also: The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

''The sea was keeping her secrets, as usual.''

Stuart Turton, 'The Devil And The Dark Water'.

Literature Moodboards // The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

The future isn't a warning, my friend; it's a promise, and it won't be broken by us. That's the nature of the trap we're caught in.

JOMP Book Photo Challenge || December 13 || Unexpected Ending:  The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

This book had a very interesting premise. The story follows an island at the very end of the world - a fog has taken over the rest of the planet, and the island is populated with some people who have found a way to keep the fog at bay. However, a murder occurs which sets into motion the fog coming for the rest.

The book was interesting and unique, unlike most other books I've read recently. The story was engaging, the twists were unexpected, and it was hard to predict what would occur next. I liked it because it was definitely different, and given many books nowadays, that is generally hard to come by.

I would recommend this as something for anyone who enjoys a good thriller but is tired of formulaic writing, and predictable endings. At no point during this book did I have any idea what would come next. Highly recommend!

Why do I get the feeling that the name Evelyn is about to make a comeback?

Every man is in a cage of his own making.

Stuart Turton, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

whoops i didn’t see this right away but

4. A few books you recommend :)

hi, thanks for the ask! :)

so some of the books that i would recommend:

the three comrades by erich maria remarque

rebecca by daphne du maurier

the 7½ deaths of evelyn hardcastle by stuart turton

think of a number by john verdon

the thursday murder club by richard osman

these witches don't burn by isabel sterling

and all books by alice oseman, but i think you already know about them :)

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (review)

So here we are, starting off the year with a time loop murder mystery, so picked because it comes alphabetically before everything else on my TBR (counting numerals prior to alphabetical characters). This might be a bit spoilery in places (not about the murder), so please avoid if you're very sensitive to those.

This was a fun read, and a successful mystery, but not quite a satisfying novel. It's a high-concept thing; as is gradually revealed to the protagonist, and far more quickly revealed to the peruser of the back cover, the conceit centers around a mysterious death at an English country house with a detective bound to answer by repeating his investigations day after day, waking up in the body of a new witness with each repetition.

It's a fun concept, but the full scope of the setup is both stricter and less explained (it's not a spoiler to say there are Forces At Work, but we don't really get a sense of how any of it actually functions), and the investigations, though numerous and byzantine, do seem sometimes to be far too easily accomplished by our protean hero, especially when a certain mysterious presence shows up and cannot reveal anything, until he can, for no real reason. The main character gains abilities at the end not through any effort of his own, but because of the passage of time, and, seemingly, the needs of the plot.

Turton does an admirable job of getting us to care about a protagonist whose character is, even to himself, a blank slate, but the same cannot be said for the rest of the cast, so when there are significant reveals and reversals that involve them later on, it's hard to feel much of anything about it, especially when some of the surprise and thematic depth is supposed to come from backstory that we're informed our main character feels strongly about 7/8ths of the way through the book. (I don't think this was accidental, for what it's worth, but I don't think this experiment pays off.)

The writing is zippy and does a particularly deft job with unexpected similes and clever turns of phrase, even if much of the dialogue is centered around the logistical trappings of what has or hasn't just happened (hardly a fault in a book as potentially confusing as this one). I am a serial non-predictor of the end of mysteries, and thus easy to please on that score, but I found the final layout of how the crime occurred supremely satisfying.

All in all, I quite enjoyed the book although it didn't cohere very well for me, and seemed to tire of its own concept towards the end. I would absolutely read another mystery by Stuart Turton (I'm excited to pick up his The Devil and the Dark Water at some point). There's a very strong mystery plot within the high-concept trappings of this book, and if it often fails in its ambitions, that's partially because it has so many lofty ones.

postscript: I *do* wonder how many bookstores have despaired at the similarity of this title and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

My three favourite reads in 2023

Nulla di meglio di una maschera per rivelare la vera natura di chi la porta

“ Le sette morti di Evelyn Hardcastle “, S. Turton

''On and on, horror after horror.''

Stuart Turton, 'The Devil And The Dark Water'.

Books of 2023

The ABC Murders, Agatha Christie--This is probably one of my favorite Poirot novels. It keeps you on your toes and as always with Agatha Christie, there’s a surprise twist (or two!)

1984, George Orwell--I feel like this is another book that has been lost to the times. When it first came out, I’m sure it was a phenomenal read--it predicts a dystopian future in a surveillance state, which, at this point, maybe hits a little too close to home for some. The ‘big bad’ and scary suggestions for the future in this book are, at this point in our lives, fairly normal feeling, or things that we’ve since in more recent sci-fi novels and tv shows, done bigger and scarier. So, while I’m sure it set up the foundation for which many of these new things were based on, I was fairly bored reading this book, and did not finish it.

Finn Fancy Necromancy, Randy Henderson--This was a fun, light read. It follows the story of a boy who was framed for a crime he didn’t commit, and his journey of discovery after completing his sentence. 

