What Comes Echoing Back

by Leo McKay Jr.

The worst moment of Sam’s life was captured on video and shared across the Internet for all to gawk at. This is something she has in common with Robot, who just wants to move past the mistakes he’s made, if only his small town will let him. When the two meet in a high school music class, they start to find their way to each other. Music might offer a way not only forward, but forward together, if Sam and Robot can overcome the echoes of the moments that made them infamous.

The past reverberates in ways we don’t expect, in this new novel by Giller Prize–shortlisted author Leo McKay, Jr. From family secrets and old relationships that resurface, to the tape loops that endlessly replay private moments of trauma and despair, What Comes Echoing Back travels back and forth in time to get to what’s true, with humour, humanity, and the healing power of music. 

Genres: Canada, Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

Published June 6, 2023

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review is in the Spring 2023 issue of Atlantic Books Today.

Written by a Nova Scotian high school teacher who is a novelist of renown. The novel deals with two high school students who have each experienced brutal trauma in different ways. Social media and bullying factor heavily. Music is their common coping mechanism and healer. Beautifully and powerfully written.

[J. Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nova Scotia author Leo McKay Jr’s new book, What Comes Echoing Back, is as engaging, insightful, and sharp as his previous works. No one handles the elements of plot quite as deftly as McKay—plot, character, setting—he forges his own unique path, crafting as he goes, in a distinctive, unpretentious, and compassionate style. In the novel, two young people, Robert (aka Robot), and Trisha (aka Sam), have separately endured horrendous ordeals as a result of social bullying: one has recently spent time for murder, the other has been deeply shamed by sexual posts on social media. They don’t know each other: so what brings these two together? Music. The healing and empowerment of music: they meet in a high school music class.
Some readers might be tempted to categorize What Comes Echoing Back as a YA book rather than an adult one, given that the main characters are teenagers, but that would be a mistake. All readers will be moved, charmed, educated, and changed by this novel. Through McKay’s skilled story-telling, adult readers gain valuable insights into the ‘head space’ of teenagers, and the varied and sometimes tremendously difficult challenges, some of them intensely personal, that Robot and Sam encounter, endure, and must process in order to survive. Some people, we see, are able to cope with the horrendous; others cannot. Some are able to find necessary resilience; some are not.
Can Sam and Robot recover from the damage? As the past--shown through careful time shifts--gradually informs the present, readers can ultimately remain hopeful. Robot and Sam are damaged, yes, but thankfully they are not broken. Their experiences shape and colour their present, but the future is not bleak. The harrowing experiences and their consequences will echo inside these characters forever, but sometimes echoes can fade away to become murmurs.
As a high school teacher himself, and as a father, McKay is uniquely positioned for writing this novel, for he can see things from both an adult’s and a teenager’s perspective, and then write clear, compassionate, concise prose about it.

[Charlene Carr · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the first chapter, this book had me completely engrossed with its characters. McKay has an uncanny ability to make his characters live and breathe on the page and his tender, subtle writing invokes such empathy for them with only a few lines. Even side characters who were only in a scene or two feel incredibly real to me even now that I'm reflecting on the story - like someone I've met, not a fictional character I merely read about. This book tore my heart to pieces, yet left room for hope.

I'd actually REALLY love to see it as a movie, and hear all that wonderful music.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this. The characters felt very real and my heart broke for them. The theme of healing through music resonated with me.

[Judith Cumming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoping this one makes the short list for 2024 CBC's Canada Reads. It's certainly a worthy candidate of the theme.. One Book to move us Forward.
Deals with peer pressure and overcoming trauma in the age of social media. Very compelling characters, that you can't help but root for.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Comes Echoing Back by Leo McKay Jr. was long listed for 2024 Canada Reads. This poignant novel is imbued with music that follows two social outcasts as they navigate their traumatic pasts.

The worst moment of Sam's life was captured on video and shared across the internet for all to gawk at. This is something she has in common with Robot, who just wants to move past the mistakes he's made, if only his small town will let him. When the two meet in high school music class, they start to find their way to each other. Music might offer a way not only forward, but forward together, if Sam and Robot can overcome the echoes of the moments that made them infamous.

