Reviews with content warning for Drug use - The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Spoilers throughout: Interesting and well written, I don't know how the author kept up with all the characters and days. I could have done without the whole "omg this character is so fat and disgusting how can he even exist" chapters but what can you do? I actually did predict most of the ending, but I don't know how I feel about Aiden forgiving Anna for brutally torturing and killing his sister and arguably he didn't he just chose to live as someone that it basically didn't happen to. Also it's not like Anna realized she was a horrible disgusting murder, they literally just made her forget she was and I don't think that's the same thing. It all kind of just doesn't vibe with me, usually people who think anything is forgivable are the ones that need that forgiveness. Also the fact that Anna can just live without the horrible things she did if she wanted to, while her victims have to remember it every day is really fucked up. The whole time Aiden interacts with multiple people who love brutality and murder and he's disgusted by them, yet he's totally cool with Anna having done that cause he thinks she changed but all she did was forget how much she loved those things.

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tneumann's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated

3.5

Ambitious and mostly entertaining, despite my low grade confusion for a good chunk of the book. I appreciate what the author was aiming for - quite the feat to keep track of all the details and weave them together. While I wouldn’t mind if it were shorter, not sure what’d you’d cut out so length was appropriate to fit in all the perspectives from the various hosts.

A few things that were not my favorite:
1. So much fat phobic language for Ravencort. It was lazy writing, there are better ways to write about this characters physically abilities.
2. Aiden took most things as truth for the first half of the book, happily accepting what various people said and being resolute in whatever the new truth was. Then in the later part, his theories became much more secretive to the reader. I understand why, but it was a bit shift and think there were more skillful ways to keep the reader in the dark.
3.

Wasn’t invested in Anna’s reveal and reformation, the latter felt very unconvincing. Aside from murdering Aiden’s sister, the details were so vague that it was hard to understand the magnitude of what she had done. And how much had she really changed and proven herself other than what we see in her actions over the course of the day. And all is supposed to be forgiven?
4. Would have liked to understood more about Daniel’s history, and the footman was just a rando killing for fun?

I liked the reveal of the Plague Doctor and that this was all a justice reformation system, and how much time they’d been there.

Interesting, ambitious, fun aside from being confused for a good part of it, and not quite as expertly executed as it could have been.

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hjb_128's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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juanat77's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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ggcd1981's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

As sete mortes de Evelyn Hardcastle foi um livro que recebi boas referências no booktube e, no geral, não decepcionou. Foi um bom mistério com uma dimensão especulativa

que, apesar de eu ter previsto uma das revelações, especificamente que Michael, irmão mais novo de Evelyn, estava por trás da morte da suposta irmã, me surpreendeu com os principais plot twist. Não previ que a verdadeira Evelyn estava viva e se passando como a camareira Madeline e na verdade ela havia arquitetado todo o plano em conluio com Michael para que a falsa Evelyn morresse a deixando livre para começar outra vida. Também não previ que o protagonista, Aiden, estava numa prisão em que a sentença dos condenados era desvendar o crime para conseguir o perdão. É claro que se for olhar muito de perto é possível achar alguns buracos no enredo, mas a história foi tão intrigante que não me importo. O livro ainda colocou alguns questionamentos importantes, por exemplo, quando um criminoso é digno e pode receber o perdão? No caso de Anna, uma assassina condenada que cometeu vários crimes horríveis, mas mudou com o tempo que passou presa no time loop. O protagonista tinha razão em perdoar os crimes que Anna cometeu até contra ele mesmo e lutar para que ela obtivesse a liberdade? É uma boa reflexão.

O principal ponto negativo do livro para mim foi a fatphobia do autor que ficou clara e evidente sempre que ele se referia ao noivo de Evelyn, Lord Ravencourt. As descrições dadas do personagem me deixaram desconfortáveis como leitora. O livro é atmosférico, repleto de personagens desagradáveis e intrigas entre eles (apesar de haver alguns personagens “agradáveis”), com mais de um mistério no centro. Houve o mistério da morte de Evelyn, mas também como isso estava relacionado a acontecimentos do passado como a morte de Thomas, irmão de Evelyn e Michael que foi assassinado quando criança, e o desaparecimento de um garoto do estabulo na época da morte de Thomas. Amei o clima e cenário montado, a trama me entreteve e até surpreendeu até o fim. Contudo preciso descontar alguns pontos pela evidente fatphobia. Dou 4.75 estrelas.

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lilcassieg's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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iamaprettyflower's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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wickedgrumpy's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

To relate it to a movie mash up, take Being John Malkovich and pair it with Knives Out with a dash of unexplained world building sci-fi time loop situation.

Premise was quite good, but the execution suffered. It dragged in the middle and the wrap up at the end wasn’t very satisfying because it left so many questions unanswered.

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