Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Les sept morts d'Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

116 reviews

maeverose's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, and Mental illness

Minor: Racism, Sexual content, Excrement, and Grief

Implied rape, memory loss, poisoning

genny's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.75

I was apprehensive about this book because I felt lukewarm about The Devil and the Dark Water, but I enjoyed this so much more! Tense and gripping, this could make for a really fun live-action adaptation. I also think it would've been fun to annotate a physical copy (I had the ebook from my library) and go ham with plotting time stamps, locations, etc. 😆 

It's a testament to Turton's writing that the protagonist's voice always felt distinct despite him waking up in different bodies. For all of Aiden's confusion, he was still way smarter than me because I was scrambling to keep up with his plans, haha. He was always one step ahead of me in figuring it all out, but it was entertaining enough that I didn't mind just going along for the ride. The glimpses we got of the "outside world" were enough to establish some sort of dystopian society, and this (along with some important reveals) allowed for commentary on the justice system that I thought was well-done. Surprisingly, I got quite emotional towards the end! I'd give this 5 stars except all of the language regarding Ravencourt's body bothered me (check content warnings); I understand needing to emphasize the difficulties of each host but the author went over-the-top there IMO.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol

Aiden inhabits the body of an obese man and there's a LOT of comments about how difficult it was to navigate his surroundings, being unable to stop gorging on food, feeling useless because of his body, etc. He also inhabits the body of a rapist. He doesn't sexually attack anyone but feels the urge to do so.

kaleewinterbottom's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Grief, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail

nellkristen's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Suicide, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Alcohol

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

Moderate: Fatphobia, Infidelity, and Death of parent

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

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.

abbs15norm's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Animal death, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, and Classism

whatathymeitwas'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? It's complicated

5.0

This was a really wonderful experience. When I first started it, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it, as everything is a bit befuddled and there's a reasonably large cast of characters involved, but it's so well written I was immersed and attached in no time.

This reminded me a bit of the play/TV film "An Inspector Calls." Not necessarily for any real direct reason other than they're both examples of very unique ways to approach a mystery, but that alone must have made the connection. I'll be very excited to watch this whenever they finally get it in series form.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

gretag's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Torture, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

elizabeth_lepore's review against another edition

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Fatphobia, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Drug abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

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

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

Minor: Fire/Fire injury