Take a photo of a barcode or cover
katiehegs 's review for:
The Echo Wife
by Sarah Gailey
JUSTICE FOR MY GIRL MARTINE ALL MY HOMIES RIDE FOR MARTINE
This book made so specifically grateful for my own growth as a reader, because there was a time in my life when I didn’t realize you could have a main character or narrator who is NOT a protagonist — that the perspective character can be wrong or bad or have flaws they don’t see.
And thank god I learned better before meeting Evelyn!
Given that, plus the actual plot here, I found this book to open up a ton of fascinating questions about humanity, anthropomorphization and personification, conscious vs. unconscious intent, the ways in which narcissism depends on dehumanization… what does it mean to consider someone a monster and how do we construct boundaries around that definition to protect ourselves?
It’s fascinating and brilliant and that’s not even getting into how the plot structure is so SMART! Every twist is so earned as to feel obvious after the fact, but not in a way that makes you feel dumb or mad at the book.
I did have to knock .25 stars because I really didn’t like the ending. I hate thatEvelyn still doesn’t understand the ethical shitstorm of selectively deciding when Martine is a person to her and when she’s just Weird Science™️. I also hate that … no one seems curious about Violet’s future??? Genetically, is she a human/clone hybrid? If so, what does that mean about her growth and development? If Martine was supposed to be infertile, do we have to assume Nathan someone got or made Evelyn’s reproductive material? How? Does clone surrogacy have any damaging effects that won’t show up yet? Even if she’s a perfectly normal, healthy, human girl, what happens when she’s old enough to have questions about this whole arrangement, or to ask Nathan about Martine? How will they ensure secrecy? Nobody is thinking or curious about… any of this???
This book made so specifically grateful for my own growth as a reader, because there was a time in my life when I didn’t realize you could have a main character or narrator who is NOT a protagonist — that the perspective character can be wrong or bad or have flaws they don’t see.
And thank god I learned better before meeting Evelyn!
Given that, plus the actual plot here, I found this book to open up a ton of fascinating questions about humanity, anthropomorphization and personification, conscious vs. unconscious intent, the ways in which narcissism depends on dehumanization… what does it mean to consider someone a monster and how do we construct boundaries around that definition to protect ourselves?
It’s fascinating and brilliant and that’s not even getting into how the plot structure is so SMART! Every twist is so earned as to feel obvious after the fact, but not in a way that makes you feel dumb or mad at the book.
I did have to knock .25 stars because I really didn’t like the ending. I hate that