His 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and has been adapted for cinema, theatre, ballet, and opera. They wend their way through the usual pop-culture targets – reality TV, influencers, affairs, anxiety, and as they each land themselves in ever deeper trouble, their stories cross over and loop back on one another.

My first impression when I started reading was that the author was very angry with the world when he came up with the concept of this book. A sarcastic romp, Boyne demonstrates their disconnection with humanity, family dysfunction, phone addiction and how easy society misinterprets comments. A middle child at 20, Elizabeth is all about social media followers and like most is glued to her phone. If you are a passionate social media addict, if you love to jump on the bandwagon of a Twitter argument or you secretly are a keyboard warrior who loves to throw digs at folk, then maybe, possibly, perhaps The Echo Chamber is not for you.Then I would just like to state that I have been a big fan of Boynes previous works and as a result I was VERY excited when I received this copy. To conclude my ramblings, this novel will appeal to some people more than others, depending on where you find yourself on the woke/outrage scale.

I don't always read the blurb when I trust the author but I did with this novel and the premise sounded intriguing - very timely for today's world. Elizabeth dreams of being an influencer possessing THAT longed-for blue tick and is prepared to go to any lengths to fulfil her ambition. And as a white male of a similar age, I confess I have some sympathy with him, particularly when it comes down to matters of gender identification. There are some good points to be made within these plotlines and it was interesting to see Twitter etiquette being theorised such as those who are perpetually offended on behalf of others or the absurdity of cancelling people for having a different view point despite not knowing the tone, context or intention of the message. What is so funny about being rented permanently brain damaged over night, and for so many losing our jobs, home, partners, life as we knew it?And with good cause: his 2019 YA novel, My Brother’s Name Is Jessica , was monstered by an online social furore. He does it throughout the novel, which elevates this saga to something higher than just a send-up in bouts of laughter of our own madness.