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

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

224 reviews

star's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was complicated for me. I really enjoyed it, but it was pretty hard to get through at points. Possibly that was because I was already anxiety-ridden waiting for something in my personal life, but the palpable anxiety throughout the book did not help me.

I found the relationships between the characters quite interesting, but unraveling it took quite a bit of time. Especially jumping between the hosts, I felt like I needed a huge wall of pictures and colorful yarn to figure that out.

I will say that the ending made the book very worth it for me. Between all the points being added and deducted in my brain for various things, I think I have settled on a 4 star rating. Good enough to finish, but not good enough to keep -- I will be donating this sometime soon. (Which is great, as I bought it at a half-price used books sort of deal, and I believe it was one of the donated ones (they also carry limited new selections).)

Now, for the spoiler portion:

I found the comparison of Anna to Hitler to be unnecessary, especially because Aiden just fucking ignored that anyway. I LOVED the twist ending, though - I did not expect for a second that Evelyn was actually Felicity, and that the REAL Evelyn was hiding. I also can appreciate how many of the characters died in various ways that WEREN'T Evelyn. I can't believe they wiped out the entire Hardcastle family in this book.

Finding out that Evelyn was to be married to Ravenscourt killed me though. And so many little plot points just stood out to me. It was a shame it was a bit of a slog.

I have seen a lot of complaints online about the descriptions of Ravenscourt in this book. Personally, the fatphobia was expected for me. As someone who is "medically obese" (a term I hate) it bothered me, but not enough to get me to stop reading. It was quite repetitive and gratuitous, as most of his descriptions of the characters "negative" traits are, but oh well. I do think that I would not have read this book if I had seen those reviews first.

Content Warnings

literarydumpling's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was a ride and a half.

I said about a third of the way through the book and I had the impression that I probably wasn't clever enough to solve the mystery in the book. I'm glad to say that was the only 100% correct conclusion I came to for this book.

So cleverly written, I love the premise and the way the elements weave themselves together. A little baffling at times, but not so much that you won't pick the book up again.

I did find it incredibly useful that they had a character list and map at the front of the book so it was easy to refer to (and not miss, unlike some of my adventures in other books). It's a very unique take on a mystery thriller that I've not seen before with some slight fantasy/supernatural elements to it that are simple enough to understand.

Seriously enjoyable and the twists and reveals were all incredibly satisfying.

Content Warnings