Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

36 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.

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

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.

kimmy0__0's review

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.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Classism, Confinement, and Violence

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

nini23's review against another edition

mysterious

• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

Convoluted but not necessarily clever. The fat-shaming, oy! What happened to Phillip Sutcliffe discovered by Charles Cunningham to have the porcelain beak costume in his closet - no reaction whatsoever by Aiden when he meets Sutcliffe. A forgotten loose end? 

What I found interesting I wish the author had elaborated more upon:-
- the influence of the host's personality, impulses and thought patterns upon the mind occupying the body
- the class differences especially the indignities suffered by the maids, stablehands, butlers etc.

The sinister atmosphere is well set up though the answer to this locked door murder mystery puzzle is not something one could have figured out from the clues provided.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Violence, Blood, Gun violence, Death, Murder, Alcohol, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Body shaming

Moderate: Classism and Confinement

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

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

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

Minor: War and Death of parent

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

2.75

This is interesting, but it had way too many characters for me to keep track of, and I didn't feel like I "knew" any of them, even after 17 hours of audiobook. I also may have not been a huge fan of the writing style.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Physical abuse, Stalking, Blood, Gaslighting, Suicide attempt, Confinement, Bullying, Classism, Toxic friendship, Violence, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Ableism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Chronic illness, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Abandonment, Mental illness, Alcohol, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual harassment

Avoid if you don't like: torture, trying to remember about 24 vaguely similar characters, or telling instead of showing.

bealittlebrave's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

5.0

To call this "ambitious" is such an understatement. I don't understand how anyone can even begin to layout this story and its timelines (and at this point I'm trusting blindly that they all add up correctly because I wouldn't know if he snuck one past me).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dementia, Suicide, Rape, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Death, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Addiction, Classism, Confinement, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Violence, Drug use, Torture, Suicide attempt, and Stalking

mekrasts's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It took me a really long time to finish this book. I think that the plot was pretty good, but not quite my style. On the other hand, the writing itself was absolutely beautiful. There were so many moments where I just had to highlight entire paragraphs for fear of losing such amazing writing. It was almost lyrical or melodic in the way that it just grabbed and immersed you into such vivid descriptions. This is easily the best written book I've seen in a while, hence the many many tabs and highlights that are in my copy. I would recommend this book to a lot of people, but mostly those who are looking for a book that will sweep them off of their feet with the flow of words on the paper.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Stalking, Suicide, Death, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

haleym21's review

challenging mysterious tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Stalking, Death, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty

smkelly1997's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is slow in the beginning but it works. It all adds up.  The last 25% of the book I didn’t want to put down. The twists and turns and a major plot twist at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Blood, Murder, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Suicide, Child death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Torture