Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

96 reviews

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

raekit's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Smart and dark. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, and Body horror

plantedjess's review

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Pregnancy, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Blood, Infidelity, and Abortion

dejaghoul's review

challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

4.5

Sucked me in from the very first pages and did not let go. A story deeply about abuse but which rarely shows the abuse, about the ways women twist themselves to fit into and evade what patriarchal systems demand of them, about tending to the hurt child inside of you, about personhood and the lack thereof. It was not what I expected but better than what I hoped, and I am now on a mission to make as many people read it as possible so we can discuss and cry about trauma. Thank you to the bookstore employee who recommended it to me because I never would have found it otherwise and am so much the better for it!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Misogyny, Pregnancy, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

christineparkerco's review against another edition

Made it through chapter 9 with my eyeballs and had to pause for anxiety reasons but I wanted to finish because it’s SO GOOD. Tried it on audio and got through another chapter but it’s just too dark and heavy for me right now. Might give it another try at another time because I love Sarah Gailey and the premise is fascinating and the writing is excellent and the audio is entertaining; I just think I need to be in the right mindset for the content. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Blood, Infidelity, and Gore

paperknotbooks's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

Not a book I think I could re-read without the thrill of discovery. Made me question what it means to be human.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Murder, Gaslighting, Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Blood, and Confinement

catandherbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. I didn't hate it, and I didn't love it either... I did really enjoy Evelyn and Martine and their personal development, as well as their interaction with each other

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Child abuse

Minor: Death of parent

escapinginpaper's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Physical abuse, Gore, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Body horror, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Suicide, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Abortion, Child abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Alcohol

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