Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

17 reviews

katrinasherise's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Fatphobia

Moderate: Blood, Gun violence, Alcohol, Drug use, Addiction, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Classism, and Infidelity

One character is a serial rapist. No rape happens in the book but is mentioned during his chapters. One character is FREQUENTLY described in fat phobic descriptors. The story is about murder and several occur including descriptions, blood, guns, drowning, injury, stabbing, etc. lots of drug and alcohol use. Description of a child’s murder. Things that will really spoil the ending/reveals:

Infidelity, children from that infidelity. Murder by suicide and plots of faking a 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

thevieira's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, Ableism, Fatphobia, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexism, Blood, Body shaming, Rape, Child death, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

marabdelmageed's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual assault

fgmetzger's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.0

Is this story really hard to put down? Yes. A page turner? Absolutely.
But it’s also extremely fatphobic. There is just zero need for that.
I have a hard time reading men, and this book was just bursting with toxic masculinity.
I finished this one pretty fast, because I had to know what would happen. But I’m just left frustrated.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

sofiya's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

3.5

The first thing I'd like to say is that I listened to this as an audiobook, which I think proved to have some advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that the reader did a great job at making the different characters sound different, which both made it enjoyable and clearer. The disadvantages were that this book requires a lot of focus and attention to details, which are even more difficult to maintain while listening rather than reading.

I enjoyed the book and the concept was interesting- and I love it when both the audience and the main character are in the dark about what's going on so they can learn more together. I also sped through the end because I got into it then.

I do wish that the book had featured female hosts in addition to male ones because I think it would have given the story a bit of a break between the characters (assuming that makes sense)? Lucy/a maid would have been a great perspective to have in my opinion.

Also, the ending was lackluster, unfortunately. I did at one point guess Evelyn to be Thomas's killer, but I wasn't absolutely sure, so I didn't mind her being the "bad guy", but I do wish it had been a bit better executed. I also thought that throwing in Anna as a notorious killer and having Aiden chose to be with her was a bit strange, and the ending gave me optimistic 1984 vibes (which is... weird).

Overall, the book was pretty good. I think I might re-read it eventually knowing all the facts now and see what I pick out as I read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Rape, Violence, Torture, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexism, Infidelity, and Gun violence

leekaufman's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Death, Death of parent, and Child death

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Sexism, Violence, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault