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A review by twocents
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
5.0
This is a title where the moderate Goodreads score has been unnecessarily lowered by people getting hung up on three irrelevancies. I won't talk about the (clever, tight) plot because it's best discovered for yourself.
I will rebuke the three things people are using to justify peppering this book with low ratings:
1. The book has a different title in different regions. So does the first Harry Potter book and many Agatha Cristie titles. Who cares?
2. Complaints about "magic" not being explained. There is an explanation and it's not "magic." You can put the pieces together yourself if you pay attention.
3. Complaints about fatphobia. There is one character in the story who is morbidly obese. He's also wickedly clever, kind, and well respected by his staff. The author explains that he wanted different hindrances to the other characters, so it's not just "clever perfect man solves mystery, the end." This particular character could have solved this mystery about 30 pages in if he had his mobility. He's clearly the favorite character and the descriptions make it clear that this isn't a dude who needs to lose 5 lbs... He could easily be on My 600 LB Life. There's no need to take personal offense to it and feel criticized. (I also can't stress enough how often this character is referred to time and again as awesome.)
Enjoy the story, don't get hung up on the ~3 star average.
I will rebuke the three things people are using to justify peppering this book with low ratings:
1. The book has a different title in different regions. So does the first Harry Potter book and many Agatha Cristie titles. Who cares?
2. Complaints about "magic" not being explained. There is an explanation and it's not "magic." You can put the pieces together yourself if you pay attention.
3. Complaints about fatphobia. There is one character in the story who is morbidly obese. He's also wickedly clever, kind, and well respected by his staff. The author explains that he wanted different hindrances to the other characters, so it's not just "clever perfect man solves mystery, the end." This particular character could have solved this mystery about 30 pages in if he had his mobility. He's clearly the favorite character and the descriptions make it clear that this isn't a dude who needs to lose 5 lbs... He could easily be on My 600 LB Life. There's no need to take personal offense to it and feel criticized. (I also can't stress enough how often this character is referred to time and again as awesome.)
Enjoy the story, don't get hung up on the ~3 star average.