Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

95 reviews

magmabadger's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Grief and Child death

Minor: Sexual violence and Rape

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

em_1920's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

As mystery books go, this one starts out really intriguing but then for much of it you’re just kind of absorbing the truth as the narrator discovers it. There was nothing that hinted at some of the mysteries and would let you figure it out yourself to some extent. As you read there are no “aha!” moments. More like, “oh, okay’s.” Also the main character is fatphobic. 

This is just the “White Bear” episode of Black Mirror set in the Clue mansion.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia

rachel_c_25's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Body shaming

Minor: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

ggcd1981's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug use, Murder, Sexism, Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Death, Fatphobia, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Child death, Sexual harassment, and Suicide

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

casgirl1977's review against another edition

Unbelievably fatphobic. A fat character is compared to an animal, is unable to move on his own without assistance, and is disgusted with his body and is constantly mentioning how other characters stare at him in disgust. No other character's body is described with the amount of detail the fat character is, which is multiple paragraphs in multiple chapters. There's even a moment where he's looking at his naked body in the mirror and he sobs because he's, "overcome by disgust and humiliation." I don't know what Stuart Turton's problem is with fat people, but he doesn't hide how much he hates them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Body shaming

yashika_2008's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Child death

Minor: Sexual harassment and Infidelity

lighterthaneyre's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No

2.75

I really loved the "time loop + WhoDunnit" premise. Unfortunately the way the ending played out, it felt like less than the sum of its parts.

TBH I don't think Anna got much personality defined, so the end wasn't a payoff. Also weird that they pulled "war criminal" out as a justification. Also weird that they made Old Anna and Evelyn the Murder so similar? Idk with so few women in the cast it felt weird

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Multiple chapters are completely derailed by the narrator and author's disgust of fat bodies. Not in passing, it's repeatedly brought up