A review by leithbookstagram
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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

3.0

This is a tricky one to review. 

This book took me a while to read, there were many times when I was ready to put it down for good, but wanting to find out what happened kept me reading.

Although the ending was great and saved the book for me, the rest of the book just tired me. It was interesting and the plot idea is excellent, but it seemed very long winded. 

There are so many characters that I was constantly confused about who was who. There were Aiden’s hosts and then the other main characters who were vital for the plot, and then more characters who were outside of the plot who needed to bring some normalcy to the book, it was difficult to keep hold of who was who.

Although the plot idea was clever and it was executed well with the amount of intricacy there is, I think it could be have been better. There were many times when I was having to go back because things weren’t matching up, or things were being referenced that shouldn’t have happened yet, for example Aiden knew his name for a while but he suddenly made a big thing out of finding out his name. It just got very confusing and what really would have helped is a list at the back of the bottom with times of events and character days, not the invitations at the front of the book which didn’t help at all.

The writing and plot idea were great and kept me reading, but overall the book was very long winded, confusing and things, like times, didn’t match up throughout the book. Although the ending is nice, there are still unanswered questions.