Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

50 reviews

bencaroline's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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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maeverose's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

I think the concept is super cool but I’m not a fan of how it was executed.

Pros:
I like the writing style, and I’ll acknowledge that the author has to be pretty smart to have come up with this story and make everything connect. It was also not at all predictable.

Cons:
First, It’s overly convoluted. There’s too many characters and events to keep track of, and because it’s jumping around in time so much it’s difficult to follow where you are and whats happened or not happened yet in the day. I think it would’ve been better if it had been done in a way that was a little less confusing for the reader. Less characters, and less unnecessary details. By the time I was about halfway through I was pretty bored and only really reading to find out who Aiden, Anna and the plague doctor were and how he was reliving the same day over and over. That was the most interesting part to me, I didn’t end up caring about the murder mystery at all. I did find the explanation of the fantasy elements to be really interesting, but we were given hardly any information about it. I felt like we should have gotten more.

Second, the body shaming. I’d heard going in that it had fatphobia in it but.. maybe I’m being dramatic but I don’t know how this was able to get published without anyone suggesting the author tone it down a bit. I don’t know how the author thought he could publish that without backlash. It’s really bad. I don’t know how anyone could actually think that way about another person’s body. Every single thing about Ravencourt’s appearance he describes in an unflattering or insulting way. And it’s never corrected in the narrative so that makes me think that’s the author’s thoughts. It’s not just that either, I felt that there was a lot of body shaming in general throughout this book, including ableism. The only characters that are ever described as being attractive are white, young, blonde and fit/thin. I think the only exception to that is Grace, who I believe had dark hair. But everything else still applies.

Third, going off the last one a bit, there’s zero diversity. Everybody is straight, cis, white, and most of the important characters are men. Evelyn and Anna being obviously important to the story but they’re hardly in it compared to the men. None of Aiden’s 8 hosts are women. On top of that, a lot of the people we’re supposed to dislike are described as ‘ugly’ or disfigured.

Fourth, what was the deal with Aiden loving Anna? Even before the reveal of who she was at the end, I didn’t understand why he was so protective of her. He hardly spent any time with her, he didn’t even know her, he knew he couldn’t trust  anyone, and he was straight up told she would betray him, and yet he was determined to save and protect her. He actually loved her, even after finding out who she was and what she did to his sister. I don’t understand how he could care for her after learning that, even if she had changed. That whole thing was just so weird to me
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tacoshark's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

2.0

Look, this book is impressive in a lot of ways - the plotting is intricate and holds up, and the ultimate mystery is well done and satisfying. However, there are some things about this book that are just too disturbing to let go. First, it’s incredibly violent and a little bit gleefully, at that. Second, there’s a character who is subjected to such disgusting and extensive fat-shaming that it’s repellent (especially when in the readers guide, you learn that this is the author’s favorite character and he wanted to make him deplorable - hard not to connect the dots that he purposely made the character fat so he could use that as another of his negative traits - it’s truly gross). Finally, one of the POV characters is acknowledged to be a serial rapist and yet there’s no accountability for that (in a book theoretically about punishing the monstrous) and you’re, at times, asked to sympathize with him. I finished this because I wanted to see if the plot would hold up, but I will never read this author again and I can’t recommend you do either. This book gets a lot of hype and honestly, it’s gross that it has all this in it and people are still recommending it. I’m only giving it two stars because it is a feat of plotting, but if you care about any of the above, don’t read it. 
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mjwhitlock18's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

4.0

Agatha Christie murder mystery meets Groundhog Day, where the main character relives the same day 8 times in 8 different host bodies, with the goal of solving the crime. An entertaining and creative concept, mostly well executed, though I was occasionally confused by the timeline.   I love that I never really felt like I knew for sure who did it, and that kept the twists exciting. 
Read this as part of a bookclub, which I think helped me get through slow parts at the beginning and stay invested for twists at the end. Could’ve done without the fatphobia, body shaming, and ableism though. 
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jabletowns's review against another edition

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It was surprisingly boring given the fun tropes involved but also was disheartening in its unironic embrace of bodyshaming and ableism. Had to throw with great force. 
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katrinasherise's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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

I loved this book so much. However I could have entirely done without the significant fat phobia in several chapters of this book. That aside, I was totally engrossed in this story. I love that I didn’t have any clue what the ending would be. I was thoroughly shocked at several points in the story. The story was extremely clever and exciting. And an interesting look into values and morals of character.
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lucyselim's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

4.5

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thevieira's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

3.0

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marabdelmageed's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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? No

4.25

A very interesting book -- I don't usually read mystery books, but this one was hard to put down!
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vmp5062's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

I think there were sime really interesting ideas in this book, but I didnt enjoy the authors writing. To start there's a healthy bit of misogyny (looking back Im not sure this book passes the bechdel test), and the ableism is fairly intense as our main character keeps changing bodies and reacts to each one. I also found myself disappointed with the ending. It felt abrupt and frankly I think this book didnt include the parts that would be most interesting.
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