Scan barcode
booksthatburn's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
THE ECHO WIFE gripped me from the first line, using calm and precise language to build a horrific tale of abuse and death. Every revelation drops like a stone into water, raising the level by inches until it feels like it can hold no more.
This is a well-paced thriller which doles out disturbing news just often enough to be unsettling. Evelyn's descriptions consistently bury the lede, pondering first the reactions and consequences to some very important piece of information before finally circling back to say what caused the fuss in the first place. It reshapes the weight of these moments to emphasize how dealing with each horrible (and sometimes not so horrible) event affects those who remain. It's disassociation in book form, as if Evelyn isn't ready to look at what's going on and must approach everything at an angle in order to have any chance of reaching it at all. I especially love the complex discussions about the ethics of cloning, the difference between what Nathan did and what Evelyn does, if there is one.
It's about healing, clawing back by inches what was taken and filling in new things where the old bits are lost forever. Figuring out what bits of Evelyn and Martine belong to themselves, leaving space for them to want different things even though they started out as the same person. It's shaped by the absence of an abuser, the gap left behind by someone who demanded that every thought fit his needs.
This is a well-paced thriller which doles out disturbing news just often enough to be unsettling. Evelyn's descriptions consistently bury the lede, pondering first the reactions and consequences to some very important piece of information before finally circling back to say what caused the fuss in the first place. It reshapes the weight of these moments to emphasize how dealing with each horrible (and sometimes not so horrible) event affects those who remain. It's disassociation in book form, as if Evelyn isn't ready to look at what's going on and must approach everything at an angle in order to have any chance of reaching it at all. I especially love the complex discussions about the ethics of cloning, the difference between what Nathan did and what Evelyn does, if there is one.
It's about healing, clawing back by inches what was taken and filling in new things where the old bits are lost forever. Figuring out what bits of Evelyn and Martine belong to themselves, leaving space for them to want different things even though they started out as the same person. It's shaped by the absence of an abuser, the gap left behind by someone who demanded that every thought fit his needs.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Medical content
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: Suicide, Abortion, and Death of parent
Contains a staged suicide.thesaltiestlibrarian's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. The opinions expressed herein are mine alone and may not reflect the views of the author, publisher, or distributor.
I've been in this weird kind of funk lately where I've picked up books by authors who haven't impressed me before, only to really like the book I picked up. Emma Donoghue, Kara Thomas, Fredrik Backman, and now Sarah Gailey. This year I read UPRIGHT WOMEN WANTED but felt that the world was muddled and the story had no point. But the summary for THE ECHO WIFE really grabbed my attention, so--in spite of myself--I started reading. And I couldn't stop.
The characters felt so real here. The dire situations made my hair stand on end, and the philosophical knots presented were so mesmerizing to pick at. As soon as the sentient, sapient, what is a person argument whirled into the narrative, I immediately recommended this book to my husband. He LOVES stuff like this, and I know he'll enjoy it just as much as I did.
Sarah Gailey speaks about their own experiences with domestic abuse in the acknowledgements, and I personally identified with that part of the story because of the accuracy. I hate that they had to go through that. My brothers, mother, and myself are domestic abuse survivors, and the insidious way it crept into the lives of Evelyn and Martine here...it's chilling and scary and real.
I don't want to say too much. People should experience this semi-blind, because it's not at all what you expect it to be.
I've been in this weird kind of funk lately where I've picked up books by authors who haven't impressed me before, only to really like the book I picked up. Emma Donoghue, Kara Thomas, Fredrik Backman, and now Sarah Gailey. This year I read UPRIGHT WOMEN WANTED but felt that the world was muddled and the story had no point. But the summary for THE ECHO WIFE really grabbed my attention, so--in spite of myself--I started reading. And I couldn't stop.
The characters felt so real here. The dire situations made my hair stand on end, and the philosophical knots presented were so mesmerizing to pick at. As soon as the sentient, sapient, what is a person argument whirled into the narrative, I immediately recommended this book to my husband. He LOVES stuff like this, and I know he'll enjoy it just as much as I did.
Sarah Gailey speaks about their own experiences with domestic abuse in the acknowledgements, and I personally identified with that part of the story because of the accuracy. I hate that they had to go through that. My brothers, mother, and myself are domestic abuse survivors, and the insidious way it crept into the lives of Evelyn and Martine here...it's chilling and scary and real.
