Scan barcode
A review by girlonbooks
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
💍💍💍💍(four stars as rated in wedding rings worn until death do us part, do us part, do us part, do us part…)
Evelyn Caldwell’s human cloning technology changed the world for everyone, herself included. When Evelyn’s catches her husband having an affair with a clone of her Evelyn is forced to keep it quiet or risk ruining everything she’s worked for. Now her ex is dead – murdered in self defense by his “new wife” – and the women must work together to cover it up or lose the things that matter most to both of them.
“Why would you ever cut the blooms off the rosebush?”
It was one of the only truly useful things she ever taught me: Stress stimulates growth. Sometimes, in order to make something develop in the right direction, you have to hurt it.
You know that feeling when you’re reading a book and you think, “oh this is going to get made into a movie without question.” I felt that so many times while reading The Echo Wife that I may just go ahead and start my own studio and make the thing myself! It’s just such a gloriously original thriller that the idea of it not getting optioned feels a bit preposterous. I, for one, totally devoured this book and now consider myself an official member of the “Sarah Gailey is brilliantly talented in all ways” club. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dark themes, LOTS of internal reflection on the part of the protagonist and morally ambiguous characters. To me, though, none of that felt tiring to get through, which is actually rather shocking considering that this book is far more character based than it is plot based. Especially for a thriller. From a literary standpoint, The Echo Wife is edited just beautifully and the flow of the thing itself is outstanding.
The best part of science fiction (imo) is being asked to suspend your disbelief in order to entertain a false reality. It turns out, though, that there are a lot of people who don’t actually like that. Which is wild to me since, that is literally the POINT behind the genre? The Echo Wife asks a lot of disbelief suspension on the part of the reader. So, if you’re not ready to do that then this book will not hit the mark for you. On that note, if you can’t get on board with fake science then you probably should mosey on out of the sci-fi genre and stay out of it forever. 🙈
✨ Rep in this book: NB author
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Blood, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Violence, Confinement, and Suicide
Minor: Death of parent