For a sci-fi thriller about cloning, I guess I should have anticipated the need to suspend all disbelief. While relatively fast-paced and with an interesting enough premise, <u>The Echo Wife</u> suffers from a plot absolutely riddled with holes... (See Goodreads review for spoilers).

The Echo Wife is the second book I’ve read by Sarah Gailey. Like Magic for Liars, the premise starts out interesting, but the story feels like it is missing something. The idea of clones in a domestic setting is intriguing, and there were some funny moments.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy.

This book is one I couldn’t put down. Sarah Gailey is a powerhouse, and an author I will continue to recommend to my patrons!

THE ECHO WIFE was absolutely brilliant! Such a fun play on the Bluebeard tale. I loved and devoured this book!

Thank you to the publisher for a free netgalley. I am truly unsure why I put this one off. I struggled with the print version, but finally scooped up the audio. That was a game changer. I listened to the book in one day.

I enjoyed this premise a lot and every time I thought we were on the downhill, another twist would happen. Highly enjoyed this one. Definitely recommend for those who want more of a sci-fi thriller.

Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be.

And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband.

Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up.

Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.

This was a solid thriller. I'll definitely be back for more of Gailey's stories.

Overall this book wasn’t one I found engaging but I do think some others might like it. I’ll say it’s around three stars.

Sarah Gailey continues to impress and enrapture with their premises that dig their claws into you and just keep tearing. I always think I've signed up for some big, high-concept thing, but as soon as it's been set up, the rug is swiped from under me and I realize that, once again, I'm being confronted with a very personal interrogation of humanity and self.

The Echo Wife in particular delves in to what it means to be human, and the answers aren't comfortable, and also aren't quite answers.

And while the core of the book is in the personal and intellectual, that doesn't mean that the hooky premises don't deliver! I found myself gasping aloud on the bus at yet another twist, another reveal. I loved this one. Can't wait for the next Gailey, as always.

I received a digital advance copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really love the idea of this book. Imagine creating a clone that looks like you but has a completely different personality. Then finding out your husband is cheating on you with that clone. Then finding the husband dead. The whole concept was great but the book was not that exciting. There were plot holes and the books was not as fast paced as I was expecting. Overall it was an interesting read.

Holy cow this was so good! I was riveted the entire time. Like "Westworld" meets "The Need." The changes the reader goes through with their perceptions of the different characters was amazing.

Every book is a surprise from Sarah Gailey--you never know what subgenre they'll write next! This domestic thriller/cloning experiment gone wrong is a fun character study as we watch a scientist learn more about herself when she's able to watch from the outside.

This book followed Dr. Evelyn Caldwell, told in the first person point of view, as she got dressed up in a fancy gown to celebrate herself and her legacy. She won a prestigious award for her cloning work. However, she was not in a celebratory mood because of her husband's extracurricular activities.

Her husband Nathan, who worked with her before he changed career, utilized her research to create a clone version of Evelyn named Martine and cheated on Evelyn with the clone. The clone was made to do everything Evelyn doesn't, including wanting to be a mother. One day, after an argument, Nathan ended up gotten stabbed. Evelyn couldn't let the police know because the secrets will unravel and her legacy would be ruined. The story was told in the present with many memories of the past.

The Echo Wife was an interesting read, part science fiction that dealt with cloning and part mystery thriller that dealt with Evelyn's childhood and her parents. I liked seeing how information were planted into someone. It's a neat trick.

I liked how the ending came together. I'm glad there's a solution for everyone. A workaholic like Evelyn, I guess I can understand why she doesn't want to bother herself with another man. I do recommend everyone to read this book and I'm looking forward to reading different opinions.

TLDR: This was my first Sarah Gailey book, but will definitely not be my last. I thought the writing was fantastic - Gailey has a great grasp of the craft and storytelling in general. The story never gave anything away before it needed to and always when you wanted a bit more information. I highly recommend this if you're looking for a look at ethical cloning!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I thouroughly enjoyed this book. I've had mixed experiences with this author in the past but this is my favorite read from them yet!

This book took an impossible situation and kept diving down a series of rabbit holes lined with heavy emotion and motivation. I recommend this book for the thought experiment alone.

The Echo Wife is a really tight, focused blend of science fiction and domestic thriller. Gailey keeps the narrative close to Evelyn and Martine, never straying much further afield - we don't get to know many other characters and only get glimpses of the world outside of Evelyn's work and the events that unfold over the course of the book. I also appreciated that The Echo Wife is primarily focused on experiences of womanhood and an almost haunting sense of unsettledness within spaces, especially domestic.

I wasn’t quite prepared for the journey when I picked up The Echo Wife. It goes some pretty dark places, musing about the way people shape each other, the fingerprints we leave on each other — both metaphorically and for some people physically — and the way we re-enact our own traumas and fall into terrible patterns. Even the acknowledgements at the end are a hell of a thing: raw, truly thankful, but in some cases in a twisted way that hurts. Gailey has put a lot of pain into this book, and that could make it a really difficult read.

