Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

62 reviews

nerdy_reader_9571's review

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Death

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual violence

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Emotional abuse, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Infidelity, Blood, Medical content, Domestic abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Sexism, Pregnancy, Violence, Misogyny, and Child abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Infertility, Abortion, Vomit, and Car accident

pandact's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Nature vs. Nurture by Chase Petra is a cool song that hits the same beats about children, parents, and ethics!

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week podcast turned out to be the perfect place to recommend this book, for so many reasons. The best way I can describe this story is: parts of Frankenstein and Stepford Wives reanimated with modern concerns.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child abuse, Gore, Grief, Murder, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Suicide, Dementia, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Body horror, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence

biobooksbirdsnerd's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

A very entertaining read that once you start is hard to put down. Part dark romance and part sci fi. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Violence, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gore

Minor: Alcoholism, Abortion, and Alcohol

elya_moss93's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Abortion, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Misogyny and Emotional abuse

puffinthedog's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Speaking as someone who is still unlearning the things I was taught throughout childhood and multiple abusive relationships- The Echo Wife was a heartbreaking novel of how childhood abuse and interpersonal violence strip people of their will and leaves them unsure who is making the choices for them, even in their own heads. If you don’t have a history of psychological abuse, perhaps it can be read as a book questioning the ethics of cloning, and with that framework I can’t tell you how good a story this is if that’s what you’re looking for. I have no idea how plausible the science is that backs the plot. But as someone who identified with Martine this story made me see things in myself that I knew were there and made me look directly at them in broad daylight in a way that, maybe for the first time, allowed me to really feel sad for myself and angry at my own Nathans (and Evelyns). 

I don’t know if this book is a masterpiece in general or just a masterpiece for me, in this moment I’m in. I’m too deep in my own experience that resonates too loudly for me to comment on writing or storyline. I think both of those things were enjoyable and interesting, but the overall experience of this book is the emotion and the characters. I can see this falling flat for someone who just wants a fun sci-fi romp and not a look at how parenting, society, and intimate partner violence shapes people and makes us question how much free will we have and if it’s possible to break the programming in a world that wants us pleasant, submissive, and unquestioning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Medical content, Pregnancy, Slavery, Infidelity, and Violence

Minor: Abortion and Suicide

lilybear3's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I listened to the audiobook version read by Xe Sands.  I didn't mind her as a narrator, but I had to listen to this book at 1.25x speed because it felt slow and the breaks were quite long.  The premise of this book is really cool and I think executed quite well.  We learn a lot about Evelyn and what in her past has made her the way she is.  I was personally annoyed by her every now and then but I understand the circumstances.  Each time I thought, "where is this story going? there's a decent amount of time left." I was hit with another issue they have to overcome.  It was slow for me a few times but it definitely was interesting.  The ending was alright, but I'm not sure how to make it better.  This isn't something I would've picked up on my own but a co-worker suggested it and I'm glad I gave it a shot.  I could see this becoming a movie.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Murder, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Rape

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Take cloning, moral amboguity, replacements, women in science, and a mysogenistic ex, mix them together with murder and a cover-up and out comes this book. It won't be for everyone, but I rather enjoyed this dark story. Every twist was intriguing and added to the experience nicely. I also really liked how Evelyn is written. She's an interesting character.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Violence, Death, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Medical content

Demanding a woman get pregnant, sexism in science

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