work I read, the more I need! He has an inescapable way of crafting complex, entertaining characters who make his stories such an enjoyable experience.

If you’re familiar with Schitt’s Creek, the Cleverley family may remind you of the Rose clan. Beverley gave me such Moira vibes that I could see Catherine O’Hara in my mind as I read her scenes. In a similar thread to the first few seasons of the show, the Cleverley family aren’t exactly likeable characters, they embody the privilege of being wealthy, white and “important”.

As someone who works closely with social media influencers, I’ve been witness to widespread cancellations of many previously beloved figures, and I found The Echo Chamber to be an interesting and entertaining take on what could be happening on the other side of the screen.

While I wouldn’t go into this book hoping to find likeable characters you can connect to - if you’re looking for an amusing tale based in post-pandemic London with an incredibly realistic portrayal of the sharpness of keyboard warriors in 2021, it could be for you!

The Echo Chamber by John Boyne centres around the dysfunctional and emotionally immature Cleverley family, George, Beverley and their three children Elizabeth, Nelson and Achilles. Self-obsessed and wealthy, they can’t see past their own noses. George is a successful chat show host, currently having an affair with Angela, a therapist, who is pregnant with his child. Beverley, his wife, a writer, is having an affair with her Strictly Come Dancing Partner. Each of their adult children have their own problems. Nelson actually ends up having to see a therapist and guess who he goes to see his father’s mistress…. Angela!

The author’s characterisation is on point (even though none of the family are portrayed in a good light). Social media features heavily and I agreed with a lot of the author’s depiction of reliance on it and highlighting some of the drawbacks of Twitter, Insta, etc. I laughed out loud whilst reading this mostly to the author’s witty writing!

Many thanks to NetGalley, John Boyne and Random House UK, Transworld for the arc in return for an honest review.