Hello there,
Today, it’s finally time to talk about a book I finished a few days ago and I liked it a lot! Of course, I’m talking about “An echo in the city”, K.X. Song’s debut novel! I bought it on my trip to London last January, and it was a great decision. ( More reviews from books I bought in London will come in the future as well, but be patient, I’m a slow reader. )
The book revolves around the protests that took place in Hong Kong in 2019 and we can see both the side of protesters, as Phoenix is one of them, and the side of a police officer since Kai is a student at the police academy. Some readers loved that Song used that time period to create her story but others strongly believed that she shouldn’t “touch” such a sensitive topic.
But let’s meet our main couple first.
Phoenix is 16 years old, a student, rich and her divorced parents want her to study at Yale but she has trouble with her exams and she’s not sure if that dream is hers as well. She likes taking pictures and posting them on her personal Instagram account. When she started taking photos from the protests her followers grew overnight and started using her audience to bring awareness about what was going on in Hong Kong. She grew up in the USA and she always felt that she couldn’t belong either in the USA or Hong Kong. Phoenix also has two siblings. An older brother, Osprei, and a younger sister, Robin.
Kai, our 17-year-old man lead, grew up in Sangai and after his mother’s death, he came back to Hong Kong to live with his father. His parents were separated for years and Kai never was close with his dad. Kai’s dad, as a police officer himself, decides for Kai to become a cop as well and he starts his classes at the police academy. Kai hates being a cop, as his dream is to become an artist, but paintings never pay the bills so says nothing and just accepts his fate.
The story:
As Phoenix meets her brother’s new girlfriend, Suki, they all start taking place at the protests. One night after a protest, they go to a restaurant to eat dinner and Kai is there as well. He overhears their conversation and thinks that it would be a great opportunity to score points with his dad if he could find out about the group’s actions and be an insider to collect information. After Phoenix left it took her a while to figure out that the phone that she was holding wasn’t hers.
She managed to call her cell and when Kai answered the phone they met to exchange their phones. Both of them like each other from the beginning, even if Kai tries to convince himself that he just wants to collect information for the police. The two of them start spending time together and soon they start dating.
As time passes, Kai realizes that he is indeed in love with Phoenix and he starts helping her by withholding information from his supervisor. That double life of him will end soon though, the moment that Phoenix finds out the truth and breaks up with him. Due to a protest, she sees a protest hitting a police officer and her heart stops when she realizes that he’s Kai. She saves his life and they have “the talk”. They forgive each other for everything but they decide to break up for good since they have to learn how to be happy as individual people first.
Phoenix tells her family she decided to study in Hong Kong and not in America and surprisingly her mother’s reaction was better than she thought. At the same time, Kai decides to quit the police academy and applies for a scholarship at a famous art school in Berlin. He informs his father and without Kai expecting it, he tells him that he will support him in that decision.
My thoughts:
What a beautiful written story! I enjoy every single page of it. Even if I am a “happy ending” kind of girl that bittersweet ending makes sense. The author gave us a happy ending split into two halves that maybe eventually sometime in the future, or in another life…, those pieces will be ready to become one.
A small detail that I adored though, was the fact that Kai was calling Phoenix “Lifeng” which if I understood it correctly means phoenix in Mandarin, by using the right characters. I’m not an expert, please forgive me ( and correct me ) if I understood that wrong.
It’s a 4.5/5 stars from me.
Until next time, let me know your thoughts about the book and don’t forget to subscribe with your email to not lose any new content.