A review by arkwen452
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

challenging dark reflective tense slow-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

3.25

The Echo Wife is a science fiction twist on a marital affair between a bio scientist, her husband and her science experiment project. I think what readers will mainly get from this book is the fact that Evelyn is a very deeply flawed character, but she is very driven focused, and, strong willed. And ironically, these are the characteristics that her husband, Nathan does not seem to appreciate or like about her. I find that the book is so heavily focused on Evelyn's narrative and her recalling things from her past between her parents and how their personalities influenced her.

I find her obsession or , hyper fixation on her research and her work throughout the years and how she compare that to her Ex-husband's inability to understand her and appreciate how focus in determined she was really takes away from the thriller or suspense aspect of the book. I found the narrative to be mostly predictable, and very slow paced. And the most I got from this book was a fact that Evelyn was struggling to find the emotional connection with it within herself Based on her upbringing, but overall the strongest theme in this book had to do with misogyny and her, realizing how dark and conniving her ex-husband Nathan was. 

At first, I thought this was in untrustworthy first person recall of Nathan's character, but as a book progresses readers will find that Evelyn's commentary on him and her stories, and her overall interpretations of who he was is actually not that far off. I will say that I appreciate Evelyn getting to know her emotions better through Martine was a nice touch.

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