The Echo Wife is quite an ambitious, thought-provoking and thrilling study of human psyche that explores themes of humanity, family, love and the moral aspect of human cloning.

There’s so much to love here. The complexity of the plot was amazing and I was fascinated by the idea of lab-grown clones. The thriller aspect of the story was executed flawlessly, with some really bone chilling and unsettling twists. And the punchy ending was the perfect cherry topping.

This is a book that invites you to ponder humanity and consider what molds us into the people we are. It’s a story dark in tone but not entirely bleak, nor hopeless.

Sarah Gailey really is a genre unto themself. The book was engaging, the moral quandaries downright dirty, and the domestic horror kept me coming back for more and more. In a book where a woman is cloned in order to make a more amenable version of herself, I was surprised at the level of frustration and sympathy I felt for the clone - something I can't recall feeling in other books with similar plots. The ending was a little anticlimactic for my taste, especially with all the hard questions that were asked in the lead up, but this is still going to be a read that I return to.

This disturbing SF/domestic thriller crossover is a great bridge books for readers who are looking to dip their toes in different genres! I booktalked it for a program at the library where I work.

This was not at all what I expected and I ended up loving it. The characters were great and the story was engaging. So much so, that I finished it in a day. Will definitely recommend.

I'm a fan of both Sci-Fi and Thrillers so this book should've been a perfect read for me. I typically get really into all books and movies about cloning and the ethics behind it, but while the premise was great, the execution....not so much.

While Sarah Gailey's writing is beautiful, the story itself felt severely lacking to me. I felt it had too many plot holes and was too slow for my taste.

I feel this would be a good fit for those who don't overanalyze like I have a tendency to do, and for those who enjoy a slower paced read.

Thank you NetGalley for my digital copy and to TOR for both my digital and physical reader's copy's.

I found The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey to be a fun and exciting read. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it from the description but I did! This book really kept me guessing and I had no idea what would happen next.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a dark as hell, morally blank and captivating book.

Evelyn Caldwell is a scientist and her field of expertise is genetic cloning. She's successful and brilliant but now her husband is having an affair with a clone that was derived from her research.

When he dies, the Evelyn and the clone Martine are left to clean up the mess, literally and figuratively.

I loved this book it was chilling and dark, near-future dystopian speculative, and somehow timeless. High recommend.

I used this review copy to inform my interview with Sarah Gailey on the Fantasy Inn podcast: https://thefantasyinn.com/2021/02/23/e73-sarah-gailey-interview/

I am a huge fan of Sarah Gailey's work and this is easily one of my favorites of theirs. I think the concept of cloning in science fiction has been done so many times it's hard to find a fresh perspective on it, but the cloning takes a backseat to razor sharp social and personal commentary. It's a story that ends up being more about strong women, weak men and what marriage brings out in the people involved. I was also in the middle of reading this when I watched Swan Song (starring Mahershala Ali and Naomi Campbell) and that made an interesting companion piece to this journey.

Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She is patient, and gentle which makes her a good person.

Martine is also having an affair with Evelyn’s husband! Nathan feels neglected by Evelyn because she lives in her lab working all the time. Evelyn’s husband, Nathan, is killed. Well good riddance, who cheats on his wife with her clone?! And Martine is pregnant, what we’ll how?! Crazy!

This was a slow start but it becomes a crazy thrill ride, you don’t want to mess with Evelyn or her clone! Martine and Evelyn work together to dispose of Nathan’s body and then to clone him. Crazy!

It is a page turner with a few twists to keep you guessing. The genre would be science fiction and thriller - domestic suspense.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2022 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2022/01/readers-advisory-announce-2022-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Evelyn Caldwell is an award-winning scientist and in the top of her field of genetics and cloning. It is with this great skill set, that her own husband Nathan, was able to create a replica of her. However the clone, he named Martine, was genetically programmed to be a softer, more docile version of Evelyn.
After leaving Evelyn and starting a new life with Martine, Evelyn is tasked with trying to move on from this betrayal. She works to keep her distance from Nathan and his clone wife for fear of getting wrapped up in Nathan’s ethical misconduct; clones are meant for scientific research only. She manages to start taking those steps towards a new life, that is until Martine calls Evelyn because she needs help with Nathan’s dead body…

I am really bummed to say that I really didn’t enjoy this book much at all. The whole premise of the book sounded amazing, but I feel like either the synopsis gave too much up, or the most interesting parts of the book were sped through.
We discover that Martine has killed Nathan and has asked Evelyn for her help within the first 10-20% of the book. Now for me that would have been okay, had there been some more twists or reveals throughout the book, but there really wasn’t anything else to spice up the book after that.
The majority of this book felt like non-stop internal dialogue of Evelyn thinking about how much she hated Nathan and how she was superior to him in so many ways.
The one aspect of this book that I did enjoy were the parts where Evelyn was in her lab and we followed her in her daily work. As a woman who herself works in a medical laboratory, I found these bits the most interesting and it felt like the author was either already knowledgeable in genetic science or did great research for this book.

This was super fun and creepy! My only qualm was how unmoored in reality the science is. Given that this is science-fiction, I understand that some liberties may be taken; however, the rules of the world did not seem to agree with the scientific aspects of this novel. I also felt that there was a missed opportunity in this novel to explore the ethical dilemma that pops up when dealing with cloning. I was looking forward to diving into that, especially given the premise, and was disappointed when we did not.

This book had potential, but it didn't seem to go anywhere. It's sci-fi, dealing with clones, which is a cool concept. Evelyn is a scientist working with clones. As is her husband. Well, her ex-husband. But then her husband decides to make a clone of Evelyn, eliminating traits that he doesn't like, and he leaves her for this clone, Martine.