For me, though, it got its hooks into me and wouldn’t let go. I read it in two sittings — a whole 150 pages or maybe even more while my wife was on the phone with my parents-in-law. Okay, it must’ve been a long call, but wow.

I don’t want to say too much about the story, but it is not the kind of story where you necessarily end up liking the characters — all that matters is that you really get to understand the characters, the things that shaped them and the way they in turn shape their world. It’s a hell of a ride.

So, I read this book almost a year ago, not sure why I never got around to reviewing it. I started it recently thinking I hadn't read it and it all come back to me within the first little bit.

This is one of those books that has that "oh shit" factor later in the story when things start coming together, and that's what saves this story. This story was just ok for me. I didn't enjoy Evelyn's character at all and the majority of this story is about her and it's written through her eyes.

I felt really bad for Martine though. Nothing was within her control for much of her life, until she takes matters into her own hands. Her story was so sad and I wanted to be the shoulder to lean on that she needed and never really had.

It was a bizarre story with lots of potential that just kind of fell flat. It is not a long story and I think it could have been made a little better if it had been expanded a bit to include more of the husband's and Martine's views and not revolving mostly around Evelyn. There is more I'd like to say here, but I don't want to spoil anything for those wanting to read this one.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Netgalley for a copy of this title in exchange for an honest reaview.

**5/5 Stars**

Sarah Gailey's The Echo Wife was a surprise of a read. A far-fetched, unusual premise (I'll get to it in a minute), but yet engaging story about two women who forge a bond amid despair.

Evelyn is a pioneer in the world of biotechnology and genomics. The scientific world has recognized her brilliance with accolades and honors, but the true depth of her intelligence cannot be shared with anyone. It is a dark secret shared between Evelyn, her now ex-husband, Nathan, and her lab assistant.

That dark secret is Evelyn's discovery that she can replicate and clone people. Evelyn has been conducting research in her lab that violates a number of ethical codes, including creating humans and then disposing of them when they are "defective" in some way, or die in the process of her risky cloning experiments. If the scientific world knew what Evelyn was doing behind closed doors in her lab, she would lose all credibility and likely her career would be in ruins.

One day Evelyn receives a frantic call from a voice that sounds oddly like herself. Her husband has been killed by none other than a clone he made of Evelyn using Evelyn's data. The clone, named Martine, killed Nathan in defense.

Evelyn, as a scientist, is curious about Evelyn, so she agrees to help her dispose of Nathan's body. Both women are angry with Nathan for different reasons, but nonetheless decide to clone him to cover up their crime.

What I liked about this book was that it explores the nature vs. nurture debate. Evelyn, who decided against having children to pursue her career, witnesses what it would have been like if she had taken a different route in life through Martine, who is pregnant by Nathan. The women forge an unexpected bond despite obvious tensions underneath the surface of their relationship - namely that Nathan picked Martine so he could "raise" her to be the wife and mother Evelyn was not.

There are a lot of themes in this book that go beyond the sci-fi story of the ethical and moral implications of cloning. The long-term impacts of abuse. The patriarchy and misogyny in the world of academia and science. The loneliness that comes with being a female scientist in a world pitted against you.

Thank you to the author, Sarah Gailey, the publisher, Tor Books, and NetGalley for an advanced review copy of The Echo Wife.

I finally finished this book- it took me quite a while to get into it probably because I was expecting (hoping for?) horror but this is really a drama with a splash of sci-fi.
I like the author's writing style and was looking forward to reading more from them (I LOVED the American Hippo series) and while good, this was not what I expected.

Sarah Gailey: Unsettling Stories in Imaginative Settings

I first came to Sarah Gailey's work when I read their debut novel, River of Teeth (St. Martin's, $15.99). The premise seems far-fetched at first: the story is set during an alternate American Civil War; the government bred hippos in the marshlands of Louisiana, failing to account for their brutality and resulting in bayous overrun with feral hippos by the late 19th century. (This was an actual plan presented to Congress as a possible solution to food shortages during the Civil War, though it was never implemented.) The novella reads something like an old western, with Winslow Houndstooth and a ragtag crew of assistants contracted to take back the hippo-run bayou. In Upright Women Wanted (Tordotcom, $20.99), Gailey once again proves an ability to pack a slim tale with outsized action and adventure, this time in an imagined future America in which Librarians run state-sanctioned materials between territories--and smuggle a few contraband items along the way.

Gailey's genre-defying imagination once again shines in Magic for Liars (Tor, $17.99). It reads like a fast-paced whodunit combined with all-too-familiar high school drama. Except this high school is for magical teenagers, and the down-on-her-luck private investigator sent to look into a murder on campus is decidedly not magic. In their latest novel, The Echo Wife (Tor, $24.99), Gailey once again straddles genres in a story of a woman who discovers her husband has been having an affair--with her clone. A little bit sci-fi, a little bit domestic thriller, the novel poses questions about responsibility and creation: not only when cloning but also when crafting a life, for ourselves and for others. Shelf Awareness's reviewer called it "unsettling"--a quality that could be applied to any of Gailey's imaginative works of fiction, and not a bad thing in the least. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm