The premise of The Echo Wife is insanely good. Evelyn Caldwell is a scientist at the forefront of cloning technology. Unfortunately, her husband Nathan doesn't love her anymore. Instead, he has transferred his affections to a clone of her named Martine. Evelyn is understandably upset about this. But when something happens to Nathan, Evelyn and Martine are forced to team up to fix the problem.
That sounds crazy, right? If you could resist such a premise, you're a much stronger person than I am, because I could not. That, plus the cover, and I immediately had to get my eager hands on it.
When a book has such an amazing premise, the question that always comes up is, did it deliver? And I'm torn here. On the one hand, the plot is brilliant and unique, and it unfolded with lots of surprises along the way. But there were a couple of things that really didn't work for me.
First, the science in here is pretty laughable. Now, I understand this is science fiction, and creative liberties are allowed. But the way science and cloning are explained makes me think the author threw a bunch of advanced biology words into a giant word salad, swirled them around, and just haphazardly grabbed words out to fill in the blank whenever a scientific phrase was needed. But those words mean something already, and they don't really make sense in the context they're dropped in.
Also, cloning is an existing technology in our real world today, one in which we've already had extensive discussions regarding its ethics. But this book throws all that out the window. Instead, it approaches it without even a basic understanding of the dilemma within. It's hard for me to reconcile how advanced the cloning technology is in the book with its less than rudimentary consideration of the associated ethics and morality issues.
Still, my biggest problem is with Evelyn's character. The story is told from her point of view, and it is overwrought with her emotions. She is constantly in a fit of rage. Things which set her off include (but are not limited to) an old couch, someone helping her unpack, coworkers not realizing that she's upset, but also coworkers realizing and asking if she's upset. Goodness gracious, you just can't win with her. Every time I had to read another passage on her self-righteous fury, I wanted to stab myself with something sharp. I wish all those excessive emotions were left out, as it took a lot away from the story.
In the end, if you're debating whether to give this book a try, I think my answer is still yes, simply because of the brilliant and unusual premise. It's a short read at only 250 pages, and it's interesting to see how the plot plays out. Just try to ignore all the science mumbo jumbo and overwritten feelings.
Readaroo Rating: 3 stars
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