Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

89 reviews

chloesteele_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape

bill_nai_bxtch's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

fraise's review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent and War

amicamerlo's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

chrnclesofnadia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Difficult to get into but all around rewarding

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

2.75

This is interesting, but it had way too many characters for me to keep track of, and I didn't feel like I "knew" any of them, even after 17 hours of audiobook. I also may have not been a huge fan of the writing style.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual harassment

Avoid if you don't like: torture, trying to remember about 24 vaguely similar characters, or telling instead of showing.

twistykris's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

2.0

I honestly was going to DNF this book about 20% in and I wish I had. I loved the concept of this (especially since I'm going through a phase of wanting to read murder mysteries) but I seriously struggled getting through this.

1. The fatphobia made me so so uncomfortable. Aiden is in a host body of one character, and every other paragraph talks about how "huge" and "grotesque" this man is, and how every piece of furniture "creaks" under his "immense" weight, and how he has "many greasy chins." It felt excessive and unnecessary (yes, he's fat, you hate how fat he is when you're in his body, we get it. And sure, maybe some of it was
   because the thoughts and memories of the hosts start to take over Aiden's mind, and maybe this is that character's own self-hate and internalized fatphobia but YIKES
   ).  
2. I don't mind reading a book I feel is dense or challenging. But maybe my brain was just not prepared for the absolute string-and-post-it-note levels of dense this book felt. I had to make a GoogleDoc to keep track of who said what when and who interacted with who because as it turns out, tiny little details would pop up later and I had to be constantly re-reading and flipping back to previous chapters, and not in a fun "OH I'M MAKING A CONNECTION" way; more of a "wait, who said what? I'm so confused" way. To be honest: this book made me feel dumb as hell at times.
3. I couldn't seem to be invested in these characters. I felt a twinge of it for Aiden closer to the ending after a big reveal, but nothing that made me hold my breath in anticipation, fear, or excitement.
4. Without spoilers: the ending left me feeling a sort of "ick."
5. There were some things that felt unanswered in an unsatisfying way.

All in all, I'm giving this a 2.25- this book wasn't for me. I went into this book, craving a "Benoit Blanc"-style mystery but it left me feeling disappointed. Maybe it was a wrong-book-wrong-time scenario, maybe I would never have enjoyed this. But I leave with the knowledge that I need to learn when to put a book down if it isn't giving me satisfaction. 

If you enjoy a book that will make you put up a whiteboard to keep track of the intricate webs, if you enjoy multiple twists that leave you feeling a smidge lost and wanting to find the connections, if you feel compelled to immediately re-read a complex book so you can pick up on all the details you missed the first time, this might be the book for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Ableism and Death of parent

laurajordensharris's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense slow-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: Addiction, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

4.0

This was pretty good. Loved the mystery and all the twists and turns it brought us through. It is very long so I'm glad I listened to the audio. I'll be real, I don't think I would've liked it as much if I physically read it because of how long and kind of slow it is. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

mindybrown's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Normally with murder mysteries I can figure out who-dun-it fairly quickly, but this one kept me guessing until the very end. Excellent, totally 5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape and Self harm