Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

44 reviews

lefthandlou's review

slow-paced

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

0.25

The book is overwrought. You can hear the machinery behind the plot, the gears and cogs, ticking loudly as they jolt the action and characters along. It’s contrived, pompous, and overlong. It’s clear Turton is deeply enamored of his own prose, a style which only gets in the way of his too-complicated storyline. He doesn’t have a firm handle on his own plot. Maybe if this book were half as long it could have been okay, but as it is, it is an overindulgent, convoluted, and boring mess. None of the characters are likable, and the entire section dedicated to fatphobia was cruel, unnecessary, and awful. I suspect Turton is not a very nice person, a fact which shows through in this book. I ended up just skimming the last 2/3 just to get it over with. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Minor: Physical abuse and Rape

proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

Ett ensligt beläget gods. En dag som upprepar sig. Ett mord som måste lösas för att bryta cirkeln. Låter tillräckligt udda för att locka mig att vilja läsa den här deckaren!

Jag har mestadels lyssnat på boken (utmärkt uppläsning av Anders Jansson), men eftersom det är ett stort persongalleri så var jag tacksam att jag även hade den fysiska boken tillgänglig. De sista kapitlen, med upplösningen, struntade jag faktiskt helt i ljudboken. 

Vi får lära känna en mängd mer eller mindre udda karaktärer, alla med helt egna personligheter och temperament. Däremot är det bara en berättare, Aiden Bishop, och honom får vi veta minst om, hur konstigt det än låter. Man kan säga att det är en pusseldeckare, men en väldigt originell sådan och mer komplex än t ex Agatha Christies dito (som för övrigt var en stor inspiration till den här boken, enligt författarens efterord). Den kräver fokus och koncentration, kanske lite mer än jag var villig att ge, för jag blev i alla fall överraskad av upplösningen (tack och lov - jag brukar bli besviken om jag kommer på lösningen i förtid!).

Det här är en bok som det passar att gå in ganska blind i. Jag visste egentligen bara att den var annorlunda på något sätt och det brukar räcka för mig. Det gjorde också att jag till en början inte hade någon aning om vad som försiggick och jag bjöds på flera överraskningar längs vägen. Att det var så många karaktärer inblandade gjorde mig ibland förvirrad och jag fick gå tillbaka för att se vem som var vem, men Turton gjorde verkligen ett bra jobb med att ge alla speciella egenheter. Jag är grymt imponerad av att det här är en debutroman!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug use, Medical trauma, Violence, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity and Sexual assault

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

monstersinspace's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Spoilers throughout: Interesting and well written, I don't know how the author kept up with all the characters and days. I could have done without the whole "omg this character is so fat and disgusting how can he even exist" chapters but what can you do? I actually did predict most of the ending, but I don't know how I feel about Aiden forgiving Anna for brutally torturing and killing his sister and arguably he didn't he just chose to live as someone that it basically didn't happen to. Also it's not like Anna realized she was a horrible disgusting murder, they literally just made her forget she was and I don't think that's the same thing. It all kind of just doesn't vibe with me, usually people who think anything is forgivable are the ones that need that forgiveness.  Also the fact that Anna can just live without the horrible things she did if she wanted to, while her victims have to remember it every day is really fucked up. The whole time Aiden interacts with multiple people who love brutality and murder and he's disgusted by them, yet he's totally cool with Anna having done that cause he thinks she changed but all she did was forget how much she loved those things. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Murder, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, and Drug use

juanat77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Murder, Blood, Cursing, Infidelity, Torture, Alcohol, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Bullying, Death, Body horror, Physical abuse, and Violence

indy_go_go22'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? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Rape

gracenevitt's review against another edition

DNF'ed this book 30% in because of the horrendous fatphobic descriptions and the rest of his general character descriptions. I felt bored and annoyed with the way he kept talking about and describing things and the whole thing seemed like it was getting nowhere anytime soon. knowing I'd have 300 more pages to read, I couldn't continue. the concept of the book is GENUINELY interesting and I tried pushing through for the sake of that, but ultimately just figured it would slump me out, so I gave up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Physical abuse and Murder

iamaprettyflower's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Drug use, Violence, Infidelity, Murder, Alcohol, Child death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Blood, Classism, Gun violence, Physical abuse, and Self harm

wickedgrumpy'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? 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 against another edition

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