Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

15 reviews

hjb_128's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Rape, Infidelity, Violence, Mental illness, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Torture, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide and Medical content

lilcassieg's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Torture, Blood, Child death, Death, Violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Rape, and Mental illness

wickedgrumpy's review

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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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Domestic abuse, Toxic friendship, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Misogyny, Murder, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Torture, Gore, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Blood, Body shaming, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Self harm, Cursing, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Bullying, and Alcoholism

priscillarobock's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Death, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Drug abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

emcheym's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

I love the writing style the author uses in this book. The language is so descriptive and the plot is complex. It’s a bit hard to follow at times, but I’m really impressed with the thought and detail that went into the writing. I might consider rereading it at some point just to help understand more of the details.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child death, and Rape

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Mental illness

catherine_lyerly's review

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A

4.0

It’s slow to start, but once I found my bearings I couldn’t put it down!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Mental illness and Addiction

thecriticalreader's review

adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Why I Read It: The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton first came onto my radar when I was looking for books involving time loops, since I love time loops. Months later, I saw it in the bookstore and decided to pick it up.

 

Review:

Turton should get a standing ovation for the brilliance of this book’s concept. It’s incredibly original, and no lazy author would have even come close to touching it. The execution of the concept is also laudable, as Turton’s beautiful writing and detailed thought made this book a joy to read. I never felt impatient about figuring out the mystery; I was content to let the story unfold and follow the main character step by step as he painfully learns more and more about his situation. Despite the undeniably convoluted plot, I was able to follow along, and I appreciated the moral questions Turton poses throughout the story. More importantly, the characters’ motivations and actions felt well-thought-out and realistic. It would have been far too easy for everything to feel contrived, but for most of the book, this is not the case.

 

I knew that no matter how amazing most of the book was, my ultimate measure of the book would rest heavily on the conclusion. While the conclusion is not the disaster it could have been—no plot holes are introduced, and it remains well-thought-out—unfortunately, it did not quite live up to my hopes. It fell into the trap mysteries so often fall into, in which the author springs a twist so out of left field that it feels contrived and requires a lengthy explanation to understand. The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle did not need such a twist for me to feel impressed by the mystery and the book’s intelligence. I felt that the ending somewhat betrayed the main character’s arc.

My main problem with the ending was Anna’s character. How am I supposed to believe that one of the world’s most evil people somehow becomes a good person by endlessly cycling through time loops in a setting that is described as “poisonous” in its immorality and corruption?

One other thing that bothered me considerably was the fatphobic language. The language Turton uses to describe a fat character is unnecessarily cruel. 

 

The Run-Down: 

You will probably like The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle if:

·      You are intrigued by unique, original premises

 

You might not like The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle if:

·      You dislike intricate plots

·      You go into the book wedded to your expectations

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Classism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Death, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, and Murder

Moderate: Torture, Ableism, Domestic abuse, Rape, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Child abuse, Blood, Addiction, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cursing, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Self harm

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

This is interesting, but it had way too many characters for me to keep track of, and I didn't feel like I "knew" any of them, even after 17 hours of audiobook. I also may have not been a huge fan of the writing style.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Physical abuse, Stalking, Blood, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Bullying, Classism, Toxic friendship, Violence, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Chronic illness, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Abandonment, Mental illness, Alcohol, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual harassment

Avoid if you don't like: torture, trying to remember about 24 vaguely similar characters, or telling instead of showing.

maeverose's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

I think the concept is super cool but I’m not a fan of how it was executed.

Pros:

I like the writing style, and I’ll acknowledge that the author has to be pretty smart to have come up with this story and make everything connect. It was also not at all predictable.

Cons:

First, It’s overly convoluted. There’s too many characters and events to keep track of, and because it’s jumping around in time so much it’s difficult to follow where you are and whats happened or not happened yet in the day. I think it would’ve been better if it had been done in a way that was a little less confusing for the reader. Less characters, and less unnecessary details. By the time I was about halfway through I was pretty bored and only really reading to find out who Aiden, Anna and the plague doctor were and how he was reliving the same day over and over. That was the most interesting part to me, I didn’t end up caring about the murder mystery at all. I did find the explanation of the fantasy elements to be really interesting, but we were given hardly any information about it. I felt like we should have gotten more.

Second, the body shaming. I’d heard going in that it had fatphobia in it but.. maybe I’m being dramatic but I don’t know how this was able to get published without anyone suggesting the author tone it down a bit. I don’t know how the author thought he could publish that without backlash. It’s really bad. I don’t know how anyone could actually think that way about another person’s body. Every single thing about Ravencourt’s appearance he describes in an unflattering or insulting way. And it’s never corrected in the narrative so that makes me think that’s the author’s thoughts. It’s not just that either, I felt that there was a lot of body shaming in general throughout this book, including ableism. The only characters that are ever described as being attractive are white, young, blonde and fit/thin. I think the only exception to that is Grace, who I believe had dark hair. But everything else still applies.

Third, going off the last one a bit, there’s zero diversity. Everybody is straight, cis, white, and most of the important characters are men. Evelyn and Anna being obviously important to the story but they’re hardly in it compared to the men. None of Aiden’s 8 hosts are women. On top of that, a lot of the people we’re supposed to dislike are described as ‘ugly’ or disfigured.

Fourth, what was the deal with Aiden loving Anna? Even before the reveal of who she was at the end, I didn’t understand why he was so protective of her. He hardly spent any time with her, he didn’t even know her, he knew he couldn’t trust  anyone, and he was straight up told she would betray him, and yet he was determined to save and protect her. He actually loved her, even after finding out who she was and what she did to his sister. I don’t understand how he could care for her after learning that, even if she had changed. That whole thing was just so weird to me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, and Mental illness

Minor: Excrement, Grief, Racism, and Sexual content

Implied rape, memory loss, poisoning

smkelly1997's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is slow in the beginning but it works. It all adds up.  The last 25% of the book I didn’t want to put down. The twists and turns and a major plot twist at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Blood, Murder, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Suicide, Child death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Torture