Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

62 reviews

carolined314's review

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

4.0

A hard, lovely book with lots of science interwoven, and very little love. The main character's trauma coping is centerstage in a way we rarely get to see so intimately.
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corar's review

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

4.0

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jazhandz's review against another edition

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

3.75

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robinsong's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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cammiem8's review against another edition

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

3.5

A woman and her clone girlboss their way through hundreds of egregious ethics violations! 
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msjenne's review

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dark tense 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

5.0

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cappuccino136's review

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dark emotional reflective tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a study of cycles of abuse and trauma in a creepy psychological thriller. I hesitate to use the word thriller, because this is not fast paced. It starts out with a sci-fi twist on the cheating spouse trope. Evelyn is a research scientist who has developed a cloning process and is perfecting it for practical use (security doubles for politicians, intelligence operations, etc.) Her husband, Nathan, stole her notes and has been having an affair with Martine, a clone of her that he has designed to be the kind of woman he always wanted. The kind of woman Evelyn can never be. Pliant, domestic, kind, with a maternal instinct.

You think you know what to expect. You think you know who you will side with. But as the layers of the characters are revealed, things get much more complicated. This looks closely at domestic abuse, family secrets, generational trauma. It also dissects misogyny and gender roles. We get a close look at the process of creating these clones. They are products for use, neurologically programmed, violently injured to mirror the scars and imperfections of the original, and in the end discarded as waste. The possibility of their status as persons is never a consideration.

This was an unsettling read in the best way. The tone and atmosphere was dark. The ending had a disturbing edge for me. It got under my skin. 

 
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carareadsbooks's review

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

4.5

This book is tense, intelligent and concise. I was riveted by every aspect of it.
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bengines's review

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challenging dark tense 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

4.5

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laurareads87's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

The plot of The Echo Wife follows Evelyn, a scientist engaged in research on the possibilities of human cloning, and Martine, a clone of Evelyn that, as the plot description for the book notes, is having a relationship with Evelyn's (ex-)husband.  The story is told from Evelyn's point of view; as a character, she is brilliantly written but a very uncomfortable mind for the reader to inhabit: she describes her 'subjects,' the living, breathing, sentient human clones she has created, in such cold terms ('medical waste'), refusing to even acknowledge very real ethical complexities involved in cloning that the reader absolutely cannot avoid facing.  At its heart, though, this book is about dehumanization -- the particular kinds of abuse that involve treating another as an instrument with a function rather than a person, that involve breaking another down with the clear intent of making them subservient rather than independent -- and, also, about survival.  This was a very emotional read.
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