I REALLY wish I’d written the review for this sooner, because I remember this being just the most ridiculous book and probably would have written a nicely scathing review had I gotten around to doing so on time. Instead, we will have scathe by proxy as I try to piece together what I thought from the four parts I highlighted.
Here is what this book is not, I suppose: a tense thriller, a whodunit, a murder mystery, a psychological treatise on humanity or any combination of the above. Perhaps that should have been obvious from the synopsis, which tells you in very short order that
1. Martine is a genetically cloned replica
2. made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research
3. having an affair with Evelyn’s husband
4. who is dead
5. and now they have to hide the evidence
So perhaps the mistake was with me, to expect more? Or less? Because the above is…exactly what happened?
I guess I don’t really need to put things behind spoiler tags as a result, but my first and foremost thought which I think is more coherent than any of the plot points in this novel?
What was the plan of Evelyn’s husband, anyhow? Was no one ever going to meet his clone wife? If she’s a clone of his award winning, decently famous scientist wife and he himself is also a scientist, wouldn’t it follow that all of his peers would IMMEDIATELY recognize that his “new” wife is a CLONE of his former wife and find that exceedingly weird and creepy?
Like, full stop? You cannot hide your spouse away in your home forever and ever, there are department picnics and holiday parties and like, at some point your wife needs to step outside to get the mail?
What was the plan here?? Was there one???
