Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

210 reviews

annareads97's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

5.0

Honestly mind blowing. A book that I already can’t wait to read again just to see what I pick up on, now that I know how it ends. At no point did it go where I was convinced it was going. This is one I would pay a good amount of money to be able to read again for the first time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Blood, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Classism, Murder, and Violence

jaysaysnope'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? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

A lot of this books seems opaque for opacity’s sake. It was extremely puzzling, more of an out-and-out mystery than I was expecting, and I actually ended the book with more questions about how this world works. It was well-written and the suspense was compelling, but the author’s ending left me wanting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Suicide attempt, Gore, Blood, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Murder, Gun violence, Child death, and Death

Minor: Rape

breadbummer's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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

3.5

On the whole, it's an interesting premise. What if someone took your run-of-the-mill Victorian murder mystery but twisted it a little to make it so the same person was living the same day over and over again in other people's bodies? In my case, as someone who's always found sleuth stories about rich people getting murdered at fancy parties to be cheesy and repetitive, I found this story to be...well, cheesy and repetitive. Not repetitive in itself, but it uses the types of characters and themes typically found in this genre.

As far as content goes, whenever a cis man writes a book like this with not a few female characters in it, I expect a "she breasted boobily down the stairs" moment to show itself before too terribly long or at least for pretty much all the women to fall for the central male character (no matter how strongly they're written) but, to my pleasant surprise, I don't ever actually remember this happening. HOWEVER!!! If you're particularly sensitive to fatphobia, don't bother even touching this book, much less opening it up. The rather long section in which the main character goes through the day as Ravencourt is punctuated pretty much every sentence or two with disgust of the host's body. It got to be so uncomfortable that I almost dropped the book entirely if it weren't for the fact that I was behind on my reading goal.

I just finished it like half an hour ago, so my take on the ending might still need some time to cook, but I think I enjoyed it. I certainly got got about who the culprit ended up being (which took me some time to appreciate more), and I thought the idea of this whole scenario of Blackheath being kind of like

the episode "White Christmas" from Black Mirror absolutely fascinating to say the least (still wondering if the events at the mansion actually happened earlier on in the timeline and that the plague doctors gained control of it or if absolutely everything was conjured up by them).

I was originally gonna go with a rating of 3.25, but these final twists bumped it up a bit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fatphobia, Murder, Child death, Suicide, Body shaming, Stalking, and Classism

Moderate: Self harm, Gun violence, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault, Drug use, Animal death, Rape, Car accident, Blood, and Body horror

jenbertface's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.75

This book was every bit as mysterious, spooky, and crazy as I hoped it would be. The best part was getting to read it along with @stankmcdanken which made it so much more fun and enjoyable. The writing in this book was so detailed and descriptive, by far the most well written book I’ve read in a long time. The only thing that keeps me from giving it 5 stars is that I feel like the ending goes by too quickly after working for answers across 400 pages. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Child death

Minor: Grief, Infidelity, Suicide, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Rape, and Self harm

shree's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Gore, Murder, Death, Blood, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Self harm, and Child death

Minor: Rape

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fatphobia, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Child death, Death, Blood, and Classism

Minor: Sexual assault

guessgreenleaf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Graphic: Murder, Suicide attempt, Fatphobia, Death, Classism, Child death, Blood, Dysphoria, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Torture and Confinement

emcheym's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

I love the writing style the author uses in this book. The language is so descriptive and the plot is complex. It’s a bit hard to follow at times, but I’m really impressed with the thought and detail that went into the writing. I might consider rereading it at some point just to help understand more of the details.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child death, and Rape

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Mental illness

redefiningrachel's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual violence, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, and Stalking

Moderate: Gore, Drug use, Misogyny, and Grief

bergha1998'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

It’s a groundhog’s day Clue mystery. Everyday the main character wakes up as a different guest at a country party trying to solve a murder. Every different guest has the MC’s soul, but their own personalities and wants. The plot twists are crazy. Such a good mystery with a lot about morality and character development. 

Murder Mystery, Slightly Fantastical, Lots of Violence/Murders

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Blood, Drug use, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Drug abuse, Child death, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, Cursing, Gun violence, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Torture

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape