Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Die sieben Tode der Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

24 reviews

oxygenmill's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I am knocking a point off of my score for this book because of how extreme the fatphobia in it is. I would have a difficult time recommending this book to others because of that particular aspect of the story. That major caveat aside, the plot was very interesting, the structure of the mystery complex enough to be compelling without being so hard as to be incomprehensible. I was able to predict a couple of the reveals which was exciting but I didn't predict the whole plot. And there was a reveal near the end that I genuinely did not at all expect. I'm actually considering engaging with the discussion questions at the end of the book in order to spend a little bit more time in the headspace and unpack some of the themes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Gun violence, Torture, and Blood

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug use, Rape, and Alcohol

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

s3ag0at's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

lemerrier's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use and Self harm

esv_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Rape, Grief, and Classism

carlaa_aa's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Ableism, Rape, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

itsheyfay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

catereadsbooks248's review against another edition

slow-paced

2.0

The ending was the only part of the book I was actually invested in - the rest of the book was slow and confusing. I like the idea of time travel/manipulation, but if the authour doesn’t explain/incorporate their “rules” into the plot it’s just frustrating… I was frustrated most of the book.
Also, the extreme fatphobia made it so hard to read!!! You can tell the authour is extremely discriminatory towards larger bodies through how he writes about people in the book - it was so much it was hard to read!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

tneumann's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.5

Ambitious and mostly entertaining, despite my low grade confusion for a good chunk of the book. I appreciate what the author was aiming for - quite the feat to keep track of all the details and weave them together. While I wouldn’t mind if it were shorter, not sure what’d you’d cut out so length was appropriate to fit in all the perspectives from the various hosts. 

A few things that were not my favorite:
1. So much fat phobic language for Ravencort. It was lazy writing, there are better ways to write about this characters physically abilities.
2. Aiden took most things as truth for the first half of the book, happily accepting what various people said and being resolute in whatever the new truth was. Then in the later part, his theories became much more secretive to the reader. I understand why, but it was a bit shift and think there were more skillful ways to keep the reader in the dark.
3.

Wasn’t invested in Anna’s reveal and reformation, the latter felt very unconvincing. Aside from murdering Aiden’s sister, the details were so vague that it was hard to understand the magnitude of what she had done. And how much had she really changed and proven herself other than what we see in her actions over the course of the day. And all is supposed to be forgiven? 
4. Would have liked to understood more about Daniel’s history, and the footman was just a rando killing for fun?

I liked the reveal of the Plague Doctor and that this was all a justice reformation system, and how much time they’d been there.

Interesting, ambitious, fun aside from being confused for a good part of it, and not quite as expertly executed as it could have been.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child death, Drug use, and Fatphobia

cozyfantasyfaetay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

2.5

Slow start, didn't really enjoy it until I knew the twist. Lots of characters and hard for me to follow 😵‍💫 But maybe better for murder mystery fans.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fatphobia, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide, Blood, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Gore, Infidelity, and Classism