Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

54 reviews

schnaucl's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.25

I liked it.

It's not quite clear to me what Evelyn's work actually is.  Something with clones, obviously, but it's not clear what the clones are supposed to be for.  Something more than organ donation if bone breaks have to be the same and conditioning is a thing. 

It seems to take Martine an extraordinarily long time to figure out that Evelyn would be fine with clones being killed inside a lab setting, and in fact, had done it herself numerous times.  Seeing Martine as an actual person with full autonomy was always going to be incompatible with her worldview that clones were things to be used and discarded.

The ending was inevitable and still chilling.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, and Death

Minor: Medical content, Physical abuse, Abortion, Gore, and Child abuse

riereeds's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.0

It was a good book but I wasn’t very invested. I found it easy to guess what would happen next. The concept as a whole is a good idea but it feels like there are short cuts to get to plot points. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Violence, Death of parent, Gore, Domestic abuse, Murder, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Infertility

Moderate: Emotional abuse

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.25

A very clever novel about cloning and the possibility of creating the perfect spouse, this book deals a lot with emotional abuse and unrealistic expectations that shape a person the rest of their life. 

Evelyn, a newly divorced cloning genius, is so absorbed with her work that she has no room for anything else. Her marriage fell apart because her husband Nathan wanted a “better” Evelyn so he created one and got rid of the first wife. 

Evelyn and the replacement wife, the clone Martine, come to be friends of a sort, brought together by their mutual fury at Nathan for being so demanding and irresolute. The gradual development of their relationship, and Evelyn’s growing appreciation for the complexity of the clone’s personality, is one of the more enjoyable parts of the book. 

There were some pretty large plot holes - one, for instance, is how it was that none of the lab workers noticed Evelyn’s new coworker? Aside from that, I thought the book was very thought-provoking, a sign of a great story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

jojo_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Violence, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Gore, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Misogyny

Minor: Abortion

taylor13's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Gore, Death, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Grief, and Death of parent

blackcatkai's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

CW: murder, death, pregnancy, casual ableism, blood, death, science experiments, violence, infidelity, sexism/misogyny, child abuse, abortion mentioned, domestic violence mentioned (off-page), alcohol use, medical content

I would not categorise this one as a thriller, but probably more a contemporary scifi suspense novel. I think it'd be a good intro novel if you want to get into either scifi or thrillers/suspense while being more into the other genre. This was my first Gailey novel and I will DEFINITELY be reading more of their work in the future. I had a ton of fun with this one & flew threw it. It's on the shorter end, length-wise, but the pacing was well done & characters engaging. Evelyn is awful & I love her. Martine deserved better & I honestly wouldn't mind a short story taking place a bit in the future after this story ends just to see how everyone turns out.

A great way to ease into the spooky season!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Blood, Child abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, and Pregnancy

Minor: Ableism, Infertility, Abortion, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

adamjeffson's review

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexism, Physical abuse, Blood, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Death, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

Minor: Abortion

nyoom's review

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gore, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Trafficking, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Ableism, Alcoholism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Abandonment, Car accident, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Racial slurs, and Terminal illness

Minor: Sexual content

chelseylb1988's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gaslighting, Grief, Death, Death of parent, and Gore

Minor: Abortion

hoperin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Folks who like their sci fi thriller plots to be absolutely air tight might have some plot points to complain about, the ending made me snap my eyes back open  in dread which made any bit of implausability worth it. Echo sure is the word for it. As always if you listen to the audio book, Xe Sands' delivery is A++  I tore through this in 2 days.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Gore