The Echo Wife is a solid science fiction novel that will appeal to fans of the genre, which, admittedly, I am largely not. Have you seen the Keanu Reeves movie "Replicas?" That's basically the plot: a clone scientist finds herself using her knowledge for nefarious purposes and gets in over her head. Sarah Gailey has clearly gone to great lengths to investigate the science of cloning and her writing is believable and clever. While the plot is thrilling, I found the characters to be lacking (ironically) any real humanity. I would recommend this book to anyone particularly interested in the topic. However, I don't think it would be enjoyable for your average reader who picks up a science-fiction book once or twice a year.

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey was a quick and absorbing read about relationships, work/life balance, and cloning!
The main character, Evelyn, is a scientist specializing in cloning. She learns that her husband is having an affair with a clone of herself, Martine, that he made using her research. One day Martine calls Evelyn in a panic and asks Evelyn to come over, where Evelyn finds Nathan dead on the kitchen floor.
While I found this book to be interesting (and a bit creepy) and I was invested in finding out how it ended for Evelyn and Martine, I did not find any of the characters to be very likeable.

In my campaign to catch up on my endless stack of ARCs, I've been reading some real gems. I binged this entire book in nearly a day. While Magic for Liars didn't completely work for me, I loved Upright Women Wanted, so I had high hopes for this book and I wasn't disappointed. Evelyn is an incredible character (what can I say, give me a monstrous woman and I'll love her) and the strained connection between her and Martine was so well done. This book is strange and haunting and the sci-fi elements were integrated so naturally that this felt less like a depiction of a futuristic possibility and more of a commonplace occurrence where clones are accessible and natural. Every character in this book had a jarring dark side and no one existed as a purely good person. For me, that's a major win! This is a 4.5 that has the potential to go up to 5, but I think I need to sit with it for a while longer and think on what's holding me back from nudging the rating up.

If you're a lover of morally grey characters and twisted sci-fi monster women, this is the perfect book for you.

This is a story about the girl in the mirror, except she’s across from you drinking coffee and telling you things you don’t want to know... bc science is wild.

I expected to like this, but I did not expect the thread of dark humor woven throughout. I loved it! I can’t speak to the science, but the discussion of ethics? A+! The protagonist was both infuriating and compelling- and the narrative left me wondering what I would’ve done with her brilliant after experiencing betrayal.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫

Thank you so much Netgalley Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this e-Arc!

I kept reading reviews that said it was best to go into this one blind and I’m glad I did!  Sci-fi thrillers are not my usual genre, but I really enjoyed this unique and intriguing premise. I was invested in the story from the start and found myself furiously turning the pages to see what would happen next. Along with the thriller aspect, I appreciated the deeper and more intellectual questions about science, gender, marriage, and friendship that the plot explored. And while I simultaneously rooted for and loathed the female characters, I also felt compassion, understanding, and sympathy for them as well.  All of that speaks to the incredible writing and a wonderfully told story.

The evidence is there, you know your husband is cheating.

You work up the courage to confront his lover, and when you open up the door you're face to face to face with her.

She is you.

Evelyn Caldwell is an award-winning scientist specializing in the Caldwell Method, a cloning technology. So when she's face to face with a clone of herself, that her husband created to replace her, she's shocked.

Martine is everything Evelyn isn't: docile, domestic, ready to dote on Nathan's every need. When he leaves her to be marry her clone she knows this is a secret she needs to keep close.

So when a pregnant Martine calls Evelyn to help hide Nathan's dead body, Evelyn knows she has to help, because all of the evidence will come back to her. No one else knows that Martine exists.

With a bit of a lull in the middle, this scifi thriller has many twists and turns. It brings up some interesting ethical topics, and addresses the expectations we bring upon our domestic partners.

If you could create a "perfect" version of them, would you?

You are happily married...until you aren't...isn't that the way it always goes? Your husband thinks you are "almost" perfect, but there is just something missing...so he decides to take care of that...by cloning you.. Yes you heard me correctly....

So of course when the cheater ends up dead.. yep dead.. well Evelyn and her clone need to fix this mess he got them all in...and that is when the cray begins.. Oh you thought the cray already happened? No you just wait...more to come..

Wow! This was one wild ride and I loved it. This book was so unique, so intriguing that I found myself thinking about it all the time. At work, in the car, while making dinner...hell I think I dreamed about it. Anyways, you get the point. I couldn't wait to pick this book back up.

