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

Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

440 reviews

inter0bang's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

1.25

Content Warnings

jsreyes's review against another edition

Go to review page

I just couldn’t get into this book. I found it be slow and confusing. I really wanted to power through but it just wasn’t worth it.

Content Warnings

casgirl1977's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

ashleylynne920's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This my second attempt to read this book. The first, I made it about 50 pages before it became a DNF. This time, I listened to the audio. The voice actor did great; cannot recommend him enough!

That being said, I want, so badly, to love this book. The reimagining of many familiar ideas into something new is a lovely undertaking, but it just didn't hit right for me. The first 3/4 of the book felt like a slog and the last quarter was like watching a furious ping pong match as revelation after revelation takes place (both for the characters and the reader). The premise, plot, and implied (but not observed) character development are all clever. The execution though (for me) was just off.

Content Warnings

heini's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

634's review against another edition

Go to review page

mysterious slow-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? No

1.75

The premise of this book was very intriguing but it started off slow, and was hard to connect to a main character with no sense of self. As the book went on he became absolutely unbearable and so did the plot.

Content Warnings

blewballoon's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.5

I was intrigued and a little intimidated by the premise of this book, but the intimidation wasn't needed. The author does a good job of dropping the reader into the story and having the POV character figure things out along the way. This book feels like a mystery-thriller, and leans more one way or the other depending on which body the main character is inhabiting and how that host's mind works. I did sometimes get annoyed by the

footman popping up to be a malicious murderous nuisance in scenes where there was already danger and tension, so he felt like overkill.

The descriptions of people are mostly grotesque and include mentions of being fleshy, wrinkled, or gaunt. If it's a maid, they are almost universally described like "[hair color] spilling out of her cap" on introduction. Minor complaint aside, the descriptions across the book in general are very immersive and quickly get you a mental picture of the scene. I was very absorbed in trying to put the pieces of the mystery together, but didn't solve it for myself before the reveal.

I don't love when a murderer's motivation is basically just that they're a psychopath, that feels lame. There was so much to the mystery that there should have been enough for a more compelling motivation.

I also don't know how I feel about the explanations offered for the premise

I remember feeling a little taken out of the story when the plague doctors spoke to each other. I never got a good sense of what time period this was. It seemed like an afterlife thing, like maybe they were in purgatory, but then it sounded like this was the normal prison system for living people??

Content Warnings

unreliablereadr's review against another edition

Go to review page

DNF @ 25%

I don't normally review books but JESUS CHRIST. Fat people can't walk, or write, or smile. Does the author think fat people also can't read?

The fatmisia was RELENTLESS. The MC wakes up in the body of a fat character, and just about every paragraph for this character is mentioning how fatly the fat character is doing (or can't do) something. Schoolyard bullies are less cruel than this book. I tried to power through to go onto the next character, because the mystery itself was intriguing enough but after too many chapters of this bullshit I wasn't interested in anything else this author had to say.

Content Warnings

pageturner777's review against another edition

Go to review page

medium-paced

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

What a let down. There’s so much to slog through just to get to the end which was an incredibly sloppy & rushed finish. I think it’s a cool concept and I was very excited about it. I kept pushing through the book because I was really hopeful the ending would have a twist that would wrap everything up or explain. Nope. To everyone that DNF, you didn’t miss anything.

Content Warnings

asaugustine's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

A fun, immersive mystery that kept me reading (or, in my case, listening, as the audio book narration was great.) I agree with other reviews that this book engages in unnecessary amounts of fatphobia with character descriptions that are offensive and, frankly, just inaccurate portrayals of living in a larger body.

Content Warnings

More...