Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

281 reviews

emct's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Rape

meesha_mo's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

2.5

Reading this was like watching Lost all over again. The longer I read this book, the less I enjoyed it. How many mysteries need to stuffed into one book? The timeline of it all was hard to keep track of so I stopped trying. There were too many details to keep track of. The pacing was so slow. There was no tension with the way it was written. The mechanics of this world are never explained - not a one. Also, the ending???

So they're free? But are there bodies still in the prison - like is this a mental thing? If it's a physical thing, like they're actually at Black Heath, where's Aiden's body? Magic? Very advanced science? Also, 30 years they've been at this? Also, if he volunteered to go in, why make him answer the question/solve the murder? Just let him out. Especially when they realized he was losing himself?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Rape and Child death

iamaprettyflower's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Drug use, Violence, Infidelity, Murder, Alcohol, Child death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Blood, Classism, Gun violence, Physical abuse, and Self harm

placeholder13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Torture, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Rape, Misogyny, and Alcohol

zerer's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

4.25

I personally really enjoyed reading this book! Felt there were so many twists and turns especially as I got closer and closer to finishing it up. It did take me a bit to get into the book as I did jump from a completely different genre and tone of voice but nonetheless it was an interesting read from beginning to end. I do wish I had the detective skills that Aiden has!! 

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Content Warnings

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

shawniejo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Medical content, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Murder, Pregnancy, and Violence

Moderate: Torture and Suicide attempt

Minor: Rape

smjackson29's review against another edition

challenging 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Minor: Rape

sgillenwater's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Fatphobia

star's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was complicated for me. I really enjoyed it, but it was pretty hard to get through at points. Possibly that was because I was already anxiety-ridden waiting for something in my personal life, but the palpable anxiety throughout the book did not help me.

I found the relationships between the characters quite interesting, but unraveling it took quite a bit of time. Especially jumping between the hosts, I felt like I needed a huge wall of pictures and colorful yarn to figure that out. 

I will say that the ending made the book very worth it for me. Between all the points being added and deducted in my brain for various things, I think I have settled on a 4 star rating. Good enough to finish, but not good enough to keep -- I will be donating this sometime soon. (Which is great, as I bought it at a half-price used books sort of deal, and I believe it was one of the donated ones (they also carry limited new selections).) 

Now, for the spoiler portion:

I found the comparison of Anna to Hitler to be unnecessary, especially because Aiden just fucking ignored that anyway. I LOVED the twist ending, though - I did not expect for a second that Evelyn was actually Felicity, and that the REAL Evelyn was hiding. I also can appreciate how many of the characters died in various ways that WEREN'T Evelyn. I can't believe they wiped out the entire Hardcastle family in this book.

Finding out that Evelyn was to be married to Ravenscourt killed me though. And so many little plot points just stood out to me. It was a shame it was a bit of a slog.

I have seen a lot of complaints online about the descriptions of Ravenscourt in this book. Personally, the fatphobia was expected for me. As someone who is "medically obese" (a term I hate) it bothered me, but not enough to get me to stop reading. It was quite repetitive and gratuitous, as most of his descriptions of the characters "negative" traits are, but oh well. I do think that I would not have read this book if I had seen those reviews first.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Abandonment, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death, Rape, and Fatphobia