I highly suggest going into this as blind as you can. I guess technically this is classified as sci-fi but I really think everyone will enjoy it. It somehow doesn't seem as "out there" as it sounds. Highly entertaining and very clever. This was my first book by this author and I loved her writing style!

Evelyn is a gifted researcher, award winning. She makes clones, or specimens, as she calls them; not people, but tools, to serve a purpose and then be discarded. Her career is going well; her marriage, to another, lesser, scientist, Nathan, not so much. Nathan wants a traditional wife, who will give him a baby. Evelyn isn’t willing to do that.

So Nathan steals her research and he makes another Evelyn. This one is called Martine. And, against all evidence, she gets pregnant.

And then things go terribly terribly wrong.

For instance: Martine is developing her own agenda. And Nathan is hiding a secret or two in the garden.

Echo Wife is a truly original take on the cheating spouse storyline, I’ll give it that! And there are some great plot twists that I really didn’t see coming. But oddly, from an emotional standpoint, it left me a little cold. The husband character, Nathan, is underdeveloped, as is the other male character in the book, Evelyn’s research assistant Syed. It’s a very sparsely populated book in general: Evelyn and Martine, Nathan and Syed, and some flashbacks to Evelyn’s parents in childhood. No other characters. Perhaps because they are all scientists with underdeveloped inner lives, none of them except possibly Martine really seem to have much life or warmth to them. It’s an oddly cold book, and I had a hard time investing in the characters.

But it gets extra credit for a new take on a very old story.

This science fiction thriller caught my eye as soon as I read the title. And oh. My. Gosh. The Echo Wife was everything I hoped it would be and more. Going in, I was worried that the synopsis has spoiled too much of the book. But it really didn’t at all. That being said, I’d recommend going into this one as spoiler free as possible because the pay-offs for each mystery/suspenseful situation are so worth it.

Both Evelyn and Martine are such fantastic, well-written characters. Their interactions and the dynamic between them were my favorite aspects of the book. Evelyn was my favorite though, I always love a brilliant female scientist.

Plus, if you liked Gattaca (am I dating myself with this reference...?), you’ll love the exploration of clone ethics and the morality surrounding clones here. Gailey did such an amazing job with this, particularly during certain parts of the plot.

Overall, The Echo Wife is an amazing science fiction thriller that I would recommend to fans of either science fiction or thrillers! Also, this is one of those rare books where, as you’re turning everything over in your mind afterward, it gets even better.

*Disclaimer: I received a digital advance copy of this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book was so freaky in the best possible way. I would call it science fiction with a twist of domestic thriller and I loved it. Sci-Fi is not usually my bag but this was right up my alley. The writing really sucked me in and I read it in a couple of sittings. I loved the moral delimas the character went through and the different themes throughout the book, it is a real thinker in the that aspect.

Sarah Gailey has crafted a fantastic book with great characters and a story that keeps you guessing from start to finish. I hate comparing author's work BUT I am new to the sci-fi genre and have recently enjoyed a few books by John Marrs so if you like him I think you'll enjoy this. I would have rated it five stars but I got a little bogged down with all the scientific vocabulary.

The Echo Wife is well-written, sophisticated, and wholly unique. Though I wouldn't describe it as pure science fiction, the concept of clones is central to the story, and there's definitely some hard science in here. Not that you need to understand it, rather the technicality added another level of believability and reality to the story.

Throughout the story, I found myself being pulled toward both Evelyn and Martine. Evelyn's family, her past, her personality, and her relationship toward others is so well-developed. Martine is a much more sympathetic character, though there are definitely some ethical/interesting questions raised in terms of her "non-human" status.

Giving this 4 stars rather than 5 as I did think the ending could have been more exciting. I liked it, and I was satisfied by it, but I missed the shock factor of previous aspects of the book. Overall, would definitely recommend!

Sarah Gailey is exceptional! I will read anything that they write! This book was unique and completely absorbing. Weird but also appealing to a wide audience. Loved it!

I was not expecting the direction this book took and I really liked it! I've read so many books where the husband gets a mistress and then tries to kill his wife. Or books where the husband has an entire other family, but I was not expecting a clone.

I liked the characters and the moral dilemmas. I also enjoyed how this book ended. I would read more books by this author!

