Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

37 reviews

spookily's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Torture, Medical content, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

lucyselim'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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

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

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

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

davidrb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious 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

4.5

I waffed on what to give this, but I decided that despite my reservations, this thing slaps beyond belief. It completely shifted my perspective on what a good mystery can be, and what a good book can be in general. It was engaging, and I have a feeling I'll get even more out of rereads, but it also has a solid heart: more than I thought it would. Do yourself a favor and pick this up! It's fun.

Points deducted for being kinda slow to start (took me a few tries before I got into it) and a weird, prolonged section of fatphobia.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

readwithde's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This may well be the best old-fashioned mystery I have ever read.

Though I didn't care much for the meta reasons for the story

-- why Aiden was there, what the Plague Doctor was trying to accomplish --

I even loved that there was a reason behind all the madness and that it made sense. It was such a snapshot on how people can change and become different. 

As for the actual mystery, as soon as I figured one thing out, another surprised me. Though I didn't agree with all the choices of the characters, they were a consistent welcome within a constant flux of other characters. 

If you loved Knives Out or the Poirot books, this book is for you.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Drug use, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Stalking, and Alcohol

lucyrosemack's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

i didn’t like this book. it was long, the twists weren’t obvious but also the first twist

in which we find out that the thing is a prison and then anna is the murderer of aidens sister

was out of left field in the worst way. it made sense for context but if there was anything to expand on more of, it would have been that. i liked the ending of the mystery, but i didn’t need the context, not really, and i feel like it kind of detracted from the feelings i had toward the main characters. 

also, it was an incredibly long book, and it didn’t need to be. there were details, little checkhov gun moments that paid off, but there were also things said that didn’t pay off, characters given too much weight or time for them to not be important at all. i also think that the setting and the timing could have been structured better, considering that was the entire content of the book, yet i still found myself confused. there were too many words in this book for the payoff, and i wish that each body he inhabits had more consistency in the amount of things we learn about them and the complaints he has about them. 

for example, ravencourt is the third host, and he comes in very early and stays for a long time in the book, and yet the entire time he was in the body, we heard graphic and extreme complaints about the weight of his host and the excruciating life of a person in a bigger body. the next body he goes into is that if a rapists, and he doesn’t seem to complain as much right off the bat the same way he does with ravencourt, and at one point i believe compares the two and says that at least he can move around more, which is so fucked up. in what world is being fat comparable to being a rapist in terms of horridness. 

just really poorly done for a really interesting idea of a groundhog day, different body each day, timed, dinner party murder mystery. two hundred pages less and a few less negative comments and maybe a more consistent approach, and it would have been great. i think this book dies in trying to do too much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Death of parent

lovely_lisa's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism and Animal death

Minor: Rape