A novel about celebrity, fandom, and the price of ambition following a journalist’s obsessive search for a missing Hollywood starlet

When Echo Blue, the most famous child star of the nineties, disappears ahead of a highly publicized television appearance on the eve of the millennium, the salacious theories instantly start swirling. Mostly, people assume Echo has gotten herself in trouble after a reckless New Year’s Eve. But Goldie Klein, an ambitious young journalist who also happens to be Echo’s biggest fan, knows there must be more to the story. Why, on the eve of her big comeback, would Echo just go missing without a trace?

After a year of covering dreary local stories for Manhattan Eye, Goldie is sure this will be her big break. Who better to find Echo Blue, and tell her story the right way, than her? And so, Goldie heads to L.A. to begin a wild search that takes her deep into Echo’s complicated life in which parental strife, friend break ups, rehab stints, and bad romances abound. But the further into Echo’s world Goldie gets, the more she questions her own complicity in the young star’s demise… yet she cannot tear herself away from this story, which has now consumed her entirely. Meanwhile, we also hear Echo’s side of things from the beginning, showing a young woman who was chewed up and spit out by Hollywood as so many are, and who may have had to pay the ultimate price.

This is the first novel by Hayley Krisher that I’ve read. Where Are You, Echo Blue? interrogates celebrity culture, fandom, and the treacherous nature of child stardom. While I liked a lot of this novel, there were certain portions that didn’t quite work for me. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading it.

The novel is told from two perspectives: Goldie Klein in 2000-1, and Echo Blue in 1991-9. Goldie is a young journalist writing for Manhattan Eye, a magazine with a broad scope. She is also a long-time fan of Echo Blue’s. Echo Blue is a child star, who won an Oscar at a very young age. Echo has been missing for a few months, and Goldie is determined to find her. There’s plenty of ground covered in the novel, from fandom, celebrity culture, celebrity media, Hollywood, the child star industry, youthful insecurity, difficult child-parent relationships, toxic masculinity, and more. It never feels over-stuffed, though, and Krischer does a very good job of weaving it all into the narrative without having to signpost everything, nor artlessly Pausing to Make a Point. (Something that many other authors do, in my opinion.)

Krischer does a very good job of writing Goldie’s obsessive fandom. It’s creepy, a little suffocating, entitled, and possessive. It makes Goldie quite unlikeable, as does her treatment of others. In many ways, she’s not the strongest protagonist, and I found Goldie’s chapters to be much weaker than Echo’s. Given that the novel examines celebrity culture and how we non-celebrities are so fascinated by them, it’s rather amusing that I found Goldie’s chapters got in the way of my reading about Echo’s experiences. Echo’s chapters are certainly more engaging, compelling, and thoughtful, as we learn about her introduction to Hollywood (through her father, also a movie star), and how her relationship with her father deteriorates as she begins to outshine him. Echo navigates an industry that wants to dictate her actions, habits, and preferences; while simultaneously dealing with an abusive, womanizing father who can’t stand that his daughter is successful and more talented.

One of the things that didn’t quite work for me in Where Are You, Echo Blue? was the timeframe. It seemed to be telling a story that required far more time to have passed. Echo Blue is discussed as if she’s been an established star for decades, not a a few years with six movies under her belt. Sure, she won an Academy Award for one of them, but I often forgot that the character had only been missing for a few months. Perhaps it’s the nature of Goldie’s obsession that makes Echo’s story feel so much bigger than it actually is. (How often, really, do we obsess over a child actor’s disappearance from the limelight? For most, I imagine it’s just a curiosity, revived when/if they return to the industry.)

As long-time readers of CR will know, I am fascinated by the Hollywood industry, and Los Angeles as a setting for fiction. It was probably inevitable that Where Are You, Echo Blue? would pique my interest. While it didn’t quite live up to my expectations, it was nevertheless an engaging read. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for the author’s next book.

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Hayley Krischer’s Where Are You, Echo Blue? is out today, published by Dutton in North America and in the UK.

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Review copy received via Edelweiss