Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

64 reviews

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?

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Content Warnings

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

pravi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.25

loved it, the characters and the plot were intriguing, and i loved the different perspectives of the characters and the groundhog day style setting. but i felt like there was too much going on and i couldnt really keep track of any of the characters except anna and evelyn. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Animal death

fraise's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent and War

amicamerlo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

This unique locked-room mystery is like Freaky Friday meets Groundhog Day—in a dark, historical country setting, of course.  The novel jumps right in with the main character lost on the grounds of a once-handsome estate—he doesn’t know where he is or how he got there; he doesn’t even know his own name.  Come to find out that he’s been tasked with solving a murder, and he’ll have eight chances to do so.  Each day he’ll wake up in a different body, none of them his own.  The only way he can stop reliving this nightmare is to find out who killed Evelyn Hardcastle.  With lots of moving pieces, Stuart Turton’s debut is sure to keep you guessing.  James Cameron Stewart’s narration sets the scene perfectly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infidelity, Violence, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death and Child death

winnie_is_swag's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Quite literally one of the best books I've ever read. The plot twist at the end was... insane. I recommend this to literally anyone who asks for recommendations. It is very slow paced, but I PROMISE it is so worth it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Alcohol

chrnclesofnadia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Difficult to get into but all around rewarding

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

hillarym's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Drug use

maeverose's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

I think the concept is super cool but I’m not a fan of how it was executed.

Pros:

I like the writing style, and I’ll acknowledge that the author has to be pretty smart to have come up with this story and make everything connect. It was also not at all predictable.

Cons:

First, It’s overly convoluted. There’s too many characters and events to keep track of, and because it’s jumping around in time so much it’s difficult to follow where you are and whats happened or not happened yet in the day. I think it would’ve been better if it had been done in a way that was a little less confusing for the reader. Less characters, and less unnecessary details. By the time I was about halfway through I was pretty bored and only really reading to find out who Aiden, Anna and the plague doctor were and how he was reliving the same day over and over. That was the most interesting part to me, I didn’t end up caring about the murder mystery at all. I did find the explanation of the fantasy elements to be really interesting, but we were given hardly any information about it. I felt like we should have gotten more.

Second, the body shaming. I’d heard going in that it had fatphobia in it but.. maybe I’m being dramatic but I don’t know how this was able to get published without anyone suggesting the author tone it down a bit. I don’t know how the author thought he could publish that without backlash. It’s really bad. I don’t know how anyone could actually think that way about another person’s body. Every single thing about Ravencourt’s appearance he describes in an unflattering or insulting way. And it’s never corrected in the narrative so that makes me think that’s the author’s thoughts. It’s not just that either, I felt that there was a lot of body shaming in general throughout this book, including ableism. The only characters that are ever described as being attractive are white, young, blonde and fit/thin. I think the only exception to that is Grace, who I believe had dark hair. But everything else still applies.

Third, going off the last one a bit, there’s zero diversity. Everybody is straight, cis, white, and most of the important characters are men. Evelyn and Anna being obviously important to the story but they’re hardly in it compared to the men. None of Aiden’s 8 hosts are women. On top of that, a lot of the people we’re supposed to dislike are described as ‘ugly’ or disfigured.

Fourth, what was the deal with Aiden loving Anna? Even before the reveal of who she was at the end, I didn’t understand why he was so protective of her. He hardly spent any time with her, he didn’t even know her, he knew he couldn’t trust  anyone, and he was straight up told she would betray him, and yet he was determined to save and protect her. He actually loved her, even after finding out who she was and what she did to his sister. I don’t understand how he could care for her after learning that, even if she had changed. That whole thing was just so weird to me

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, and Mental illness

Minor: Racism, Sexual content, Excrement, and Grief

Implied rape, memory loss, poisoning

ajourneythroughpages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Gore, Torture, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Classism