Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Les sept morts d'Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

104 reviews

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

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.

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

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

anaodaniel's review against another edition

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? Yes

0.25

A hollow waste of time pretending to be a meaningful story about redemption. This book is so empty, the only thing it’s full of is itself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming and Fatphobia

Moderate: Drug abuse, Violence, and Murder

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

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

dascha's review against another edition

adventurous 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Infertility, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Rape, Torture, and Blood

elle_dee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mjwhitlock18's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

4.0

Agatha Christie murder mystery meets Groundhog Day, where the main character relives the same day 8 times in 8 different host bodies, with the goal of solving the crime. An entertaining and creative concept, mostly well executed, though I was occasionally confused by the timeline.   I love that I never really felt like I knew for sure who did it, and that kept the twists exciting. 

Read this as part of a bookclub, which I think helped me get through slow parts at the beginning and stay invested for twists at the end. Could’ve done without the fatphobia, body shaming, and ableism though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism

jabletowns's review against another edition

It was surprisingly boring given the fun tropes involved but also was disheartening in its unironic embrace of bodyshaming and ableism. Had to throw with great force. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming

Moderate: Ableism