Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I thought the premise of this book was really interesting and definitely had potential it did have a slight sci-fi feel to it but it didn’t grip me as much as I was hoping.
There were definitely plenty of twists and things I didn’t see coming making it very creepy. I think the world building was a little lacking which meant it was hard to really get into what was happening. It was still an enjoyable read I just hoped it would have been fleshed out a little more

The concept of this sounded intriguing, but in reality I found the book boring and couldn't get into it so sadly had to DNF at 20%. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

This was quite a unique thriller which was dark in places and had an intriguing plot. It took me a little while to get in to it but once I did I did enjoy it

Thank you Hodder & Staughton for the ARC of this book and sorry for taking so long to read.
This was more than a thriller, and really made you think about things.
Brilliant storyline and nice to read something different.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Hodder & Stoughton, in exchange for an honest review.

I have come to realise that I love sci fi thrillers; that is, the unique blend of domestic thriller but with some sci fi elements thrown in. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from The Echo Wife and honestly, I think the blurb is a little misleading. This is the story of Evelyn, a scientist who specialises in genetic research. In particular, she has perfected cloning through a brutal and not entirely legal method. The problem is, Evelyn's ex husband has stolen some of her research and cloned himself a new Evelyn, one who won't talk back and will be his perfect wife.

To say anymore of the plot would begin spoiling stuff, but this really is the bare bones. I feel like the blurb is misleading because you know Nathan's new wife is a clone from the start and there is no mystery or sense of tension from that. The main focus of the story is Evelyn, her scientific ethics and her relationship with this clone of herself (and by extension, her husband's attitude towards her). It's an interesting and unique way to tell a story that, although it does have thriller elements, is not quite the 'mess with your mind' experience you might be expecting from the summary. The thriller elements are more related to the body horror and nature of existence type stuff.

Overall, I definitely recommend giving this thriller a read, especially if you've not read something like this before. It does have such a unique and interesting story to tell, and it is told extremely well. Evelyn is a compelling protagonist and all of the characters are flawed but intriguing. I never quite knew where the plot was going to go in a really enjoyable way.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

As usual for me I went in blind to the echo wife and wasn’t expecting such a sci fi domestic thriller.

Some of the scenes with Evelyn were quite techy but somehow I managed to follow it; luckily it didn’t have an effect on how I followed the story.

Evelyn herself wasn’t a particularly nice character- she’s quite self centred, self absorbed and selfish, but then I suppose that arrogance makes for a successful scientist.

Martine however had a heart, even if she was programmed to be like that. Some of her tendencies grew with her experiences which was pretty odd considering who she was.

An interesting novel - one which I definitely wasn’t expecting.

I'd like to thank Hodder & Stoughton for providing this e-arc, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3.25 ⭐ a story about a brilliant scientist and the clone who made her question what makes us human

“He’d transmuted his guilt into my anger, and now I was the one who had to carry it, and he had the audacity to be relieved.”

Evelyn is a scientist, a brilliant one at that, her research on human cloning could change the world.
She should be living her best life if it wasn't for Nathan, her cheating ex-husband. But the betrayal was not the worst, he took her research and made a clone as his new wife, a clone of Evelyn.
After finding out, Evelyn wants nothing but to be as far away from Nathan and Martine as possible. Until Martine gives her a call, asking to meet with her. The resemblance is uncanny, but Martine is perfect, untouched, like a porcelain doll. She is polite, she doesn't speak out of turn, she is patient. She is also pregnant. Evelyn thought this was impossible, she had made sure it was, the ethical implications of this could destroy her career. Martine shouldn't exist, her baby shouldn't exist.
Evelyn is about to enter a storm, all starting with this meeting with Martine. A storm that makes itself apparent when they speak next. When Evelyn walks into Martine's perfect little house, to help her bury a body.
What ensues is a very interesting dynamic between the two women, the original and her clone, the perfect copy Nathan built to erase all of Evelyn's less desirable traits. Their relationship blooms and Martine shows how she can be so much more than her programming, making Evelyn question what truly makes us human.
The twists were all fairly expected, nothing too out of the box, but the interaction between Evelyn and Martine is what makes this book so hard to put down. The memories of Evelyn's childhood, and how they made her into the pragmatic woman she is, make this book really eery at times.
Overall, it was an enjoyable read!

Great premise and well-written, this book gripped me. I could not put it down. Creepy and appalling in the same way as The Stepford Wives. Highly recommend.

I love a domestic thriller and this one was no different. I had so much fun learning about the characters and not knowing who’s side to be on. I’ve heard great things about this book and it didn’t disappoint. I would recommend it to anyone who loves a domestic thriller or those who are wanting to give it a try. I think this would be a great introductory book which would make you want to read more from the genre.

One of my top books of the year, definitely one of the best arcs I’ve ever had the pleasure of reviewing. I picked it up mainly due to the author’s name as I’ve only every heard great things said about her books but I’d never read one myself. And this was a phenomenal place to start.

I love the mixing of genres, so a science fiction thriller mystery was absolutely going to be on my highly anticipated list. I had forgotten the premise of the book by the time it came around to reading it (as I seem to always say in these reviews, but it has paid off well for me in the past), so I loved being thrown straight into the science fiction world where our main character works as a renowned scientist studying clones.

I thought I knew what I was getting into but although this book is only 250-ish pages, it feels like a 500 page epic. So much happens over the course of the book and there isn’t a single wasted scene. Everything is so tightly and masterfully engineered to craft this story with no fat to trim. There were multiple points where I reacted out loud to moments.

The initial idea was a great one, but the execution elevated the story so much further. The writing was excellent, there was tonnes of insight into our main characters and the plot progressed so steadily there was no dull moment. I hope this book gets adapted, I think it could be perfect on the big screen.

A sci-fi domestic thriller, twisted, dark and delicious, this was a great read, in which the pages just flew by. Gailey does a great job of plotting this story, and manages to make not necessarily pleasant characters intriguing and deep.

I listened to The Echo Wife as audio, completing it in the e-book as ai got close to the end. Audio is the ideal medium for Evelyn's spiky, defensive story, Xe Sands' narration conveying the whole range of emotions from anger - so much anger! - to betrayal, and really taking flight to imply a whole world of unspoken truths as Evelyn and the other characters here look the other way, fail to understand things on purpose, and generally notice their way through the moral complexities of this twisty story.

Evelyn is a research scientist, a pioneer in the field of human cloning and especially, of "conditioning" the "specimens" to resemble - and act like - their originals. Gailey's writing is simply astonishing here, Evelyn and her co-workers seemingly happy to accept all this entails: the creation of life, and its destruction when no longer required. A world of horror and suffering is implied in clipped, clinical language and then tidied away quickly. Evelyn doesn't need to think through the implications because these are simply not humans, are they?

This isn't the only way in which Evelyn has learned to master her emotions. From her childhood, where she and her mother are at the mercy of a controlling and (it's implied, but never said) father to her life with husband Nathan - the story opens just after their divorce - there is just so much not said, that all the silence, the passivity, actually gets quite LOUD, quite VIOLENT. Evelyn's determined not to be her father, afraid she will be - moulded by him, as she moulds her specimens. What makes us, us? What makes us, human? The question recurs again and again as Evelyn is forced, after a catastrophe in her life, to cooperate with Martine, Nathan's new partner. Martine is all that Evelyn isn't - compliant, obedient, eager to please, willing to have a baby. Yet she's also, inescapably, a version of Evelyn, Nathan's idealisation of her.

Forced, for the sake of survival, to work together, the two women stalk around one another, acting as two poles in a contest about freewill, humanity, selfhood. All of Evelyn's painfully acquired certainties will be challenged by Martine's sheer existence, her life an argument for other ways of seeing, other ways of being. It's a very claustrophobic piece, Evelyn and Martine - these two women, so different, so similar - endlessly fascinating me as they learn about each other and so, about life.

There are many bumps along the way. This is a world close to ours. It has the cloning tech, but that's the only difference: women's existence, their participation, is still visibly on sufferance. Evelyn knows she has to be better than any man, and resents manbaby Nathan, sloppy Nathan who never pays attention to his work and yet gets away with it. There is the doctor who doesn't ask questions when a young girl is brought bin with a broken wrist. There is the sense that, as Evelyn sees it, it's her that has the responsibility of organising everything for Nathan, of making plans and making things work - and then he goes and sulks because she burnt the eggs!

There is just so much here, whether you see this as a classic SF novel - Evelyn an even more modern Prometheus, perhaps - as a study of living, of becoming, as a grim account of dominance and abuse or, possible, as half a dozen other things. It is absorbing, accomplished, very sad in places and, I all, a terrific read.

This was an excellent little read.
Set in the future, it follows a tangled mess that our main character finds herself in, around her ex husband and his new lover.
Not only is it a high tech look at the future through the eyes of a morally grey but ultimately flawed relatable -character, it also takes a look at what it means to be human and where human rights begin and end.
Overall it was a great ‘sciencey’ I (almost) thriller.

An interesting story that plays with the idea of nature vs nurture and encourages the reader to ask themselves what makes us who we are.

An interesting take on the domestic thriller genre which it combines with a strong science fiction element. Very different and believable.

Fantastic book that has a gripping storyline! The writer has really captured the characters personalities and I would love to read more by this author.

I enjoyed this quick, "what if" sci fi read. Although, this book wasn't what I was expecting. I think its best read as a suspense thriller and you should go in as such.

Spoilers ahead.

It starts with Evelyn, a renowned scientist, who has/is having trouble at home. The book sets up her work and how marvellous she is in her field, until her ex husband ruins it and threatens to undo all her work by copying her work and making a more perfect version of her. At the beginning she destroyed clones however, as she gets to know her ex husbands new wife, Martine, does things unexpected from a clone.

Evelyn dances around the questions of mortality but not so much to make it a deep sci fi novel, it is a skim over the deep ethical questions and more how are they going to get away with one of the twists. I think perhaps that's why I didn't really care she made clones and killed them because they were finished with. There was no deep concept that all the clones thought/ acted like humans until Martine. They are scientists, did no one think to put them in the environment? Treat them like people? Make them adapt? There wasn't enough depth rather someone having a go at sci fi writing.

I think that's what I had a problem with through this book, there wasn't much exploration into anything. It was idea after idea and plot points being forgotten about. She doesn't explore ramifications, she avoids thinking about the big problems.

Still an enjoyable read, with some unexpected twists and one that made me want to finish to the mundane end.

Sci-fi book, which did keep me gripped throughout, although did feel some parts could have been more exciting. I enjoyed the writing style and would definitely read more books from this author.

This was a sci fi thriller book which made me question right, wrong and my own ability to make choices to benefit myself or others. I enjoyed this story a lot, although I felt like there was more opportunity to make it thrilling at points. For me this was much more a simple sci-fi story with elements of contemporary, rather than heavy sci-fi or thriller but I enjoyed it a lot. Would recommend to those who enjoyed The Perfect Wife by J.P. Delaney.