Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

185 reviews

jeannette_m's review against another edition

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dark medium-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

3.0


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softanimal's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0


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andreac713's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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becksusername's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

4.5


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erikwmj's review

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emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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turrean's review

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dark sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The book was a clever and chilling reflection on how people are shaped and socialized, especially women. I kept getting caught up in questions about the plausibility of the plot, before realizing that the improbability of the narrative wasn’t the point: the moral dilemma was the point. And, I suppose, the horrifying inevitability of the conclusion. 

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kaynova's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

this book was a good time and i was just going along with the ride. i love how morally grey everyone is in the book and the narrator for the audiobook had the perfect voice for evelyn. 

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gsch219's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0


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courtsport's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Haunting, beautiful, entrancing

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looseleafellie's review

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dark fast-paced

5.0

This blend of science fiction and domestic thriller follows brilliant scientist Evelyn Caldwell, whose husband used her groundbreaking cloning research to make a more obedient version of her and left her for her clone. But now her husband is dead, and Evelyn and her clone must clean up the mess …

This was a quick and thought-provoking read! I love main characters who are kind of nasty people, and Evelyn is no exception. Really, there are no good people in this book, but I loved the exploration of how people’s bad behaviors can stem from the way people have treated them.

This is, on the surface, a story about misogyny. The way Evelyn’s husband creates a partner to his own specifications mirrors the way that misogyny is often rooted in the desire to make women conform to the standards men and society have set for them.

However, the ethical issues explored in the story go deeper than that. The main plot of Evelyn trying to work with her clone to cover up her husband’s death is interspersed with flashbacks to Evelyn’s own childhood. The parallels between the way people treat Evelyn’s clone and the way Evelyn’s father treated her mother raise some interesting questions about not just misogyny, but about nature vs nurture, how people can change depending on the amount of agency they’re afforded, and what counts as the “real” version of someone.

The ending of the book doesn’t fully tie up many of the moral questions inherent in the story, but that leaves the reader open to fill in some of the blanks themselves. Overall, if you’re in the mood for something dark, speculative, cerebral, and quietly thriller-like, you might want to check this out!

CWs: Murder, blood, misogyny, loss of bodily autonomy, domestic abuse recounted, cheating, vomit.
Spice level: None.

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