Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Die sieben Tode der Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

22 reviews

remmingtom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Classism

maryconney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Torture, Medical content, Stalking, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Homophobia, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

jstilts's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

An intriguing and complex tale that starts gently with an amnesiac discovering themselves at a 1920s British mansion day-long party, but quickly progresses into a rollercoaster "groundhog day" murder mystery where our sleuth wakes in a new host body as the day begins anew to try and solve or stop the murder that ends the day, all while avoiding unknown antagonists out to kill him in any and all of his host bodies.

It's an intriguing tale that does a great job of putting you in the head of the main character - no mean feat as each time they switch hosts the original personality influences their own.

That, to put it mildly, is the simple summary - the book is much more twisty and complex - but an absolute page-turner.

While it's hardly unusual for a murder mystery to have unexpected layers revealed late in the piece by the detective, this time it pretty much derailed the book for me. It's unusual flow of time and character is a lot of enjoyable work to keep up with, without the plot taking a sudden left turn as well. Ordinarily I might consider immediately re-reading the book with this new information in mind, but my brain needs a rest from juggling so very many elements of time, character and place!

One minor niggle on top: the backstory to the whole setup comes across poorly. It's a bit sci-fi when the book is very entrenched in the 1920s, and adds another layer of complexity in an already complex tale. If I was the editor for this book I would have suggested they reframe it as a ghostly supernatural cause, which would fit with the 1920s period better, and was already present in a red-herring manner to obscure that it was going to be a sci-fi explanation.

Still, that's minor, and my issue with the late-in-the-piece complication is my only real complaint, hence giving this gripping book 4 stars.

Surprisingly (mild spoiler) our main character never ends up in the body of someone of a different gender, which seems like a missed opportunity.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, Dysphoria, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Rape, Torture, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

boondogglebooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Disorienting by design, this book was interesting yet somewhat overwhelming. There are a lot of characters— most unlikeable for their own individual reasons — and they’re hard to keep track of. There’s a tricky time loop. The story isn’t told in a linear narrative structure. There’s deceit and confusion and the narrator is incredibly unreliable. The conclusion is intense but satisfying — it was hard to get there but mostly worth the trek. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

riverestyx's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Blood, Vomit, and Medical content

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, and Abortion

carolynthelibrarian's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Body shaming, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Violence, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

hjb_128's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide and Medical content

lilcassieg's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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: Murder

Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug use, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Mental illness, and Rape

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

To relate it to a movie mash up, take Being John Malkovich and pair it with Knives Out with a dash of unexplained world building sci-fi time loop situation. 

Premise was quite good, but the execution suffered.  It dragged in the middle and the wrap up at the end wasn’t very satisfying because it left so many questions unanswered.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism