The Echo Wife

          

Title: The Echo Wife

Author: Sarah Gailey

Publisher: Tor Books, February 16, 2021

Pages: 254

Genre: Science Fiction

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.

How to begin? Evelyn seems to be on top of the world. Sure she's divorced, but she's winning awards for her research, and that's what's always been most important to her. 

But that divorce? Yea. I am honestly shocked that Evelyn was the one that received the papers. I think rolling up to your husband's second house, and being greeted at the door by your clone would at least be enough fuel to file for divorce. But either way, the Caldwells have been divorced for a year when we meet them. 

And that clone? Martine. She's pregnant, and wants to talk to Evelyn about her medical history. But here's the biggest twist, Evelyn's deadbeat husband stole her work from her to make himself a new wife. With one massive twist... all of Evelyn's clones are sterile. That's one of her moral hangups. That's how she justifies working with fully cloned humans to herself, the government, and her investors. Her husband clearly doesn't have the same, if any, moral hangups. Fidelity obviously wasn't one of them. 

Though that does introduce what I found to be one of the most interesting questions of the book. Is it being unfaithful when you're cheating with a genetically replicated individual? (Obviously yes, for the record.) But for the sake of the devil's advocacy, it was a fun thought experiment. 

Mostly I want a peak into that butt-heads brain. How is cloning the wife you very clearly hate the option you go with? Because you might be mistaken in thinking that him cloning her meant that he was in love with her. So in love with her that when she didn't pay him enough attention he wanted a second Evelyn. But he hated her so much he wanted to make someone who looked like her that he had complete and total power over. Financially. Emotionally. Physically. I mean, in all of the ways. But like, wouldn't it have just been simpler to like cheat on her with a coworker? So he had some BIG HATE to work through.

I don't even actually want to review some of the bigger themes because we get too close to spoiler territory. But this book is very spooky and very good and very worth the read!

Ratings

Stars: 4/5