Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

38 reviews

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

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

cristina_margarita's review

reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was unlike anything I have ever read! I am convinced it will become a modern sci-fi classic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Infertility and Pregnancy

dr_aimz's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Gaslighting and Domestic abuse

Minor: Bullying

anarchist_al's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I really liked the twists and turns of this novel. The narrator did a fantastic job bringing each character to life, and acting out more than just dialogue. I really loved the character arcs of Evelyn and Martine, and I was very satisfied with the ending. Evelyn as the narrator was rarely lovable, but she was brilliant and smart and so observant, and her moments of empathy were meaningful. This book was pretty science-heavy, but it never felt difficult to understand. I was riveted from start to finish!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Medical content, Violence, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity and Gaslighting

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

kt2e56's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I’m speechless. Oh my GOD, this was so good. The sci-fi and mystery angle is interesting in and of itself, but what really pulled me in was the ethics of cloning interwoven throughout. I think it’s because I’m a survivor myself, but I really related to a lot of this book and my heart ached quite a bit for Evelyn who was replaced for not being perfect for her husband and of course Martine who was groomed and molded based on the whims of a deeply fucked up individual.

The parts where Martine can’t figure out what *she* wants versus what she was created to want were really just so chilling. Reading the acknowledgements at the end and discovering that the author is also a survivor helped process a lot of this for me and my instincts about why certain aspects of this book crawled under my skin.

Definitely give this one a read if you can.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Body horror, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicide, and Sexual content

Deals a lot with grooming but of an adult who is a

clone designed to cater to a man’s every whim.

Can be distressing.

welkinvault's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

Dark, disturbing domestic thriller with Sci-Fi elements.  This was brilliant.  Horrifying but brilliant.   

 

Evelyn, the main protagonist, is a very brilliant, ambitious, driven, obsessive scientist.  At the start of the book (omg that first chapter – stunning) wins a prestigious award for her cloning research.    However, what should be her triumph is completely overtaken by the fact that she knows her husband stole her research and has left her for her ‘Stepford Wife’ version clone.   And if you think you know how the novel is going to go from there, you are so wrong.  

 

I want to continue, to explain how the lifelong domestic abuse brings a character who is such an unreliable narrator that others have to explain emotional currency, a character who has been trained to be an unobservant observer.  But if I explain it will create spoilers, let me just say this will stay with you long after you have read this novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Child abuse, and Infidelity

Minor: Death of parent and Murder