Media: A stand-alone novel, available in print, ebook and audio formats.
Approx length: 256 pages. (The audio version is 8 hours, 26 minutes)
Where to find it: Bookstores, libraries, libro.fm, audible, etc.
What is it, in summary?: Evelyn Caldwell is a successful scientist at the center of a human cloning project, but her personal life is falling apart. Her husband is having an affair—with an illegal clone of her, named Martine, who he subsequently leaves her for.
When Evelyn’s ex turns up bloodily dead, she and Martine are forced to join forces to clean up the mess. A mess that gets bigger and more complicated as they dig up their dead ex’s plans and misdeeds … and struggle to relate to one another, their respective senses of self, and in Evelyn’s case, the thorny past she thought she had moved on from.
What do you love about it?: This book is a bit of a frog-boiling experience. It starts with an intriguing, if fairly obvious premise, and over the course of escalating events and parallel narrative flashbacks, widens and deepens its scope slowly until the horrors underneath start to reveal themselves. Evelyn is a fantastically unreliable narrator, and the tightly-woven narrative is spellbinding and dark right up to the end.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I haven’t decided for sure that I’m going to request this fandom, but it’s been nominated, and I’m leaning towards it! I’m very interested in reading more from Martine’s perspective in particular; whether it’s before, during, or after the events in the book. And while I think the book’s chilling ending is just perfect, I would be interested to see how one might go in and turn things around, after a fashion … finding a way for Martine, or even Violet, to break the cycle of abuse at last.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: I’m afraid not, nope. The characters and themes are layered and revealed/developed throughout the text; you can’t really know them without reading lal of it.
Content warnings: Various forms of abuse, including domestic and child abuse; victims perpetuating the cycle of abuse; gaslighting; violating the autonomy and self-determination of another person in a wide variety of ways; violence; murder; misogyny.
The Echo Wife - Sarah Gailey
Media: A stand-alone novel, available in print, ebook and audio formats.
Approx length: 256 pages. (The audio version is 8 hours, 26 minutes)
Where to find it: Bookstores, libraries, libro.fm, audible, etc.
What is it, in summary?: Evelyn Caldwell is a successful scientist at the center of a human cloning project, but her personal life is falling apart. Her husband is having an affair—with an illegal clone of her, named Martine, who he subsequently leaves her for.
When Evelyn’s ex turns up bloodily dead, she and Martine are forced to join forces to clean up the mess. A mess that gets bigger and more complicated as they dig up their dead ex’s plans and misdeeds … and struggle to relate to one another, their respective senses of self, and in Evelyn’s case, the thorny past she thought she had moved on from.
What do you love about it?: This book is a bit of a frog-boiling experience. It starts with an intriguing, if fairly obvious premise, and over the course of escalating events and parallel narrative flashbacks, widens and deepens its scope slowly until the horrors underneath start to reveal themselves. Evelyn is a fantastically unreliable narrator, and the tightly-woven narrative is spellbinding and dark right up to the end.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I haven’t decided for sure that I’m going to request this fandom, but it’s been nominated, and I’m leaning towards it! I’m very interested in reading more from Martine’s perspective in particular; whether it’s before, during, or after the events in the book. And while I think the book’s chilling ending is just perfect, I would be interested to see how one might go in and turn things around, after a fashion … finding a way for Martine, or even Violet, to break the cycle of abuse at last.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: I’m afraid not, nope. The characters and themes are layered and revealed/developed throughout the text; you can’t really know them without reading lal of it.
Content warnings: Various forms of abuse, including domestic and child abuse; victims perpetuating the cycle of abuse; gaslighting; violating the autonomy and self-determination of another person in a wide variety of ways; violence; murder; misogyny.