Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

36 reviews

brittaanson's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

2.0

I wanted to love this book, and the beginning really sucked me in with the mystery. The structure is ambitious and intriguing, but by the end, I was confused and unsatisfied. Partly due to the nature of the plot, there wasn’t any deep character development, and as the truth of what was going on was revealed, I disliked the story more and more. The ending has so many twists that didn’t feel completely earned, and by that point I didn’t care about any of the characters. The rules, ethics, and motivations of those driving the story remain ill-defined to me. I didn’t enjoy the violence and aggressive fat phobia in the book. However, I will concede that the cleverness of the overall concept may be enough for someone else to find more satisfaction in this read than I did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Murder, Body horror, Fatphobia, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicide, Ableism, and Torture

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Stalking and Rape

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

heini's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fatphobia, Confinement, Alcohol, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Blood, Sexual violence, Infidelity, and Sexual assault

Minor: Drug use, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Stalking

nikimorr's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad 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

What a wild ride! This book hooked me from the start with a man waking up without a single memory except one name. That very first character is by far my favorite as it becomes immediately apparent how creative this book’s concept is and you really have no idea what’s to come. After that, the same “person” lives in 8 different characters reliving the same day from different bodies/perspectives to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, and we don’t know why until the very end. 

The setting is just as creative and incredible as the character concept - Blackheath House, a mansion crumbling to the ground. A party with the exact same guests as those 19 years prior - when the hosts’ son was murdered during the party. We never quite know when or where in the world this party all takes place, leaving it all up to the imagination. Totally original and unique!

 By the end, admittedly, it can feel difficult to keep all the details straight; however, the author is kind enough to add extra reminders throughout about who someone is or a detail I’d forgotten. With the last few perspectives, it is almost impossible to completely keep up with every detail, but you realize it does not matter - it’ll all come together, and the author is intentionally keeping you, the reader, in the dark for the big finale. 

I was definitely cheering for our main character to solve it all by the end. One thing remains clear - he is a good person. But was he always a good person? 

SPOILERS AHEAD - My favorite part about the ending is not learning exactly what happened to Evelyn Hardcastle as it is learning why Aiden and Anna are there. What a concept for a PRISON! And for Aiden, it really is a prison, and you feel it with him throughout the book. Learning that Anna, who Aiden comes to love and trust is truly his enemy, is a true thinking moment for the reader. Can people change? Are some people worth saving even after committing horrible crimes? What really is our true nature? One thing that stuck with me is that Aiden finally succeeded in solving the mystery when he truly was a kind and good person throughout - maybe the good guys do win in the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Classism, Death, Murder, and Confinement

Moderate: Blood, Violence, Alcohol, Stalking, and Animal death

jaysaysnope's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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

2.5

A lot of this books seems opaque for opacity’s sake. It was extremely puzzling, more of an out-and-out mystery than I was expecting, and I actually ended the book with more questions about how this world works. It was well-written and the suspense was compelling, but the author’s ending left me wanting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Suicide attempt, Gore, Blood, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Murder, Gun violence, Child death, and Death

Minor: Rape

breadbummer's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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

3.5

On the whole, it's an interesting premise. What if someone took your run-of-the-mill Victorian murder mystery but twisted it a little to make it so the same person was living the same day over and over again in other people's bodies? In my case, as someone who's always found sleuth stories about rich people getting murdered at fancy parties to be cheesy and repetitive, I found this story to be...well, cheesy and repetitive. Not repetitive in itself, but it uses the types of characters and themes typically found in this genre.

As far as content goes, whenever a cis man writes a book like this with not a few female characters in it, I expect a "she breasted boobily down the stairs" moment to show itself before too terribly long or at least for pretty much all the women to fall for the central male character (no matter how strongly they're written) but, to my pleasant surprise, I don't ever actually remember this happening. HOWEVER!!! If you're particularly sensitive to fatphobia, don't bother even touching this book, much less opening it up. The rather long section in which the main character goes through the day as Ravencourt is punctuated pretty much every sentence or two with disgust of the host's body. It got to be so uncomfortable that I almost dropped the book entirely if it weren't for the fact that I was behind on my reading goal.

I just finished it like half an hour ago, so my take on the ending might still need some time to cook, but I think I enjoyed it. I certainly got got about who the culprit ended up being (which took me some time to appreciate more), and I thought the idea of this whole scenario of Blackheath being kind of like

the episode "White Christmas" from Black Mirror absolutely fascinating to say the least (still wondering if the events at the mansion actually happened earlier on in the timeline and that the plague doctors gained control of it or if absolutely everything was conjured up by them).

I was originally gonna go with a rating of 3.25, but these final twists bumped it up a bit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fatphobia, Murder, Child death, Suicide, Body shaming, Stalking, and Classism

Moderate: Self harm, Gun violence, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault, Drug use, Animal death, Rape, Car accident, Blood, and Body horror

redefiningrachel's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual violence, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, and Stalking

Moderate: Gore, Drug use, Misogyny, and Grief

bookhoarder2022's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

Decent mystery & interesting premise, but the way the narrator speaks with such disgust about his hosts was a huge turn-off

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Self harm, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Stalking, Addiction, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Infidelity, Drug abuse, and Grief

trippalli's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.0

This starts out is a Sherlock Holmes style " who done it" but evolves into a philosophical reflection on life, evil, and forgiveness...a race to escape a bizarre philosophical prison, more like Sartre's "No Exit". 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Murder, Suicide, Torture, and Stalking

Moderate: Child death, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

calicat42's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

4.75

Every time I finished a chapter I had no idea what to expect in the next one… and I GASPED at the ending. What a rollercoaster it was to get through the book! 

Most excitingly was that I constantly felt like I was the main character living each day as each new “host.” Since you only learn what the characters know, you have no choice but to get into the characters’ minds, experience what they’re each experiencing, and hope that the days aren’t wasted. 
Incredibly immersive. 

My only complaint is that the ending didn’t really feel connected to the rest of the book. Maybe if I went back to read it now I could see the signs and clues better, but sooo much information came out in the last few pages that I got a bit lost in how everything connected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Classism, Blood, Confinement, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Kidnapping, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Death of parent