The past reverberates in ways we don't expect. From family secrets and old relationships that resurface, to the tape loops that endlessly replay private moments of trauma and despair, What Comes Echoing Back travels back and forth in time to get to what's true, with humour, humanity, and the healing power of music. 3.5 stars

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t often read a book in one day, so when I do it’s something special. What Comes Echoing Back is a story of teenage trauma and resilience in the age of social media and then also the way music has the ability to help us connect and heal.

I was completely drawn in to the very different yet equally devastating stories of Sam who with her two best friends suffers a brutal assault and Robert (nicknamed Robot) who accidentally kills someone in a fist-fight gone wrong and then how they must live in the special hell created by both their traumas going viral and living forever on the internet.

When Sam moves to Truro (hi, my town!) and meets Robot in music class they strike up an unexpected, tentative and touching friendship as two struggling outsiders learning to play the ukulele. One growing quieter and making space for calm, the other finally finding her voice again.

I fell in love with both of these tender-hearted souls and the care with which Leo McKay Jr (a beloved teacher himself for 30 years) handled the dark brutality of their stories with delicate care. This is a book that will break your heart and then fill it back up again with hope. A moving reflection of the ways both good and bad echo through life—and how we move through that, reinvent ourselves and find peace.

A really great read, highly recommend.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

When so much of teenagehood is lived on screen, two viral videos change Robot and Sam's lives irrevocably. This novel took me right back to my high school days and the way kids can be so unrelentingly callous – and made me thankful that social media wasn't an ever-present part of that era of my life. Told through flashbacks and present-day narration, the "teen voice" was done incredibly well, particularly in conveying the utter anger, unfairness, and occasionally, hopelessness of their situations. Through art and music, Robot and Sam gradually find their own paths to begin healing.

That being said, in many ways, this novel feels unfinished – like we're peering into a tiny snapshot of our protagonists' lives, two teenagers whose futures are very much up in the air, having already gone through significant trauma in their young lives. The ending felt abrupt – stories don't need a happy ending or a full resolution, but the issues that Robot and Sam face seem to simply peter out at the end. Overall, it's hard to say that I "enjoyed" a novel where our characters go through such trauma and hardship, but I can see this being a relatable and powerful read for teens who've gone through something similar.

Note: Significant trigger warnings for violence, alcohol abuse, sexual assault, rape.

[Avra]

My friend Jane introduced me to the concept of sad boy stories. I would call this a “sad girl” story. To say I liked this story is not the best way to describe how it sits with me. The back stories for Sam and Robot are hard to read, but I always felt a thread of hope. This thread, and the simplicity of the storytelling, kept me reading. This book speaks to the power of music to heal.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a huge music person but despite the power of music being a central theme, I really enjoyed this one. The two main characters are ones you definitely want to succeed despite what they’ve been through and done.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m giving this book a “meh” rating. I had high hopes based on others’ rave reviews, but it fell flat for me. I wasn’t connected with the characters or the story, the plot didn’t feel realistic, there were all these random sub-topics that didn’t connect or go anywhere, and it had a weird ending. Clearly others loved it, but I think I could’ve dnf’d it and wouldn’t have missed out on anything profound.

[Charlene Boyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I love about Leo’s voice, and the way he writes these young characters is that there isn’t a sniff of paternalism or condescension. These youth are fully human with the deep internal lives you can expect from traumatic experiences. When the book ended, I was sad. I wanted to hear more about these characters, follow their relationships further. Only note: “book too short.”

Bonus for the pieces of musical education I picked up! What is it with Truro MacKays needing to teach music? ☺️

[Renay Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book! I read this in two sittings. The story of 2 teenagers who have both experienced trauma meet and form an important friendship. Loved this!

[Haley Eagles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very excited to read this book as Leo was a high school teacher of mine, and I love local literature. I was not disappointed! This book is thought provoking and engaging to say the least. I feel like the ending of this story tied everything up in a nice neat bow. I highly recommend!

[Clara Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

So relevant in today's young folks world. Well written by someone whose empathy shows.

