Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

63 reviews

cheye13's review against another edition

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

The first half of this felt like a very promising murder mystery with a little supernatural twist. It initially seemed that the main character would get over the "rules" and piece together clues over the course of the book. Unfortunately, the back half dropped the ball. The supernatural stuff took over and pieces of the mystery(s) were either dropped, glossed over, or tied up way too conveniently. The premise was promising, but this story tried to hard to be both genres, instead of picking one main one and sprinkling the second genre for flavor.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Grief, and Stalking

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

the fatphobia is egregious; it's my reading that it's internalized fatphobia, as it's contained to the chapters in which the main character inhabits the fat persona, intended to exemplify the effect the different hosts' personalities have on the main character, but is still very tactlessly written, and is sustained through a significant portion of the book.

folst015's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

blackheart's review against another edition

challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Interesting mystery, with some twitsts and turns I wasn't expecting.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Murder

sarah_speaks'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death and Child death

Minor: Infidelity and Rape

teatales's review against another edition

mysterious

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

3.0

I think I liked the premise more than the book itself, although obviously I kept reading through the several hundred pages. The last quarter of the book felt like it had too many twists.

And the weird explanation for the whole host swapping thing left much to be desired, as did the ending. I find it quite boring when it turns out to be some ~crazy~ woman as the killer

Hated the fatphobia as well 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, and Drug use

Minor: Colonisation

kimmy0__0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

I thought this was a very intriguing premise for a book. Until about half way through I didn't make any connections to what was happening and it was a little slow.

I figured out pretty early that this was some kind of prison system, but as for the actual murderer(s) this was a very tangled web.

Overall I thought it was a great read, especially for Agatha Christie book lovers.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Violence, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Misogyny, Rape, Stalking, and Alcohol

amartin48's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

yuidf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Torture

artstitute's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

This book was full of twists and turns, some of which I found more compelling than others.

The big twist that the whole plot was some cooked-up punishment a la Black Mirror kind of felt unnecessary to me. It didn't ruin the rest of the book, but it introduced a lot of moral quandaries that I don't think added much. OTOH, the Evelyn twist? IMMACULATE.

All in all, though, I definitely couldn't put it down and I would recommend it!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Gore, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

uv_sensibility's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.25

The first 100 or so pages were strong and enthralling. Then the gratuitous fatphobia came in. And then, the myriad of underdeveloped concepts. 

I feel like this book could've been so much better if the author split it up into a series. I loved the murder mystery, time-travel, groundhog day concepts. It's a very twisty book, but some of the twists just didn't do it for me. They felt unresolved & medium-rare. 

The author has a very strong voice and is great at writing vividly. I felt that his (over)use of dialogue was overdone. Sometimes less is more, you know? Then again, that's down to personal preference.

Also, a bit of a nitpick, but... why does the summary give us the MC's name if he spends the first 100 or so pages trying to find his identity? I feel like that could've been kept secret to naturally unravel in the story rather than have us already know the answer
...😅

It's an easy read despite its length. The concepts are fun and the author knows how to write. But... the twists and turns, characters, and some concepts feel underdeveloped. It could've benefited from being split into a multi-part series. And, once more, was the fatphobia really that necessary?

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, and Sexual harassment