Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

59 reviews

jinxiejenna's review

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

This book follows Evelyn, a scientist whose only focus is on human clones. Her ex husband Nathan is also a scientist. We find out he stole Evelyn’s work to create a clone of her, a “better” version of her. Martine, the clone, calls Evelyn in a panic one evening and against her better judgements, she comes to the rescue.

I’d say this was more of a character driven book than I had expected but am glad for. It’s absolutely a science fiction novel, which is something that is somewhat out of the ordinary for me. I prefer fantasy or mysteries but when reading it synopsis at the library I was intrigued. 

I can confirm there was a lot of science in it, almost all of it I didn’t understand but was written in a way that even an uneducated audience like myself could easily work out what was meant. I did take a star off for the sheer amount of science but that’s truly on me and my lack of interest in that subject.

Martine has great character development throughout. Evelyn definitely grows through out the book but not in the leaps and bounds that Martine does. I enjoyed how honest Evelyn does become with herself by the end of their story. 

We find out a lot more about Nathan and his secrets- kept from both Evelyn and Martine. And the two, nearly identical women embark, together, on a solution to the many problems Nathan has created for them.  

My biggest issue with this book was that I personally felt it went no where. I think that is due to the fact that it is character driven rather than a heavy, twisting, plot. I say this while acknowledging that I love an action heavy book over character driven books typically. However, that in mind I didn’t love nor dislike this book what so ever. 

It was a decent read, that I wouldn’t pick up again but don’t regret my time with. 
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maddie_can_read's review against another edition

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

4.5

Really interesting book. Enjoyed the science fiction concepts and themes it explored. Enjoyed that it brought up themes of childhood trauma to explain how the main character became so
rigid, mean, intense etc


However I found the writing slogged a bit when talking about the main characters feelings and I found her main insufferable at points
I knew Evelyn wasn't supposed to be lovable, but oh my god, I could not stand her! At the beginning I was even hoping that Martine was going to kill her and take her place or something lol. Wished we saw Martine's perspective. Enjoyed the ending. Some really good scenes like them dealing with the bodies. Also wished the lab assistant came back.


The audiobook narration wasn't my personal favourite, the narrator sounded like they were about to start sobbing multiple times throughout and it gave it a bit of an odd vibe.
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sjeast17's review against another edition

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

4.5

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rockyc5's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

3.75

Other than that I thought I had better ideas of what to do to solve the problems the characters faced than what they came up with, THIS BOOK IS AWESOME. I think it's fair to say it's totally unique even as books about
clones
multiply. 
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pandact's review against another edition

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

4.25

Nature vs. Nurture by Chase Petra is a cool song that hits the same beats about children, parents, and ethics!
The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week podcast turned out to be the perfect place to recommend this book, for so many reasons. The best way I can describe this story is: parts of Frankenstein and Stepford Wives reanimated with modern concerns.
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elya_moss93's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

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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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heypretty52's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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amcleod's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

The Echo Wife has been my favorite Sarah Gailey book so far, which is saying something. It was my favorite form of fiction, where the emotional arc is deeply entwined with the fantasy or sci Fi elements. It's a story about the ways that abuse both familial and romantic leave deep wounds on the victim that last for the rest of their lives. As with all of Sarah Gailey's books the mechanics of the story are immaculate and the portrait of the main character is painfully human. The past and present are woven together seamlessly with clear threads running between to flesh out a life and the plot is always satisfying and never predictable.
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catandherbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. I didn't hate it, and I didn't love it either... I did really enjoy Evelyn and Martine and their personal development, as well as their interaction with each other
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