The clone seeks out the original and it doesn't go well. And then there are more problems. As in a baby and a dead husband.

I think this book is trying to make you wonder about the ethics of clones and what they should and shouldn't be able to do as well as how to handle them. However, it doesn't quite get there. Rather, Evelyn is not a likeable character and while her upbringing was less than ideal, she is very straightforward about her research and how she handles things. She lacks compassion toward anyone.

There are some plot holes, as to be expected with a sci-fi book. It doesn't get too much in the woods with the science part, which is good, but it just didn't have much of a storyline to keep my attention.

Marriage is hard work and this book proves how much by having the good ole hubs clone his wife. Because why not have your ideal woman? I liked the premise of this book because sci-fi movies are my absolute fave and I have been watching shows like Orphan Black lately. I just didn't fall into this one. I felt like the story just didnt reach it's full potential. Wasn't bad though

I can't stop thinking about this book. It's contemporary-feeling, realistic, sci-fi, but almost dystopian thriller. Gailey does some brilliant work telling this story of a scientist who created adult cloning technology, and whose ex husband is now having an affair with one of her clones. Things go wrong quickly, so it has some thriller elements. I thought it did a fantastic job on providing commentary on the dichotomy/struggle of "having it all" as a woman (career and family life). It also comments heavily on abusive grooming, so trigger warning for that (read Gailey's acknowledgments for more). This was a sharp, tight book and it keeps echoing through my brain days after finishing it.
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Initial reaction: So I liked "The Echo Wife" and thought it was a well told story for the kind of story it presents. I will say though that I wasn't in love with it as much I thought I would be. Part of it may be the emotional distance of the narrator (there's a good reason for it, though), and another part may be that I expected some emotional upheavals that never arrived. 3.5 star read overall for now, may adjust as I think about it.

Full review:

"The Echo Wife" is one of those sci-fi thrillers that aren't outright scary, but there's a definite sense of foreboding permeating throughout the novel. I felt how heavy and twisted this story was, found myself taken by the overarching journey as a whole. I could count the number of times on both hands where certain turns in the narration and plot made me go "Oh. OH! Oh, doggone, I wasn't expecting that. That's messed up."

The way it explores themes of personal identity, individuality and sisterhood is worth noting in particular, albeit with caveats. For the record, I like stories like this where you have a central protagonist who has a multitude of secrets that are gradually peeled back by layers, going deeper and darker with each one uncovered. On the surface of it all - you have Evelyn Caldwell, a brilliant scientist finally getting due recognition for her work as a clone researcher. She's deeply immersed in her career, has no plans for having children and really would rather spend her time deep diving more into her research than being the wife that her husband and lab partner Nathan would rather have. The latter aspect ultimately lead to the fall of their marriage, but that isn't the only thing.

It's noted that the research she was doing with her now ex-husband Nathan produced a clone named Martine. The problem with Martine is that she was created - by Nathan - to be everything Evelyn wasn't - subsequently replacing her for a more subservient version of Evelyn that he could use for his own whims. Further, Nathan had cheated on Evelyn with Martine during their marriage. But even with that part of the story noted in the blurb, Evelyn realizes that Martine's existence and relationship with her former husband are far from being the only problem that she has to contend with. The deeper the conflict goes, the more it threatens to unravel everything Evelyn's ever worked for and then some. She's desperate to keep those secrets hidden and will do anything for them to stay that way. And when I say anything...that goes in quite a number of twisted directions.

I knew going into this book that the connection between Evelyn, Martine, and Nathan were far from being the only source of conflict, but those parts of it were so well done. Evelyn navigates her history with Nathan in a brutally honest way that puts their triumphs and flaws on full display, ultimately marching towards what happens when Martine enters the picture and how Evelyn discovers the truth of the affair on her own terms. It's when Martine unexpectedly - and desperately - decides to show up in Evelyn's life with some stunning revelations that things further to an even darker turn. I wasn't sure how far it would go, but it just kept digging and digging, making it more urgent for Evelyn to cover the truths unearthed up.

Evelyn's narrative voice has a dark, bitter, sometimes intense and sometimes emotionally distant undercurrent. Much of this was understandable in following the contentions with her ex-husband and Martine's revealed identity. With Evelyn's interactions with Martine, it was also understandable that she was essentially collaborating with the other woman - who was in fact large parts of herself unveiled in another light. That made "The Echo Wife" a number of levels of WTFery that I found fascinating to watch unfold. However, I'd admit that this distance in narration provided a double-edged sword. She's cold and calculating, so it's no surprise that she would act in some of the ways she does with her desperation to keep things hidden, but there are certain revelations that she lacks an emotional response to that are hard and heavy in themselves. I didn't understand why she'd treat some revelations as afterthoughts compared to others.

Certain lulls in the overarching progression of plot also kept me from enjoying this book more, but I at least appreciated the exploration of the research, dedication to the execution of how Evelyn and Martine would cover things up and the subsequent falling out of those efforts. If nothing else, I think "The Echo Wife" can be enjoyed for what it offers - a slow-burn thriller with a sci-fi twist and an unlikely partnership. It's my first read from Sarah Gailey and I'll gladly pick up more of the author's work in the future.

Overall score: 3.5/5 stars.

Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley from the publisher, but I also purchased an audiobook copy for my personal library.

I have enjoyed Mx Gailey's other titles and this one did not disappoint. A bit more science fiction than I normally would read, but it kept my interest.

Hmm. This book was not at all what I was expecting. I enjoyed the scientific elements, but the thriller elements fell flat. I was not as invested or as intrigued as I was hoping to be. I did enjoy the writing style, and will likely give her another go.

This was a very interesting topic for a novel. I enjoyed the story, but feel it was a little lacking in thrill. Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced reader digital copy of this book.