Reviews with content warning for Rape - Les sept morts d'Evelyn Hardcastle

This my second attempt to read this book. The first, I made it about 50 pages before it became a DNF. This time, I listened to the audio. The voice actor did great; cannot recommend him enough!

That being said, I want, so badly, to love this book. The reimagining of many familiar ideas into something new is a lovely undertaking, but it just didn't hit right for me. The first 3/4 of the book felt like a slog and the last quarter was like watching a furious ping pong match as revelation after revelation takes place (both for the characters and the reader). The premise, plot, and implied (but not observed) character development are all clever. The execution though (for me) was just off.

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634's review against another edition

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mysterious 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? No

1.75

The premise of this book was very intriguing but it started off slow, and was hard to connect to a main character with no sense of self. As the book went on he became absolutely unbearable and so did the plot.

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blewballoon's review against another edition

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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

3.5

I was intrigued and a little intimidated by the premise of this book, but the intimidation wasn't needed. The author does a good job of dropping the reader into the story and having the POV character figure things out along the way. This book feels like a mystery-thriller, and leans more one way or the other depending on which body the main character is inhabiting and how that host's mind works. I did sometimes get annoyed by the

footman popping up to be a malicious murderous nuisance in scenes where there was already danger and tension, so he felt like overkill.

The descriptions of people are mostly grotesque and include mentions of being fleshy, wrinkled, or gaunt. If it's a maid, they are almost universally described like "[hair color] spilling out of her cap" on introduction. Minor complaint aside, the descriptions across the book in general are very immersive and quickly get you a mental picture of the scene. I was very absorbed in trying to put the pieces of the mystery together, but didn't solve it for myself before the reveal.

I don't love when a murderer's motivation is basically just that they're a psychopath, that feels lame. There was so much to the mystery that there should have been enough for a more compelling motivation.

I also don't know how I feel about the explanations offered for the premise

I remember feeling a little taken out of the story when the plague doctors spoke to each other. I never got a good sense of what time period this was. It seemed like an afterlife thing, like maybe they were in purgatory, but then it sounded like this was the normal prison system for living people??

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lovetlr's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.25

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pageturner777's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

What a let down. There’s so much to slog through just to get to the end which was an incredibly sloppy & rushed finish. I think it’s a cool concept and I was very excited about it. I kept pushing through the book because I was really hopeful the ending would have a twist that would wrap everything up or explain. Nope. To everyone that DNF, you didn’t miss anything.

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dorin_d's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious 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

4.5

initially slow to start but after 3/4 if the way through i found that i could not put it down! a murder mystery with a time loop at its centre made reading it sometimes confusing, but still enjoyable. i do wonder if the book may have too many plot twists, especially when

we find out this loop is happening inside a prison as punishment for inmates, like a black mirror episode,

as i found this introduced more questions than answers.

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itzbrianna's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle had a great idea behind this book. Having to solve a murder that reoccurs the same day while the protagonist is in the body of a different host is a great and interesting idea for a book. The plot sounded fun which is why I jumped at the chance to read this. However, despite wanting to like this book, the very first chapter just didn’t hook me.

It was hard to care about any of the characters and especially the protagonist. I was only interested in the main mystery so anything that ventured off of it seemed pointless. And this book was way longer than it needed to be.

I enjoy long books that have strong character development and interesting storylines to keep you hooked. But this novel wasn’t that. The writing made it hard for me to stay engaged. Not to mention the blatant ableism and fatphobic commentary throughout the book.

The concept as a whole would’ve been great had it not been for those things. It’s an ok novel and if you enjoy drawn out mysteries with this kind of writing style you’d enjoy this. I, however, did not.

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