Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

50 reviews

miacutellitaylor's review against another edition

2.75

mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Child death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

cj13's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

carolinekiiing's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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It was free on Kindle, and that about sums up how I feel about the book. It started out super slow, and I understand the reason why, but the first 75 pages were still certainly a slog. I didn’t feel a particular closeness to any of the characters except for Evelyn, but that totally changed in the end. The Evelyn we came to know wasn’t all too important ironically, and most of the reveals surrounding her murder were either corny as hell or involving a totally irrelevant character just so that the author could say they trick me. The laws of the universe are clumsily explained through some Act III dialogue dump, which feels like the author forgot this was something they had to explain until way too late. Also- Insane fatphobia??? The only fully sympathetic character was just constantly assaulted by the author, as if his weight was some sort of moral failing despite the fact that he is disabled. Weird take, Stuart. 

I liked the gothic setting and an interesting twist on the Groundhog Day troupe, but it wasn’t enough to distract from the weird shit. It’s a kinda fun read when it’s not being annoying or weird, I guess.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Violence, Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Drug use, Misogyny, Torture, Blood, Grief, Stalking

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault

CW: this is a murder mystery-esque, so there are themes of violence, death and murder throughout the novel. Drug use, animal cruelty and torture are mentioned in short detail. There are very brief mentions of rape and sexual harassment through the lens of one character, but it is not central to the plot nor often repeated. Also, the fatphobia is actually worse than anything else, so strap on for that.

madbandit's review against another edition

4.0

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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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, Injury/Injury detail

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

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

maryconney's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Death of parent, Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Torture, Medical content, Stalking, Alcohol, Classism

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Homophobia, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Sexual harassment

a_little_wonky's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Really intriguing premise and writing. I usually stay away from mystery/thriller because I find them predictable but this wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination - and there were many stretches of the imagination. I’d definitely have to read this a second time to catch all the little clues now that I know the ending. Honestly I’m sure I missing things because it was so fast-paced I just kept going, I couldn’t put it down. 4 stars because I do think some plot lines were left hanging (I hate intentionally misleading clues that are never resolved), and time travel isn’t really my jam. But definitely worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization

Minor: Addiction, Rape, Suicide

gracescanlon's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Medical content, Suicide attempt

Minor: Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, War

lemerrier's review against another edition

3.75

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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Drug use, Self harm

kirtreads's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book has such a fun premise, the setting is fun, and it has some great twists throughout. The author does a good job of capturing the Agatha Christie vibe very well. 

However, this book has some issues. First, there are so many characters and all have small details that you need to remember. It gets very complicated and some of it feels redundant. The main character says his head feels full to bursting by the end and I agree.

Second, this book had some characters that just did not meet to be in there. I think we could have done with one or two less perspectives and had a tighter grip on the details as the reader. I often felt lost in the plot and then info dumped on. 

Lastly, the big plot reveal for Aidan.

You are telling me this man gets trapped in this hellscape, doesn’t remember who he is, then he learns this woman is a friend, but she betrays him for a reason we really don’t know, gets cool with that real quick, learns she murders his sister in some horrific way and still decides, yeah, I’ll go on the run with this woman?  At no point did I ever feel these two were connected that deeply so the ending felt forced. I get letting her escape but now having to run away and spend his life on the run for this woman is crazy. I get what the author was doing and that the two died to themselves but you gotta make me believe it a little bit more.

Overall, despite the issues it was a fun pool read that I will still recommend to people I know love Agatha. Not the best book I have ever read, but very fun. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual assault

brittaanson's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I wanted to love this book, and the beginning really sucked me in with the mystery. The structure is ambitious and intriguing, but by the end, I was confused and unsatisfied. Partly due to the nature of the plot, there wasn’t any deep character development, and as the truth of what was going on was revealed, I disliked the story more and more. The ending has so many twists that didn’t feel completely earned, and by that point I didn’t care about any of the characters. The rules, ethics, and motivations of those driving the story remain ill-defined to me. I didn’t enjoy the violence and aggressive fat phobia in the book. However, I will concede that the cleverness of the overall concept may be enough for someone else to find more satisfaction in this read than I did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Murder

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Rape, Stalking