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Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
13 reviews
graciffer's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Alcohol, Child death, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Suicide, and Violence
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Drug use, Addiction, and Rape
claudiamacpherson's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
When Dr. Bell wakes, he is in a forest, with no memories—not the previous day, not his family, not even his own name—just the name Anna. He hears a woman calling for help and then a gunshot, and then a mysterious person (a murderer?) hands him a compass and tells him to go east. Following these dubious directions, he arrives at Blackheath, a crumbling estate currently hosting a reunion of sorts. On the following day, Bell wakes up as the Butler, and learns that he is not Bell, and it is not the following day. He is someone else entirely, but he will be trapped in a new body every day for eight days—but really just the same day, re-lived eight times from eight different perspectives. The only way to escape: he must solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, who dies every evening like clockwork. But there are others in the house also trying to solve the murder—and only one can escape. There are many secrets in Blackheath, and Evelyn’s is not the only murder.
I could barely keep track of all the characters, let alone the twists and turns of the plot. Everything was a red herring, but also nothing was, because there were so many details and so many awful deeds and characters up to no good. This book reminded me a bit of <i>The Guest List</i> because both books consist of a group of unbearable characters trapped in one place. Both have dark, twisting plots and new details (and crimes), both past and present, are slowly revealed as the story progresses.I The ending really threw me off though, because it felt totally different from the rest of the book. The worldbuilding was half-baked at best, and so few details were given about the world outside of Blackheath that I thought there was little point in giving any at all. Why introduce Anna/Annabell and Aidan’s backstories and then barely use them? I did appreciate the anti-prison stance the story took, as well as the themes of forgiveness and the ability of people to change for the better.
I think I’ve mentioned this in other reviews, but I’ll say it again: while it’s not a bad thing to have a male author, it is a red flag for me if I can tell that the author is a man from the writing alone. This was one of those books. I mean seriously, you’re going to have your protagonist jump between eight different bodies and not one of them is going to be a woman? I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but I could also tell from the way Turton described his female characters...so yeah, that rubbed me the wrong way on occasion. There was also some fatphobia in his descriptions of Ravencourt, so if that’s a trigger for you, I’d avoid this book.
Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just the vibe of the ending):Like… sort of happy? I guess? I liked the message of the ending, but it wasn’t exactly satisfying.
I could barely keep track of all the characters, let alone the twists and turns of the plot. Everything was a red herring, but also nothing was, because there were so many details and so many awful deeds and characters up to no good. This book reminded me a bit of <i>The Guest List</i> because both books consist of a group of unbearable characters trapped in one place. Both have dark, twisting plots and new details (and crimes), both past and present, are slowly revealed as the story progresses.
I think I’ve mentioned this in other reviews, but I’ll say it again: while it’s not a bad thing to have a male author, it is a red flag for me if I can tell that the author is a man from the writing alone. This was one of those books. I mean seriously, you’re going to have your protagonist jump between eight different bodies and not one of them is going to be a woman? I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but I could also tell from the way Turton described his female characters...so yeah, that rubbed me the wrong way on occasion. There was also some fatphobia in his descriptions of Ravencourt, so if that’s a trigger for you, I’d avoid this book.
Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just the vibe of the ending):
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Gore, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Vomit
Minor: Abandonment, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence
iviarelle's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
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
2.0
I really wanted to like this. I tried. I gave it every chance I could find it in me to give.
I just kinda can't. And it's for one primary and one secondary reason.
Firstly, and most obviously, this book doesn't offer its female characters any depth. Every woman on the page is a one note tune. Even in the twists that involve a woman, they're the most overused and unsubtle kind of tropes. If depth is attributed to a woman, it's only through telling us she's more, not by showing us. And that's a problem.
The second problem is... Less widely recognized. The men in this story don't get a whole lot of depth either, which is a little obfuscated by the much wider range of types of men that exist in the story. But, some of those men are horrific tropes walking.
Take Ravencourt: every moment spent with him is spent thinking about how fat he is. Almost every paragraph includes some remark about shameful gross obesity or how difficult his being shamefully obese makes it to walk down a flat hallway. While it's true that being fat is hard, there's WAY too much judgement and downright fatphobia or fatmisia in every line of the parts where he's mentioned.
Take the drug dealing doctor, the privileged rapist whose mother buys his way out of trouble again and again... It's all part of a pattern and not one that flatters the author's sender of creativity or knowledge of human nature.
You could argue that the point of the story is to be flat and unsubtle, but I don't buy it. I think this could have been much more interesting if the author had given a damn. And giving a damn is the least we should expect from people or books these days.
I just kinda can't. And it's for one primary and one secondary reason.
Firstly, and most obviously, this book doesn't offer its female characters any depth. Every woman on the page is a one note tune. Even in the twists that involve a woman, they're the most overused and unsubtle kind of tropes. If depth is attributed to a woman, it's only through telling us she's more, not by showing us. And that's a problem.
The second problem is... Less widely recognized. The men in this story don't get a whole lot of depth either, which is a little obfuscated by the much wider range of types of men that exist in the story. But, some of those men are horrific tropes walking.
Take Ravencourt: every moment spent with him is spent thinking about how fat he is. Almost every paragraph includes some remark about shameful gross obesity or how difficult his being shamefully obese makes it to walk down a flat hallway. While it's true that being fat is hard, there's WAY too much judgement and downright fatphobia or fatmisia in every line of the parts where he's mentioned.
Take the drug dealing doctor, the privileged rapist whose mother buys his way out of trouble again and again... It's all part of a pattern and not one that flatters the author's sender of creativity or knowledge of human nature.
You could argue that the point of the story is to be flat and unsubtle, but I don't buy it. I think this could have been much more interesting if the author had given a damn. And giving a damn is the least we should expect from people or books these days.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
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