Author: Sarah Gailey
Publisher: Tor Books
Released: February 16^th, 2021
Received: NetGalley
Warnings: Graphic injuries, trauma, murder, graphic scientific elements

I received a copy of The Echo Wife in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Echo Wife is the latest novel by Sarah Gailey, and it blends mystery with science fiction in such thrilling and alarming ways, all as science and possibility takes the forefront.

Evelyn Caldwell is a driven woman. A driven scientist. She is the driving force being cloning, having forged a way for funding and legalities, while making all the scientific breakthroughs to go with it.

Martine Cardwell, in comparison, is patient, kind, and willing to do anything asked of her. In that sense, she’s not much like Evelyn. Even though they share the same DNA. Exactly the same DNA, as Marine is Evelyn’s clone. One she did not choose to bring into this world.

“It had been vulnerable, where my Neufmann gown was severe. It had been tender, where my Neufmann gown was pitiless.”

I’m going to be honest with you here, I really didn’t know what to expect when I started reading The Echo Wife. I knew that I absolutely had to read it, not just because of the unique combination of genres and elements, but because I’ve loved Sarah Gailey’s writing in the past.

If there’s one thing I can say about The Echo Wife, it’s that it is full of surprises. Evelyn’s story is not a gentle one, nor was it ever intended to be. She’s brilliant and intense, and it shines through in every aspect.

Her intensity and research raises lots of questions, as frequently it all seems to be so focused on the ability, rather than the ethicality of it all. That alone makes this a great novel to read if one is looking for something thought-provoking.

Likewise, I really enjoyed all of the twists surrounding the husband. As the book description gives away, their husband is a cheater. But he’s not a typical cheating husband one finds in the usual thriller novel – there’s so much more going on behind the scenes. More than I ever would have even dreamed about guessing, actually.

That’s actually one of the highlights for The Echo Wife – it does not have a predictable element. None of it is predictable, actually. Sarah Gailey did a brilliant job of creating something new and different, while also raising plenty of concerns at the same time. It addresses the ethics of many different scientific breakthroughs, as well as characters. It’s fascinating, and because of that I’m already finding myself eager to see what Gailey will write next.