Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

121 reviews

kirtreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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

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

katiekinsi97's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

The premise, while interesting, lead to a story with a confusing plot that had too many elements, a world building structure that was difficult to follow, and an ending that was felt disconnected from the story and was unsatisfying based on the premise given. More spoiler based thoughts below.

I don’t understand how time works in this story. To me, the events of the day should be fixed, no matter who Aiden is at any given moment. The fact that they aren’t doesn’t make sense. Additionally, if they’re supposed to be solving a murder that actually happened- the actions of Daniel, Anna, or Aiden shouldn’t have any effect on it. But having Felicity as the murderer is DIRECTLY tied to Aiden’s actions. The twist at the end should have been that Evelyn wasn’t murdered- Felicity was. Thats the /actual/ answer. 
I have so many more thoughts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, Torture, Gun violence, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Child death, and Drug use

Minor: Death of parent and Alcohol

biojesspj's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Addiction, Death, Blood, Alcohol, Ableism, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Classism

Minor: War, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Child death, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

brittaanson's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Stalking and Rape

monstersinspace's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Spoilers throughout: Interesting and well written, I don't know how the author kept up with all the characters and days. I could have done without the whole "omg this character is so fat and disgusting how can he even exist" chapters but what can you do? I actually did predict most of the ending, but I don't know how I feel about Aiden forgiving Anna for brutally torturing and killing his sister and arguably he didn't he just chose to live as someone that it basically didn't happen to. Also it's not like Anna realized she was a horrible disgusting murder, they literally just made her forget she was and I don't think that's the same thing. It all kind of just doesn't vibe with me, usually people who think anything is forgivable are the ones that need that forgiveness.  Also the fact that Anna can just live without the horrible things she did if she wanted to, while her victims have to remember it every day is really fucked up. The whole time Aiden interacts with multiple people who love brutality and murder and he's disgusted by them, yet he's totally cool with Anna having done that cause he thinks she changed but all she did was forget how much she loved those things. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Murder, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, and Drug use

hjb_128's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Rape, Infidelity, Violence, Mental illness, Gun violence, Drug abuse, Torture, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Suicide and Medical content

juanat77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Murder, Blood, Cursing, Infidelity, Torture, Alcohol, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Bullying, Death, Body horror, Physical abuse, and Violence

remescient's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.75

This was really close to a perfect mystery. I feel like it wobbled just a bit at the end, but the beautiful prose and well crafted mystery at the center make it well worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Child death, Murder, Sexual assault, Torture, Classism, Animal death, Gun violence, Suicide, and Confinement

lilcassieg's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Torture, Blood, Child death, Death, Violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Rape, and Mental illness

philosopher_kj's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Violence, Child death, Confinement, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

Minor: Torture