Reviews tagging 'Classism'

Les sept morts d'Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

73 reviews

medini_l's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Violence, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Murder, Blood, Death, Classism, Sexual assault, Eating disorder, and Child death

twistykris's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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

2.0

I honestly was going to DNF this book about 20% in and I wish I had. I loved the concept of this (especially since I'm going through a phase of wanting to read murder mysteries) but I seriously struggled getting through this.

1. The fatphobia made me so so uncomfortable. Aiden is in a host body of one character, and every other paragraph talks about how "huge" and "grotesque" this man is, and how every piece of furniture "creaks" under his "immense" weight, and how he has "many greasy chins." It felt excessive and unnecessary (yes, he's fat, you hate how fat he is when you're in his body, we get it. And sure, maybe some of it was
   because the thoughts and memories of the hosts start to take over Aiden's mind, and maybe this is that character's own self-hate and internalized fatphobia but YIKES
   ).  
2. I don't mind reading a book I feel is dense or challenging. But maybe my brain was just not prepared for the absolute string-and-post-it-note levels of dense this book felt. I had to make a GoogleDoc to keep track of who said what when and who interacted with who because as it turns out, tiny little details would pop up later and I had to be constantly re-reading and flipping back to previous chapters, and not in a fun "OH I'M MAKING A CONNECTION" way; more of a "wait, who said what? I'm so confused" way. To be honest: this book made me feel dumb as hell at times.
3. I couldn't seem to be invested in these characters. I felt a twinge of it for Aiden closer to the ending after a big reveal, but nothing that made me hold my breath in anticipation, fear, or excitement.
4. Without spoilers: the ending left me feeling a sort of "ick."
5. There were some things that felt unanswered in an unsatisfying way.

All in all, I'm giving this a 2.25- this book wasn't for me. I went into this book, craving a "Benoit Blanc"-style mystery but it left me feeling disappointed. Maybe it was a wrong-book-wrong-time scenario, maybe I would never have enjoyed this. But I leave with the knowledge that I need to learn when to put a book down if it isn't giving me satisfaction. 

If you enjoy a book that will make you put up a whiteboard to keep track of the intricate webs, if you enjoy multiple twists that leave you feeling a smidge lost and wanting to find the connections, if you feel compelled to immediately re-read a complex book so you can pick up on all the details you missed the first time, this might be the book for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Murder, Body shaming, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Rape, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, Classism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent and Ableism

laurajordensharris's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Blood, Drug use, Classism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Sexism, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Murder, Torture, Violence, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment

bealittlebrave's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

To call this "ambitious" is such an understatement. I don't understand how anyone can even begin to layout this story and its timelines (and at this point I'm trusting blindly that they all add up correctly because I wouldn't know if he snuck one past me).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dementia, Suicide, Rape, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Death, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Addiction, Classism, Confinement, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Violence, Drug use, Torture, Suicide attempt, and Stalking

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This was a marvelously creative and captivating murder mystery. A creative twist in the premise helps shake things up, but it is far from the only trick this book has up its sleeves. A fun workout for the brain with a great narrative voice and complex mystery that will appeal to all fans of the genre, with a surprisingly poignant message at the center of it all. Would be a 5 star if only it fleshed out its message just a bit more, and the occasional moment that raised my eyebrow (but didn’t quite offend).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Grief, Torture, Classism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Murder, Blood, Gaslighting, Death, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Gore, and Child death

Moderate: Rape and Suicidal thoughts

smkelly1997's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.25

This book is slow in the beginning but it works. It all adds up.  The last 25% of the book I didn’t want to put down. The twists and turns and a major plot twist at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Blood, Murder, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Suicide, Child death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Torture

ajourneythroughpages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Physical abuse, Child death, Fatphobia, Murder, Deadnaming, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Torture, Classism, Drug use, Gore, and Kidnapping

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, Suicide attempt, and Violence

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

Minor: Alcohol

tacoshark's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Ableism, Child death, Classism, Drug use, Suicide, Addiction, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual violence and Sexual assault

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

Moderate: Death of parent, Fatphobia, and Infidelity

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

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.