Ugh. Really, I mean that. Just ugh.
The problems with this story are so myriad I am not even sure I can start, because I am not sure I have the patience to type that much. I'd like to explain, but I think I'll just try to sum up for the sake of brevity.
In no particular order:
-Boring, as rain said. The writing was lackluster and colorless. Much was told, not shown, and the text had no flavor.
-Illogical to the point I couldn't get into the emotional. She had 2 months of "intensive" training, but they gave her a manual that she was supposed to keep secret while living in the same house as the person she's supposed to keep it secret from, and this is standard practice? They've got the tech to create clones and accelerate aging, but not to burn a password coded, interactive CD if such knowledge couldn't be imparted during the training? Why would she need the manual after intensive training--it was only 31 pages long, and what we were given of it certainly didn't sound that complicated.
She spoke and acted largely like a 10-year-old, which was summarily explained by her not having any life experience or maturity. This seems like a rather large hurtle that a cloning company would address in some way, doesn't it? I mean, these clones go out to whoever commissions them, presumably including people who have children; but, they don't bother doing a bit of research or instilling them with any life experience to aid in social or parental interaction? It just sounds implausible.
The drugs. Why did the Artist have the drugs, and not the clone? She can be trusted to follow a rule book that makes her the perfect wife, to cook, clean, make coffee, critique his artwork, and she's clearly dependent on the drugs; so, why would he have to keep them? Is it a control thing? Is he punishing her? Are clones notoriously inept at opening pill packs? We don't know, and it irked me the entire time.
There's a bunch more in this vein, but I'll move on.
-I had zero sympathy for any of the characters. The Artist, who was so unmemorable that I've forgotten his name less than two hours after listening to this, and the Clone have no chemistry. Jackie1's instructions lead you to believe that Artist is jealous and possessive, but really the Artist doesn't seem to have any attachment to the Clone through most of the story. There's no intimacy implied, and therefore I can't care about the relationship between them. The plot "twist" where Jackie1 wasn't dead was pretty much obvious from the word "go," and I have problems having sympathy for cowardly people who foist their problems onto someone else instead of being honest and dealing with them directly. The clone was just too one-dimensional for me to relate to at all.
-The ending was just bad. Predictable, trite...everything a bad ending could be, it was. It also relates back to my point above about being illogical. This clone has, as stated in the story, no life experience; but, she suddenly blossoms into a mature woman who wants to work on helping a full-grown, life-experienced man make the necessary changes for them to stay together? That just seemed a huge jump for the all-of-10-minutes this story encompassed. Yes, I realize people do have epiphanies; but, they do need the emotional and metal tools/groundwork to experience epiphany. Given her previous statements and actions, I just didn't buy the clone having enough maturity or experience to get there in such a leap.
My personal take on this story is that it's an allegory for a relationship in today's world: Girl spend life trying to make Boy happy, while not worrying about her own happiness (Jackie1). Girl wakes up one day and realizes Boy is a self-absorbed idiot and needs to change or she'll leave (epiphany). It's like she's found herself (clone). Boy says he'll change (Artist). Walk off into sunset. The beginning, IMHO, sounded to me like something added to make the story SF, an excuse to start the story with someone being a doormat. She didn't need a clone, that part is extraneous.
JMHO, of course.