The Echo Wife

By: Sarah Gailey

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Sarah Gailey's The Echo Wife is “a trippy domestic thriller which takes the extramarital affair trope in some intriguingly weird new directions.”--Entertainment Weekly

I’m embarrassed, still, by how long it took me to notice. Everything was right there in the open, right there in front of me, but it still took me so long to see the person I had married.

It took me so long to hate him.

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

Sci-Fi psychological Thriller

This story is set in the not-too-distant future when science is wrestling with the realities of cloning. An exciting ride filled with unpredictable plot twists that examine many uncomfortable conflicts of what makes us human. The science is good, and it was tough to put down!

Loved it.

The reviews on this were pretty wishy washy so I expected not to really like this book. I was pleasantly surprised. The subject matter is about clones but the dialogue that ends up being opened about interpersonal relationships and what makes a person a person was insidious and haunting and I'm still thinking about it 3 days later. Glad I read it!

Couldn't even finish!

I have not read a book in forever that I could not finish. Until thus one...The plot was like nails on a chalkboard...the narrator's voice and inflection was annoying to say the least.

Human cloning. 'nuff said

The Echo Wife by Sally Gailey is a near future tale of human cloning. The main character is a scientist who has been instrumental in advancing human cloning through mental imprinting such that a fully adult human clone can be produced in a matter of months. What she finds is that her husband has produced a clone of her, divorces her and shacks up with the clone. The clone then kills the husband and the two of them conspire to hide the fact by cloning him. At this point, all sorts of 'buried' secrets emerge that end up being reconciled in a made for TV plot resolution.

Gailey takes the hard sci-fi approach for a story that more of slapstick comedy feel with a dark side. The main problem is that the tale does not hold itself together. It's never clear exactly who the cloner works for, an academic institution or a private company. Cloning seems societally acceptable, but there isn't any explanation of how the ethics of cloning was resolved. If the average person can't identify a clone, where is the oversight of cloning to prevent abuse of that type that unfolds? Given that it seems easy enough for people to do (with the right equipment and funding), there should be plenty of illegal and illicit cloning activities going on. At the same time, clones appear able to fly under the radar and avoid detection even though there's no documentation for their existence. Lastly, the clone who murdered the husband seems to be able to put off everyone who knows and works with him for months while his clone is produced. How does he keep his job and continue to get paid? Other than the suggestion of body doubles for politicians and organ harvesting, there is little discussion of the myriad applications people are likely to envision.

The narration is reasonable with decent character distinction and brisk pacing.

A really interesting story!

I was not sure about the narration at first but I was so interested to hear what happened next I quickly got over it. I would definitely buy it again!