The Echo Wife

Holy hell, this book does double duty. not only are the bioethical questions explored unflinchingly, but so are the questions of personal identity unrelated to them. This book opens up a good conversation about childhood trauma and spousal abuse too, reader discretion advised but those are also important discussions for society to engage with. The prose is pretty brilliant and the way the author expresses her characters internal anxiety is one of the best ive ever read. 9.5/10, losing the 0.5 solely because there are giants like dune and foundation out there that do similar things for different philosophical topics but have a wider breadth of topics intelligently covered. In other words, some of the best scifi ive ever read, but i aaaalllmooost want to say it was too short (except it wasnt, the pacing was pretty great too and it felt like it ended right where it should have). I'll just have to read more of the author's work. Dont skip the acknowledgements when youve finished the book

A modern Frankenstein domestic thriller! Loved the concept. I liked the imperfect main character, a brilliant scientist who's mastered cloning, but also struggles after her divorce - and now being confronted with her own clone, which her ex husband replaced her with. While I'm not surprised by most of what happens, I was still intrigued to read more, and I finished it in 24 hours. The ending surprised me, I felt it was a bit too neat and tidy maybe, and I also expected to delve even deeper into Evelyn's childhood, as we get so many flashbacks to it throughout the story. But overall a great quick thriller! 4,5 stars.

The Echo Wife is set in the near future when the science of human cloning has advanced, and the laws surrounding it have changed. Evelyn Caldwell is a brilliant, driven, award-winning scientist who has pioneered advancements in human cloning. She knows what she wants and is clear about it. Evelyn's ex-husband Nathan has used her techniques to make a more docile, agreeable version of her called Martine. The story starts with Nathan's murder. I won't describe the plot more so as to avoid spoilers. The science in this book is absolutely fascinating and the story is well-written, riveting and compelling. I was unable to put it down. The characters are morally grey at the very least and the story raises many ethical issues regarding human cloning. Evelyn's character is well-developed and she grows throughout the story as she learns to become more empathetic. The Echo wife is clever, dark, unsettling and calibrated for maximum squirm. I loved it.