Good Reads Challenge Book Review: The Echo Wife
What’s up “fam”..Welcome back to the blog.
“Sometimes, in order to make something develop in the right direction, you have to hurt it.” – Sarah Gailey
Hello friends, and how are you? I hope you’re doing well, getting plenty of rest, staying hydrated, focusing on your mental health, and giving yourself grace.
I’m finally getting back to some semblance of “normal.” I’m reading on a regular schedule and reviewing books on time; Season 3 of the podcast is live, and I’m feeling good. So far, I’ve read six books in my Good Reads Challenge, and that includes 2 ARC titles, so I’m movin’ and groovin’ (damn, I just aged myself 15 years right there). Anywho…today I’m reviewing The Echo Wife, which I was invited to read several years ago before its release but never got around to it, and so it goes.
The Review
Title | The Echo Wife
Author | Sarah Gailey
Format | Audiobook [Libby]
Pages/Hours | 8 hours, 26 minutes
Published | February 2021
Genre | Thriller, Fantasy, Suspense, Genetic Engineering
GR Rating | 3.61
Purchase | Amazon
Excerpt
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.
My Rating (3.78)
The Echo Wife was originally an ARC book that I never got a chance to read. Sometimes, there’s not enough time to sit down and read a book, so I’ll opt for an audiobook to listen to that allows me to get through other tasks.
Science fiction and fantasy are not my bag, but this book has been floating around on my Libby list, and every time I want to check it out, it’s gone, so I figure, well, ok, it’s time, and since it was available, I jumped on it.
The book is [mainly] about an award-winning scientist, Evelyn Caldwell, who paved the way with her groundbreaking research in her field. This is where the story begins because Evelyn is on her way to accepting an award, but you also get a sense of how uncomfortable she is at this event and that her husband is missing.
Quote from The Echo Wife
“The way I see it, you mostly stop loving a person the same way you stop respecting them. It can happen all at once if something enormous and terrible falls over the two of you. But for the most part, it happens in inches.”
Evelyn and her husband, Nathan, are divorced, and it’s pretty clear that he’s with someone else, but everything has a bitter sting from this point. Science fiction, in my opinion, is usually long and daunting because you have to set the environment and create this world to give us backstory and context, which can take some time. This story was no different, as it details Evelyn’s background in her field, her mannerisms with her assistant, and how she treats her colleagues. The book goes back from the past through the present, her childhood and her relationship with her parents, which played a big part in her adult life.
Quote from The Echo Wife
“No one would look at the seams that held me together and guess they were scars.”
In some books, I purposefully will not read the synopsis to form an opinion, and I am pleasantly surprised. You feel the character’s passion for her work, and while she misses Nathan (her husband), she doesn’t mind being alone. But to give us context, the book tells the story of what happens in their marriage and how there are doubts from the beginning.
It’s not overly graphic but clinical in its description of events. When you think of the title Echo Wife, it’s exactly what it means: a close parallel of an idea, a duplicate, a replica, or a reproduction. I thought the book’s premise was interesting and a bit eerie at how replaceable humans can be. Our thoughts and ideas are programmed, downloaded, and fine-tuned to make a better version of ourselves.
Quote from The Echo Wife
“There’s no winning. Either I’m a bitch who needs to control everything, or I’m an easy mark.”.
It’s an 8-hour audiobook; I got through it in three days. It’s engaging, a bit haunting, detail without being too weighed down, and just enough to keep the reader engaged.
Good Read Challenge Progress
What Moves the Dead (read)
Leslie F*cking Jones (read)
The Cousins (read)
September House (read)
The Echo Wife (read)
Her Lost Soul (ARC read)
For my full Good Reads Challenge list ..check out this post.
Thanks so much for visiting the blog today. Don’t forget to follow and subscribe, as I really appreciate the support. — Peace
