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kplab81 's review for:
The Echo Wife
by Sarah Gailey
Another Sarah Gailey book that I thoroughly enjoyed. This one explores deeper themes of identity, fidelity, and agency through the lens of human cloning. Our narrator, Evelyn Caldwell, is a pioneer in the scientific field having perfected the process of human cloning and conditioning throughout the course of her lifetime. Through her own descriptions, she is an exacting, demanding scientist who goes through laboratory assistants like morning coffee and prides herself on her precision, fastidiousness, and, of course, her outcomes. Outside of her lab, however, life is falling apart - her husband (Nathan) has left her for a new woman, she barely communicates with her mother, and she's harboring some deep-seeded pain from her (now dead) father's history of abuse. All of this information spools out gradually from Evelyn as she addresses the most pressing dilemma in front of her - the woman Nathan left her for (Martine) is a clone of herself. Using Evelyn's own methods, Nathan created an improved version of her that is more compliant, less headstrong, and-most importantly-aligned with Nathan's wishes to have a family ... except per Evelyn's ethics and methodology, clones are not supposed to be able to get pregnant. So when Evelyn is faced with a clearly pregnant Martine, she does not hold back in confronting her clone about what her real "purpose" is and how she only exists to fulfill Nathan's wishes. This kicks off a chain reaction which leaves Nathan dead and Martine and Evelyn scrambling to hide the evidence.
All of this happens within the first few chapters, so what the book really ends up being about is Evelyn reckoning with her relationships - with herself, Seyed (her one lab assistant who has stuck around), Martine, Nathan, her past, her parents (equal parts abusive and aloof). She has to reexamine her beliefs around her own work as she discovers that the closest relationship in her life is the one she develops with her own clone. Like all of Gailey's work, the characters and their dilemmas are complex and fascinating to follow; the narrative moves at a fast clip and the only downside is wanting to read more about what happens next in the lives of these damaged people (clones included).
All of this happens within the first few chapters, so what the book really ends up being about is Evelyn reckoning with her relationships - with herself, Seyed (her one lab assistant who has stuck around), Martine, Nathan, her past, her parents (equal parts abusive and aloof). She has to reexamine her beliefs around her own work as she discovers that the closest relationship in her life is the one she develops with her own clone. Like all of Gailey's work, the characters and their dilemmas are complex and fascinating to follow; the narrative moves at a fast clip and the only downside is wanting to read more about what happens next in the lives of these damaged people (clones included).