[Zoom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, but I'm not the target audience and I also found it a little heavy on the music angle.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sam has just moved to a new school after the events of the worst night of her life have been caught on video for the world to see. Once at her new school, she meets Robot in music class and soon realizes he has a similar story. All he wants is to move on from the mistakes he’s made, but his small town makes it hard to do so. Finding themselves bonded over their love of music, they start to realize they can use that to overcome and heal from the traumas they’ve endured. This was a very heavy novel that dealt with difficult and traumatic topics such as assault, rape, suicide and murder. Despite the severity of the topics talked about in this novel, there was still a lot of beauty in it. The reader liked how amongst all the sorrow, light could be found in the smallest of places; they liked that how hopeful this felt when everything looked and felt hopeless. McKay did a beautiful job of capturing that essence really well; it’s a fine balance of creating a story that is moving, while also not diminishing the awful hard truths and he did it wonderfully. The way this was told, swaying back and forth from past to present, and sometimes past to even further past, left the reader a little dizzy at first. It was hard to fully grasp what was happening, especially at times when McKay only alluded to what was happening instead of telling his readers directly, which this reader understood was to create a sense of curiosity to read more, while also not giving too graphic a description, which we appreciated, but it left the reader a little confused in the beginning. As we got further into the story and got to know the characters better, it got easier. As for the characters, they were good, solid characters, but the reader felt they were missing something; like we didn’t get to know them enough. They were developed well, and their journey was engaging and important, but it felt like all we got to know was them through their trauma and this reader just wanted to get deeper. Maybe it’s because this novel was so short that we didn’t get the time to truly explore all there could have been for topics so big. It just felt like we could have gotten a little more, especially after the main characters started to bond. That being said though, this was still a really good book, it could get emotional and a little overwhelming at times, but it’s still a very poignant and touching story.

[Violet Nam · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What Come Echoing Back" by Leo MacKay Jr. is a quiet yet emotionally charged novel that examines how life-altering experiences reshape identity and community. The story follows Sam, a teenager attempting to start over after a deeply violating and publicized incident, and Robot, a gifted musician returning home after serving time for a tragic mistake. Both characters are defined by what others think they are, not by who they are trying to become.

McKay develops Sam and Robot with care, allowing their friendship to slowly grow. Their shared music class becomes a rare space of honesty and connection, highlighting how art can offer expression when words fail. The plot unfolds non-linearly, gradually revealing each character's past while showing how those experiences continue to echo in the present. Though this structure can feel uneven at times, it effectively mirrors the fragmented nature of memory and trauma.

The novel is especially critical of social media and small-town judgement, showing how quickly empathy is replaced by spectacle. "What Comes Echoing Back" is ultimately a thoughtful, challenging story about responsibility, compassion, and the long work of becoming more than one’s worst moment.

[Ramona Jennex · Rating 5 out of 5]

How did I miss this book until it was long listed for Canada Reads 2024?
It is such a good book!! It deals with tough subject matter in a compelling and respectful manner.
The author did a brilliant job of highlighting bullying and intimidation and how young people feel and deal with trauma. I felt uncomfortable reading some of the chapters- hit me right in the gut.

I really enjoyed how the author shone a light on how important music is- communication, coping, expression and healing.

The character Patricia/Trisha/Sam thoughts on Edith Piaf's sining of La Vie en Rose - "Piaf's voice in that song seemed rooted to the earth like a hundred-year old oak. Bullets would have bounced off her when she was singing it. That's what Sam wanted for herself. It was a goal so obviously ridiculous and unobtainable that there was no way she'd ever describe it to anyone else in those words."

I appreciated listening to Take this Hammer sung by Harry Manx and loved having the gentle and briliant artist, Alan Syliboy's art discussed.

If this book isn't in the short list for Canada Reads 2024 I will be greatly surprised.

[Velma · Rating 5 out of 5]

What Comes Echoing Back
- Leo McKay Jr.

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁 5/5
This novel is written by a Canadian author and should be on your To Be Read list.
It is not an easy read at times, there are triggers.

I finished What Comes Echoing Back this morning. It was a rollercoaster of emotions- for the girls, Robot, Sam's mother and uncle, and for MacKenzie. I was invested in them, urging them to be brave, strong to pull themselves out of the shitty things that have happened to them and move forward.
Life is hard. Finding something to hang on to and move you forward keeps us grounded.
In the depths of pain and despair we all need a glimmer of hope.

