Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

47 reviews

smkelly1997's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is slow in the beginning but it works. It all adds up.  The last 25% of the book I didn’t want to put down. The twists and turns and a major plot twist at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Blood, Murder, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Suicide, Child death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Torture

prettycloud's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

A whirlwind mystery, continually bamboozling and delightful, excellently paced. New clues only lead to new questions, and though the ending is a series of twists, they make sense and satisfy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Infidelity

Minor: Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Eating disorder, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Confinement, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Grief

No in-text rape but a perspective character has raped women in the past. No in-text drug abuse but a perspective character is still high from previous drug use and there is alcohol use and abuse.

No in-text suicide but a perspective character sees what they think is

suicide. Several murders happen in a thriller/murder mystery context, so there's grief and trauma but the vibe is more action-y and solution-oriented. If you have trauma around the "justice" system, be warned that the main characters

are on trial/imprisoned in a fantasy/metaphysical way, so there's no literal lawyer/judge/prison content, but their freedom will be decided based on a judgment of their actions.

geekberry's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Stalking, Murder, Death, Body shaming, and Blood

Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Confinement, and Drug use

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

helenferg's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Confinement, Child death, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Gaslighting, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

cassielaj's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

This book is a WILD ride

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Violence, Torture, Infidelity, Grief, Death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Drug use, Medical content, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, and Alcohol

kjm_x's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Blood, Child death, Classism, Confinement, and Violence

graciffer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Alcohol, Child death, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Drug use, Addiction, and Rape

sarahcherie's review against another edition

challenging mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.0

In the minority that seem to not really mesh well with this book. I found the different hosts difficult to distinguish between, and the only real defining features of the characters were reflective about how the MC felt about their bodies while inhabiting them. The plot twists were good, and were well explained, but the writing style fell flat for me, so that I wasn't invested enough to really care who killed Evelyn, though I did come close to figuring out the big reveal in the end anyway. I often found myself skimming the paragraphs without really obtaining any information, so I had to go back and reread passages to even know a plot twist had been introduced. 2/5 stars for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Confinement, Violence, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Murder, Death, Drug use, and Suicide

dustghosts's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

+ Beautiful turns of phrase, figurative language, the kind of writing that makes me want to also sit down and write
+ Satisfyingly cyclical, repetitive but full of just the right twists and turns that you want to keep reading to figure out what the exact same scene and setup looks like through a different set of eyes
+ Super exciting exploration and expansion of how to use POV to invoke emotion, tell a thrilling story, and string everything together
+ A very charming cast of absolutely unbearable little bastards; feels like you gain an evolving and empathetic understanding of each character with each new day

+ Despite the author’s sort of muddled/overly neutral comments in his own commentary, I find the book to be a pretty compelling allegory for and argument against the carceral state. The text itself feels distinctly poised against both the current prison system and the future potential for “mental imprisonment”.

- Some really egregious fatphobia that feels uncomfortable and gross to read, especially for a contemporary book. Not really skippable, either— while this character has other values to the narrative, fatness is treated as a debilitating moral failing reflective of character.
- So extremely British—
- Near the end, starts to feel as though things are being wrapped up too quickly, not quite as immersive as the rest of the book.

For example, I think we’re supposed to interpret Annabelle before Blackheath as as heinous as Daniel, whose villainy we’ve watched develop and worsen throughout the week. But whoever she was before feels too simply and vaguely summarized in comparison to the blunt relaying of Daniels crimes throughout the rest of the book. I wish we could spend a little more time remembering WITH Aiden, though I suppose the pacing might suffer for that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide attempt, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Suicide, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Body horror, Addiction, Classism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Rape, Vomit, Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

maddox22's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, and Torture

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault