Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

49 reviews

erikwmj's review

emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Gore, Murder, and Domestic abuse

amcleod's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

The Echo Wife has been my favorite Sarah Gailey book so far, which is saying something. It was my favorite form of fiction, where the emotional arc is deeply entwined with the fantasy or sci Fi elements. It's a story about the ways that abuse both familial and romantic leave deep wounds on the victim that last for the rest of their lives. As with all of Sarah Gailey's books the mechanics of the story are immaculate and the portrait of the main character is painfully human. The past and present are woven together seamlessly with clear threads running between to flesh out a life and the plot is always satisfying and never predictable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Medical content, Gore, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Body horror, Death, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Domestic abuse

hgoodenn's review

2.0

Deeply unpleasant to read

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Content Warnings

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

christineparkerco's review against another edition

Made it through chapter 9 with my eyeballs and had to pause for anxiety reasons but I wanted to finish because it’s SO GOOD. Tried it on audio and got through another chapter but it’s just too dark and heavy for me right now. Might give it another try at another time because I love Sarah Gailey and the premise is fascinating and the writing is excellent and the audio is entertaining; I just think I need to be in the right mindset for the content. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Blood, Infidelity, and Gore

escapinginpaper's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Abortion, Child abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Alcohol

schnaucl's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense 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

4.25

I liked it.

It's not quite clear to me what Evelyn's work actually is.  Something with clones, obviously, but it's not clear what the clones are supposed to be for.  Something more than organ donation if bone breaks have to be the same and conditioning is a thing. 

Spoiler

It seems to take Martine an extraordinarily long time to figure out that Evelyn would be fine with clones being killed inside a lab setting, and in fact, had done it herself numerous times.  Seeing Martine as an actual person with full autonomy was always going to be incompatible with her worldview that clones were things to be used and discarded.

The ending was inevitable and still chilling.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, and Death

Minor: Medical content, Physical abuse, Abortion, Gore, and Child abuse

riebread1's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

It was a good book but I wasn’t very invested. I found it easy to guess what would happen next. The concept as a whole is a good idea but it feels like there are short cuts to get to plot points. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Violence, Death of parent, Gore, Domestic abuse, Murder, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Infertility

Moderate: Emotional abuse

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious sad 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

4.25

A very clever novel about cloning and the possibility of creating the perfect spouse, this book deals a lot with emotional abuse and unrealistic expectations that shape a person the rest of their life. 

Evelyn, a newly divorced cloning genius, is so absorbed with her work that she has no room for anything else. Her marriage fell apart because her husband Nathan wanted a “better” Evelyn so he created one and got rid of the first wife. 

Evelyn and the replacement wife, the clone Martine, come to be friends of a sort, brought together by their mutual fury at Nathan for being so demanding and irresolute. The gradual development of their relationship, and Evelyn’s growing appreciation for the complexity of the clone’s personality, is one of the more enjoyable parts of the book. 

There were some pretty large plot holes - one, for instance, is how it was that none of the lab workers noticed Evelyn’s new coworker? Aside from that, I thought the book was very thought-provoking, a sign of a great story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

jojo_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Medical content, Violence, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Gore, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Misogyny

Minor: Abortion

taylor13's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Gore, Death, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Grief, and Death of parent