Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

34 reviews

clairebau's review against another edition

dark hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I think this may be the perfect book. Just the right amount of speculative/sci-fi stuff for me to go absolutely feral over it, incredibly written characters, emotional plot points. Also, everything in this book just... made sense. Character motivations were logical and well-rounded. Both Evelyn's exposition and the book's symbolism were perfectly, gorgeously done. The twists and reveals were picture-perfect. I love this book. I love Evelyn and Martine. I love to hate Nathan. God, I loved this book.

Jurassic Park with humans, pretty much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

maddie_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Really interesting book. Enjoyed the science fiction concepts and themes it explored. Enjoyed that it brought up themes of childhood trauma to explain how the main character became so

rigid, mean, intense etc

However I found the writing slogged a bit when talking about the main characters feelings and I found her main insufferable at points

I knew Evelyn wasn't supposed to be lovable, but oh my god, I could not stand her! At the beginning I was even hoping that Martine was going to kill her and take her place or something lol. Wished we saw Martine's perspective. Enjoyed the ending. Some really good scenes like them dealing with the bodies. Also wished the lab assistant came back.

The audiobook narration wasn't my personal favourite, the narrator sounded like they were about to start sobbing multiple times throughout and it gave it a bit of an odd vibe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

sjeast17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Infertility, Vomit, Car accident, Abortion, and Alcohol

sn03's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy and Gaslighting

Moderate: Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abortion

elya_moss93's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Abortion, and Death of parent

Minor: Emotional abuse and Misogyny

angelie_jelly's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

puffinthedog's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Speaking as someone who is still unlearning the things I was taught throughout childhood and multiple abusive relationships- The Echo Wife was a heartbreaking novel of how childhood abuse and interpersonal violence strip people of their will and leaves them unsure who is making the choices for them, even in their own heads. If you don’t have a history of psychological abuse, perhaps it can be read as a book questioning the ethics of cloning, and with that framework I can’t tell you how good a story this is if that’s what you’re looking for. I have no idea how plausible the science is that backs the plot. But as someone who identified with Martine this story made me see things in myself that I knew were there and made me look directly at them in broad daylight in a way that, maybe for the first time, allowed me to really feel sad for myself and angry at my own Nathans (and Evelyns). 

I don’t know if this book is a masterpiece in general or just a masterpiece for me, in this moment I’m in. I’m too deep in my own experience that resonates too loudly for me to comment on writing or storyline. I think both of those things were enjoyable and interesting, but the overall experience of this book is the emotion and the characters. I can see this falling flat for someone who just wants a fun sci-fi romp and not a look at how parenting, society, and intimate partner violence shapes people and makes us question how much free will we have and if it’s possible to break the programming in a world that wants us pleasant, submissive, and unquestioning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicide and Abortion

becksusername's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

lilybear3's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I listened to the audiobook version read by Xe Sands.  I didn't mind her as a narrator, but I had to listen to this book at 1.25x speed because it felt slow and the breaks were quite long.  The premise of this book is really cool and I think executed quite well.  We learn a lot about Evelyn and what in her past has made her the way she is.  I was personally annoyed by her every now and then but I understand the circumstances.  Each time I thought, "where is this story going? there's a decent amount of time left." I was hit with another issue they have to overcome.  It was slow for me a few times but it definitely was interesting.  The ending was alright, but I'm not sure how to make it better.  This isn't something I would've picked up on my own but a co-worker suggested it and I'm glad I gave it a shot.  I could see this becoming a movie.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Rape