Reviews with content warning for Confinement - The Echo Wife

Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

marlinspirkhall's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

I tore through this book in 3 days and absolutely loved it. It's not quite as dark as some reviews may make it seem, but it does deal with some rather heavy subject matter in a mature and sober manner.

I wrote down a few thoughts as I began reading the book, but found it so engrossing that I didn't take detailed notes. It was fantastic, and I can't wait to reread it at some point. For now, it will be on-loan to a friend until they finish it.

You always hear writing advice which suggests you should hook the reader with the first paragraph, which Gailey does effortlessly.

"My gown was beautiful. It was the kind of garment that looks precisely as expensive as it is. I did not hate it, because it was beautiful, and I did not love it, because it was cruel. I wore it because wearing it was the thing the night demanded of me."

Gailey has a wonderful way of using words, which makes me rethink the often-underutilised potential of the English language. It's always just succinct enough that it never crosses into the territory of purple prose.

"Her voice was high, light, warm. Nonthreatening. Hearing it was like swallowing a cheekful of venom."

- page 29

"But somehow Nathan- Nathan, the coward, the failure, who had abandoned industry for academia nearly a decade before, who shouldn't have been able to approach the level of work I was doing- somehow, Nathan had found a way to undermine that principle. To undermine *my* principles."

Page 55:

Page 55: "when I got to the kitchen, Nathan was still dead"

Me, out loud: wait, what?!

Fucking good plot twist, fucking well done.

"People always brought up the idea of feeding
bodies
to pigs, as if there were pig farms around every goddamn corner."

Thank you, Gailey. There's an entire tumblr thread out there, to which I will be using this quote as a "gotcha".

The way that Gailey imbues several tropes into their work is skillfully done, too. Many reviews said they transformed the "cheating spouse" trope with a sci-fi twist, but, really, this book was about generational abuse. How it echoes down through your family and sets its roots in you, and makes you wonder fi you're going to internalise and repeat the pattern too... Which is why it's so cathartic when the book ends with:

"I'm not a monster.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Abandonment

Body Horror:

One of the "failed clones" which is buried in the back yard has a "spiral mandible" which is described in detail. Murder:

Nathan attacks Martine and she kills him in self-defense. It is later revealed he was trying to murder her, in addition to his plans to murder Evelyn. Oh, and he also has the bodies of 12 "failed" clones in the back yard. 11 of these are "growth rate" failures, and appear to have died on their own, but one body- the final one- was "perfect". The only thing he appears to have objected to was her personality.

Sexism, Misogyny: Nathan "designs" Martine to be docile and obedient. "He stammered his way through it, an entirely unreasonable request. One that was based in his constant certainty that I would, someday, change my mind about wanting children. He had always acted as though my decision not to have a baby were a temporary lapse, a delay. He had always assumed that all women came with an innate understanding of and desire for children- at least, the old Nathan had-

and so it was not a surprise to me when he asked if I would help him raise Violet."

Suicide:

In order to allow Martine to live a life free from Nathan 2, Evelyn and Martine dig up the body of a clone, and pose her in the wardrobe as if she has hanged herself. It could be an upsetting scene to some readers.

This also leads to (Abandonment):

a description of them leaving baby Violet behind, which made me burst into tears. However, thankfully, she is reunited with her mother later.

Domestic abuse, Physical Abuse, Emotional Abuse: This is made explicit in the narrative without *being* explicit- we see that Evelyn and her mother fear her father, and it is strongly hinted that

he broke Evelyn's wrist when she was nine years old. He also feels no remorse for this, and rolls his eyes when he sees that her arm is in a cast.

Child abuse: In addition to the above,

Evelyn's father switches between being outright neglectful of her and smothering her with his expectations and rules. He also grabs her face roughly when she is only six years old. Her mother trains her how to sneak around the house without making the stairs creak so that she doesn't wake her father. She is regularly seen running away from her father in flashbacks. She resents her mother, in part, and fears becoming her father while still respecting him.

laurenw's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

bookish_affections's review

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dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

Content Warnings

samusc's review

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book is unlike any other I've read.
The science fiction and horror elements were incredibly well executed. Every detail mattered.
Having dealt with domestic abuse, the situations outlined here were intense and authentic.
Sarah Gaileys' acknowledgement at the end confirmed what I feared, but I'm thankful that their work has hopefully helped them, and I know helped me.

Full review to come.

Content Warnings

amressing's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

reading_bug's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

nxclx's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

This was such an interesting read, and while not the "nonstop thrill" that the synopsis said that it would be, I found it captivating and thought provoking. Personally, I think it reads more as a novella, with limited characters and a somewhat vague and limited setting. Kind of a mix of This is How You Lose the Time War mixed with the gore of Wilder Girls or The Grace Year. It didn't keep me on the edge of my seat, but rather had me calmly bracing for what was to come next, as if I was in the narrators shoes. It worked really well for me and I'll definitely be checking out the authors other works.

Content Warnings

thechiaraface's review

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

To start, this book is a bit genre-bending - it could fall under sci-fi, domestic/psychological thriller, horror, or literary fiction in my opinion. The premise sounds kind of humorous (a man leaves his wife for a clone of her that he created to be 'nicer'), but this book is anything but light & humorous. This book is dark and tense and full of commentary. This book is exactly what I want from a speculative/sci-fi thriller, it explores these big ideas from a different angle than realistic fiction ever could. And this book explores so much, it explores autonomy, individualism, power, misogyny, gender expectations, grooming, personhood (what makes a person a person), the cyclical nature of trauma, nature vs. nurture, and the darkness within human nature. I found this book entirely engrossing. The commentary and exploration of these big ideas did not get in the way of the plot, pacing or story. This book does have plot but the story leans more towards character-driven than plot-driven. This isn't one of those wild-ride twisty-turny shocking thrillers. This story more just slowly gets more and more chillingly f*ed up and through that you really get to understand the characters and explore the darker side of human nature. All the characters are interesting and nuanced and well-developed. Overall, I really really liked this but it does have a lot of content warnings so check those out of you want/need them.

Content Warnings

marrowe's review

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challenging dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

girlonbooks's review

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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 for this book: death of a spouse, death of a parent, murder, blood, medical stuff, adultery, domestic violence, confinement

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Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

marlinspirkhall's review

laurenw's review against another edition

bookish_affections's review

samusc's review

amressing's review against another edition

reading_bug's review

nxclx's review

thechiaraface's review

marrowe's review

girlonbooks's review