After reading a string of really good reads, I've been skeptical when my next book will ruin the streak. Not this one! It was a hard read at times, given that my baseline assumption is that clones are people, too (twins by another name), and the POV character is a clone researcher who treats her human specimens as... specimens, with no personhood or rights.

And yet, the book was gripping and twisty and almost appallingly horrifying to the point of humor at points. And raised so many many questions about what makes someone a monster and and what makes someone a person and how our identities are formed and how relationships and families are formed.

At the end of the day I still can’t decide if Martine is Evelyn’s twin, daughter, tool, subject, assistant, sister, or partner. But this was an amazing read and I think I’ll be thinking about it for a while

Evelyn is a revolutionary scientist who has led the way with advancements in human cloning. When her husband, Nathan, leaves her in the middle of her career launch, she refocuses on her work and chooses to overcome the fact that he was having an affair. Nathan’s girlfriend calls her in a panic and Evelyn feels an overwhelming urge to help. When she arrives at her ex-husband’s new home, she discovers what a mess Nathan has truly made. She is stuck cleaning it up or faces the risk of losing everything she has worked to build.

The strong point in this novel was the introspective character development. Evelyn is our narrator and she weaves a tale of her background and its impacts on her life as we learn about her relationships with her parents, her lab assistant and Nathan. The human cloning was a very interesting topic that gets explored through the complicated lens of ethics and humanity. There was a lot of science jargon which I found a bit difficult with the slower pace of the novel at times. This book markets like a thriller but it was really more of a contemporary fiction with a sci-fi twist. I just really couldn’t get over some of the plot holes like the length of the timelines for Evelyn and Martin’s solutions. This one needed more action to really be a hit for me.

DANG, what a book. I love Sarah Gailey's truly feminist treatment of science fiction. This book is fun, fast-paced, and a really interesting blend of sci-fi & psychological./domestic fiction. A book about cloning would set up some predictable questions about the ethics of experimental science, but Gailey takes it further and makes it more engaging and relevant.

This really got into my head! I'm not normally a huge science fiction fan but this one sucked me right in. I wish it was longer because I wanted to stay inside this world!

Imagine you're a brilliant scientist who makes breakthroughs in human cloning... only to find out your husband is cheating on you with a clone of yourself! This is what happens to Evelyn Caldwell. The husband ends up dead and we follow along what the two Mrs. Caldwells do after the fact.

This book was so different than anything I have ever read! It was so original and so scientific, while it also makes you contemplate the human condition. It was excellently written and I was left reflecting; if we were able to clone humans, what is it that makes the clone human, or not? I can see why it is such a ethically questionable area of science. Sci-fi is literally my least favourite genre, so the scientific parts I found a bit underwhelming, but I gave it a chance because of the thriller aspect, and boy, am I glad I did! I think if I enjoyed sci-fi, this probably would have been a 5-star read.

Thank you to Tor Books & NetGalley for the eGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

Sarah Gailey has proven to be capable of writing from diverse and interesting points of view. I was intrigued by the premise of this book and eager to see if it took a strange turn ala "The Prestige" with the cloning storyline. The book wasn't without flaws and lagged during long stretches that took place setting things up in labs. Overall it was an enjoyable and unique read that I would recommend to anyone looking for an "out of the box" mystery. Not quite hard enough science for me though.

I just finished The Echo Wife and my mind is spinning! This science fiction mystery thriller was fascinating and compelling. It’s a quick read that would easily translate to a tv series or movie and I would watch it in a heartbeat. I don’t read a ton of sci-fi but I absolutely loved this book and knew I had to read it after reading an excerpt on BookishFirst.

Evelyn isn’t necessarily a likable character but she is FASCINATING. She is obsessed with her work on cloning and has built a successful career, yet she’s cold and distant. She’s everything Martine isn’t. Martine is sweet and submissive and focused on building a family with Nathan. She’s almost the perfect woman for Nathan. Almost.

These two characters were complex and unique. I really enjoyed their interactions and seeing Martine’s growth and change. There are twists and turns in this story that kept me flipping the pages. The Echo Wife delves into so many interesting topics and there is just so much to discuss and dissect. You will find yourself debating various ethical scenarios in your head. Where do you draw the line in science and medical experimentation? How far is too far?

This is a must read for 2021. Science fiction fans will love it but I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a book that keeps you hooked and makes you think while being entertaining. I haven’t read anything by Sarah Gailey before but I am a fan now.