I don't want to say too much. People should experience this semi-blind, because it's not at all what you expect it to be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Blood, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: Abortion
laurenw's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent
shaunashares's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Medical content
Moderate: Suicide
tachyondecay's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
While I wouldn’t say I was hyped for The Echo Wife, you might call me intrigued. A story about a woman whose husband cheats on her with her own clone? I don’t think I’ve read that before, and it’s exactly the kind of scenario I would expect human cloning to lead to. It took me a while to get into the book (just Gailey’s writing style), but eventually I was hooked on the relationship developing between Evelyn and Martine. The ending is truly something else. I don’t know if Gailey is an evil genius or a disturbed evil genius, but they’re definitely evil and definitely a genius.
Evelyn is an award-winning researcher into human cloning. She has come this far with her husband, Nathan, but now they’re splitting up. When the book starts, Evelyn knows why this is happening—he has cloned her, using the tech they developed together, and named the clone Martine, and conditioned this clone to be more pliant, more “wifely” than Evelyn ever could be. But Gailey brings us to this revelation gradually, kind of the slow ride up the roller coaster before you reach the top, at which point they let rip with what I can only describe as a very twisted thriller.
Though cloning is essential to this book’s story, this isn’t really a book about cloning. The Echo Wife is about abuse, and in particular, Gailey focuses on the ways in which men often try to mould the women in their lives into specific roles. Cloning is just a useful science-fictional novum that helps Gailey explore this idea in a very literal way: if you’re not satisfied with your wife, why not make a better version of her? Wifey 2.0.
Before we talk about Nathan, however, let’s talk about Evelyn. Because it’s clear almost immediately that she has more trauma than just her marriage to Nathan to deal with. The book opens on a reception being held, one in which she has won an award. So she is laced up tight in a dress she can barely breathe in and attending an event she doesn’t want to be at because that is what one does if one wants more grant funding next year. At this event she encounters a former mentor, another woman, and Evelyn as the first person narrator confides in us that this woman taught Evelyn how to deal with the misogyny of grad school and postdocs in science. When I was reading this chapter, I admit to some impatience—bring on the clone, I thought!—but in hindsight, this chapter is important. Gailey is establishing from the beginning Evelyn’s awareness of how patriarchy affects her work life.
In the same way, flashbacks to Evelyn’s childhood show us how her abusive relationship with her father affected her development. He expected her to be unseen, out of the way, except when he chose to make time for her, and only then if she could conform to his definition of brilliance. The message Gailey gives us is clear: Evelyn is not new to abusive relationships. This has been a pattern her whole life, sadly something that is true for a lot of people (and women in particular).
So then we come to Nathan. The most interesting thing about him? He’s barely in the book. By this I mean that Nathan barely appears on page and talks to the characters. Evelyn tells us a lot about him, relates details about their past together. But we show up at Martine and Nathan’s house after Nathan is gone. Near the end of the story, when Evelyn explains the “arrangement” that they come to, she again keeps us at arm’s length. So Nathan is arguably not really a character in this book. He is a bogeyman in Evelyn’s psyche. I don’t mean to suggest that she is exaggerating his awfulness, but I want to highlight this because I think it is an important choice on Gailey’s part. There are really only 2 characters we spend much time with here, Evelyn and Martine, and Evelyn is the only one talking directly to us. Yes, it is possibly Evelyn and Martine are unreliable and making up the entire thing—but then, I would argue that undermines the entire plot, so I don’t see that as a particularly useful reading. This means we literally must believe women about their abusers instead of looking toward external sources for validation.
The other fascinating interplay in this book is obviously between Evelyn and Martine. They are clones, yet they aren’t identical. Evelyn has Opinions about Martine, of course, many of them initially negative because she resents the way Martine has so easily filled the void in Nathan’s life that Evelyn never quite filled. Yet she also pities Martine, because that is the only reason for Martine to exist. There’s a whole other story here, one from Martine’s point of view, that would be just as fascinating, I suspect. But part of what makes The Echo Wife so compelling is, as I discussed above, the way Gailey limits the scope of the narrative. We don’t get to see Martine’s confrontations with Nathan and the fallout—we just get to see Evelyn coming over after the fact. We don’t get to see Martine digging up the garden and discovering Nathan’s little secrets—again, we see Evelyn observing Martine after the fact.
So, on the one hand, you have this dark and disturbing thriller where Gailey uses cloning to highlight how men abuse women, and how sometimes they will literally replace us if they think they can get away with it and be happier as a result. On the other hand, that ending!
When I put this book down, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the ending—and that’s always a good sign. Overall, I think it’s because Gailey has succeeded at creating an unlikable female protagonist who is nonetheless sympathetic. That is to say, I really don’t like Evelyn—she clearly hasn’t dealt with her trauma in a healthy way, and it shows in how she treats other people. At the same time, I sympathize with her and Martine’s problems, and I want them to succeed rather than being caught and going to jail. Yet the solution that Evelyn comes up with … huh. It’s deliciously complex but also disturbing; she has essentially manipulated everyone else involved to arrive at the optimal solution for herself while convincing herself (genuinely, I think) that it’s best for the others too.
I also think it’s interesting that while Gailey acknowledges there are ethical dilemmas regarding human cloning, they also basically sidestep those dilemmas. There is one notable point where Martine holds a metaphorical mirror up to Evelyn and points out the problematic way Evelyn has rationalized what she does. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a book that really engages with the ethics of creating humans from whole cloth, this probably isn’t for you. Not because it doesn’t present the problems—Martine’s very existence is ethically problematic—but because it never quite holds Evelyn (or, actually, Nathan) to account for the positions they take.
I guess all I can say without going into spoilers is that this is a book about flawed people doing flawed things. Some of their issues are down to patriarchy, some are the result of trauma, and others are just bad decisions. At the end of the day, no one should be forced to stay in an abusive situation. No one deserves or should have the ability to adjust another person until they are their ideal version of a mate. The Echo Wife grapples with abusive relationships and what it means to love someone in a very unique and thoughtful way. There were moments that missed the mark for me, and our protagonist is a difficult person to like. Nevertheless, Gailey’s writing and storytelling left me very satisfied, and I’m glad I let the description of this book intrigue me into reading it so quickly. (Also glad my library had a copy!)
Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.
Evelyn is an award-winning researcher into human cloning. She has come this far with her husband, Nathan, but now they’re splitting up. When the book starts, Evelyn knows why this is happening—he has cloned her, using the tech they developed together, and named the clone Martine, and conditioned this clone to be more pliant, more “wifely” than Evelyn ever could be. But Gailey brings us to this revelation gradually, kind of the slow ride up the roller coaster before you reach the top, at which point they let rip with what I can only describe as a very twisted thriller.
Though cloning is essential to this book’s story, this isn’t really a book about cloning. The Echo Wife is about abuse, and in particular, Gailey focuses on the ways in which men often try to mould the women in their lives into specific roles. Cloning is just a useful science-fictional novum that helps Gailey explore this idea in a very literal way: if you’re not satisfied with your wife, why not make a better version of her? Wifey 2.0.
Before we talk about Nathan, however, let’s talk about Evelyn. Because it’s clear almost immediately that she has more trauma than just her marriage to Nathan to deal with. The book opens on a reception being held, one in which she has won an award. So she is laced up tight in a dress she can barely breathe in and attending an event she doesn’t want to be at because that is what one does if one wants more grant funding next year. At this event she encounters a former mentor, another woman, and Evelyn as the first person narrator confides in us that this woman taught Evelyn how to deal with the misogyny of grad school and postdocs in science. When I was reading this chapter, I admit to some impatience—bring on the clone, I thought!—but in hindsight, this chapter is important. Gailey is establishing from the beginning Evelyn’s awareness of how patriarchy affects her work life.
In the same way, flashbacks to Evelyn’s childhood show us how her abusive relationship with her father affected her development. He expected her to be unseen, out of the way, except when he chose to make time for her, and only then if she could conform to his definition of brilliance. The message Gailey gives us is clear: Evelyn is not new to abusive relationships. This has been a pattern her whole life, sadly something that is true for a lot of people (and women in particular).
So then we come to Nathan. The most interesting thing about him? He’s barely in the book. By this I mean that Nathan barely appears on page and talks to the characters. Evelyn tells us a lot about him, relates details about their past together. But we show up at Martine and Nathan’s house after Nathan is gone. Near the end of the story, when Evelyn explains the “arrangement” that they come to, she again keeps us at arm’s length. So Nathan is arguably not really a character in this book. He is a bogeyman in Evelyn’s psyche. I don’t mean to suggest that she is exaggerating his awfulness, but I want to highlight this because I think it is an important choice on Gailey’s part. There are really only 2 characters we spend much time with here, Evelyn and Martine, and Evelyn is the only one talking directly to us. Yes, it is possibly Evelyn and Martine are unreliable and making up the entire thing—but then, I would argue that undermines the entire plot, so I don’t see that as a particularly useful reading. This means we literally must believe women about their abusers instead of looking toward external sources for validation.
The other fascinating interplay in this book is obviously between Evelyn and Martine. They are clones, yet they aren’t identical. Evelyn has Opinions about Martine, of course, many of them initially negative because she resents the way Martine has so easily filled the void in Nathan’s life that Evelyn never quite filled. Yet she also pities Martine, because that is the only reason for Martine to exist. There’s a whole other story here, one from Martine’s point of view, that would be just as fascinating, I suspect. But part of what makes The Echo Wife so compelling is, as I discussed above, the way Gailey limits the scope of the narrative. We don’t get to see Martine’s confrontations with Nathan and the fallout—we just get to see Evelyn coming over after the fact. We don’t get to see Martine digging up the garden and discovering Nathan’s little secrets—again, we see Evelyn observing Martine after the fact.
So, on the one hand, you have this dark and disturbing thriller where Gailey uses cloning to highlight how men abuse women, and how sometimes they will literally replace us if they think they can get away with it and be happier as a result. On the other hand, that ending!
When I put this book down, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the ending—and that’s always a good sign. Overall, I think it’s because Gailey has succeeded at creating an unlikable female protagonist who is nonetheless sympathetic. That is to say, I really don’t like Evelyn—she clearly hasn’t dealt with her trauma in a healthy way, and it shows in how she treats other people. At the same time, I sympathize with her and Martine’s problems, and I want them to succeed rather than being caught and going to jail. Yet the solution that Evelyn comes up with … huh. It’s deliciously complex but also disturbing; she has essentially manipulated everyone else involved to arrive at the optimal solution for herself while convincing herself (genuinely, I think) that it’s best for the others too.
I also think it’s interesting that while Gailey acknowledges there are ethical dilemmas regarding human cloning, they also basically sidestep those dilemmas. There is one notable point where Martine holds a metaphorical mirror up to Evelyn and points out the problematic way Evelyn has rationalized what she does. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a book that really engages with the ethics of creating humans from whole cloth, this probably isn’t for you. Not because it doesn’t present the problems—Martine’s very existence is ethically problematic—but because it never quite holds Evelyn (or, actually, Nathan) to account for the positions they take.
I guess all I can say without going into spoilers is that this is a book about flawed people doing flawed things. Some of their issues are down to patriarchy, some are the result of trauma, and others are just bad decisions. At the end of the day, no one should be forced to stay in an abusive situation. No one deserves or should have the ability to adjust another person until they are their ideal version of a mate. The Echo Wife grapples with abusive relationships and what it means to love someone in a very unique and thoughtful way. There were moments that missed the mark for me, and our protagonist is a difficult person to like. Nevertheless, Gailey’s writing and storytelling left me very satisfied, and I’m glad I let the description of this book intrigue me into reading it so quickly. (Also glad my library had a copy!)
Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse and Toxic relationship
jujubeees's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Pregnancy
Minor: Suicide and Abortion
wear_sun_screen's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Alcohol
nadia_b's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Best read when in the mood for a dark, twisted, thriller. Recommended read for fans of Black Mirror, Orphan Black, and Ex Machina.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Misogyny
Minor: Suicide and Abortion
samusc's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book is unlike any other I've read.
The science fiction and horror elements were incredibly well executed. Every detail mattered.
Having dealt with domestic abuse, the situations outlined here were intense and authentic.
Sarah Gaileys' acknowledgement at the end confirmed what I feared, but I'm thankful that their work has hopefully helped them, and I know helped me.
Full review to come.
The science fiction and horror elements were incredibly well executed. Every detail mattered.
Having dealt with domestic abuse, the situations outlined here were intense and authentic.
Sarah Gaileys' acknowledgement at the end confirmed what I feared, but I'm thankful that their work has hopefully helped them, and I know helped me.
Full review to come.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
bi_n_large's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse and Misogyny