Social media is such a loaded platform. It can be a positive caring platform, or it can also be devastating. Understanding the potential is vital.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really wish this had made it to the Canada Reads shortlist. This book holds such relevancy to today’s world in which teenagers grow in. I think it is something that adults from my generation can’t fully wrap their heads around unless they work with youth or have teenagers themselves. This book is written with such compassion and understanding. It ended with hope which I loved. I wish there had been a bit more commentary on the need for trauma support and healing in society as a whole though - in a sense the compassion that the young people held toward each other speaks to the need for such compassion to be at the base of our society - however, there is a current crisis in teenage anxiety and trauma and as a society we have no way to respond to this. Beautiful book!

[Gary Horst · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad I'm not a high school student any more. It was challenging enough over 50 years ago! "What Come Echoing Back" by Leo McKay Jr. (Canada Reads 2024 Long List), provides a window, through the lives of its two main characters, into the challenge of contemporary teenage life, particularly how it can be impacted by the viral video evidence of traumatic events. The chapters (thankfully, clearly labelled regarding time-frame) give us various episodes of the intersecting stories in ways that build interest about the 18 months covered and help the reader be drawn into the lives of Patricia/Sam and Robert/Robot. I particularly enjoyed how music, instrument-playing, and singing plays a significant role. I certainly recommend it, even if it doesn't make the final five of Canada Reads 2024.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made the longlist for Canada Reads 2024 and I'm really happy that it was put on my radar.

Set in Nova Scotia, Canada, the story revolves around 2 teenagers who experienced violent trauma and were socially bullied as a consequence. Both teenagers, Robot (Robert) and Sam (Trisha) meet in a high school music class and they strike up a friendship at a time when they really need each other.

This story was a stand out novel to me due to the author's empathy and his delicateness with the subject matter. His characters felt very real to me and I was rooting for them throughout the story.

A compelling story of resilience.

[Susan Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that kept me engaged, relating to the characters and wanting to know how it turned out for them. A difficult read as it was so realistic, how much young people are preyed on by peers and adults and how this shapes their lives in profound ways. The level of music detail was distracting to the story and as a non-musician, got in the way of the narrative for me. I loved how it wrapped up, that we got to have a sense of how another significant character in the story was. It was the second book in a row I read that centred on bullying and sexual assault in high school culture and I truly need a break from this now.

[Mei · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written book about second chances, resiliency, healing, moving forward after trauma, friendship, and the power of music. I loved the richly developed characters, especially Robot and Sam, and the way Leo McKay Jr. deftly moves between past and present to bring the whole story together. One of my favourite things about this book is the descriptions of music and what it’s like to play an instrument and sing.

“In the dark of the house, that bit of music got inside his chest and fluttered around like a bird that had gotten in there. Something alive.”

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is why I like book clubs. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would likely have never come across it without my book club.
I couldn’t put it down it was so engaging.
The story deals with heavy topics; social media bullying, trauma, alcoholism, suicide - just so much pain. But throughout there is an underlying thread of positivity, the power of music to heal.
What comes echoing back? Sound reverberations in a stairwell, but also the first tentative steps towards trust and friendship.

[Scotiagirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book came to me from a friend and I am so glad she passed it along to me. Sam and Robot’s connection to each other beautifully demonstrated how brokenness can lead us to new discoveries, even in great darkness. As a high school teacher myself I felt like these characters rang true, something you seldom see in literature today. The path to healing from their traumatic pasts hit just the right balance of grit mixed with hope. I read the novel “26” years ago and I am so glad that this author is continuing to write quality books today.

[Barbara Brydges · Rating 5 out of 5]

What skill and empathy it takes to write a novel about two young people whose lives have been severely damaged by social media, and yet not turn it into either a tragedy or a story of redemption. It is a story of hope though, and the hope comes through the connection they form through, and to, music. McKay’s years of work as a teacher and his obviously deep knowledge of music inform a terrific read - and he’s Canadian to boot.

[Janet Barclay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The parts about music were wonderful and I'd have liked to have read more of those.

The timeline jumps back and forth, and I started to lose track of what happened in what order, though other readers might not be as easily confused.

The characters were interesting, unique, and likeable.

All in all, it was a good read.

[Chuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a bit of a tough read sometimes, the characters have had a lot of trauma. There are lots of jumps back and forth in time, definitely some parallels to events in the real world. As someone who has recently started learning guitar, the music parts resonated with me and I thought it was an interesting lens on the characters' other issues.