The Diviners, Libba Bray--A supernatural-esque mystery story set in New York in the 1920s? What else can you ask for? This book was actually really good, it had a well rounded set of diverse and interesting characters, and was a good mix of a scary read and a fun read. 

The City We Became, NK Jemisin--This was a really interesting book--it’s hard to explain without giving too much away, but it was a very unique writing style overall, with subtle shifts in narration for when a different character was telling their part of the story. It explored a new concept, I think, in writing and storytelling, which I really enjoyed.

Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo--I’m a bit biased because I saw the show first, but that and a friend convinced me enough to read the book, and I loved it! The TV show stays pretty accurate to this book, at least (I’ve heard it strays from some of the later ones). Although it has some of the typical fantasy YA romance tropes, I still really enjoyed this book, and it had enough new and interesting ideas to keep me hooked and interested in the book. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

Moby Dick, Herman Melville--It’s taken me literal years to finish this one because I was reading it on my phone so would read it while riding to work and then forget about it for months on end and then pick it up again. BUT regardless, I really enjoyed it! I can see why a lot of high schoolers hate it, she’s DENSE. There’s a lot of explanation and things that aren’t necessarily plot-related going on in the book, which I enjoy, but I can see why others wouldn’t. Another one that I’d maybe recommend reading the abridged version of, but I really liked it!

Dune, Frank Herbert--Having watched the newest movie beforehand really helped me with this one. It’s a FANTASTIC book, but there are a lot of moving parts, politics, and characters with similar names, that I definitely would have gotten confused and frustrated if I hadn’t have had the movie to base things off of. That being said, would highly recommend reading. A lot times with old sci-fi books like this, they don’t live up to the hype because like, they may have been groundbreaking at the time they came out, but our expectations have risen so much since then. However, for a book that came out in 1965, this one still holds up. It definitely kept me interested throughout the book, which is saying something, because she’s THICK.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Eveyln Hardcastle, Stuart Turton--This was a really good book with a fresh new take on murder mystery/whodunits. Essentially, the narrator wakes up each day as a new person, reliving the events of the same day over and over again until he can solve the murder. It was a really interesting concept and I thought very well executed.

Currently reading

Review: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

What can I really say except Jesus Christ. Stuart Turton takes the beautifully preserved evening gowns and mansions and intrigue of the Golden Age of Mysteries, the era of Christie and her ilk, and picks them apart bead by bead, splinter by splinter, only to breathe new cigarette-and-perfumed life back into them.

This review will be short. This book should only be experienced, in my humble opinion, with as little knowledge as possible surrounding it. It is a masterpiece. It is spectacular, and subtle, and much like those it pays homage to, you can’t appreciate the complexity until you’ve raced through it, starting blind, slowly learning with our main character(...s?), until you’re left with a technicolour explosion of a tapestry that will make for the finest wall-decoration for the kinds of folks who like to figure these things out as they go.

(You will need post-its, pins, and red thread. No, more than that.)

Aiden Bishop awakens at Blackheath every day. He is a different person every day, his consciousness inhabiting a different guest of the Hardcastle family. He has a mission: solve the murder of the Hardcastle’s daughter, Evelyn, who will die tonight. She will die every night, unless Aiden can identify her killer. The phrase “all is not as it seems” is probably the understatement of the century here, but this book is layered perfectly, question over answer over more questions. A palimpsest, a word I’ve come to be extremely fond of after its use in another novel I loved and reviewed, The Wayward Girls.

Seven Deaths is hard to fully get your hands around to hold up to anyone else. You can’t tell them what it’s about, because if you tell anyone what a murder is really about then you’ve half-spoiled the thing. You can’t tell them anything that happens, because it only makes sense in context, and you can’t try giving any context, because, well…You see the problem. This is far from a criticism of the book - its ability to defy discussion, even recommendation, is integral to its mastery - but sometimes it’s hard to recommend a book to someone simply by waving it at them and making emphatic gestures, even if that waving and gesturing comes from someone firmly raised on Golden Age mysteries. Perhaps this review can suffice, trying to sum up everything while giving away nothing, ending up tangling in on itself while trying to follow the weft and weave of Turton’s genius.

Welcome to Blackheath, traveller. There is a question that needs answering.

Book #127 - The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

(first time read; full spoilers, but also, why would you waste your precious Earth time on this book)

On the one side... The body hopping time loop could have been really interesting. It really could. A nice, tight murder mystery (which, the murder was a bit convoluted and relied a little to much on "oh, this person is just evil, has always been evil, how did you not guess that this kid (that was murdered nineteen years ago) was killed by a ten-year old in a weirdly elaborate murder plan for a ten-year old to develop", but once it actually got going (which... two thirds of the way through is no time to kickstart your plot) it was fine? Even interesting at times? Shame I had to wait for Aiden to bodysnatch a cop for it, but at that point, I was willing to just take what I could get).

And on the other side of things... The mindwipe time loop murder solving prison thing could have been so cool, too? There is a cyberpunk takedown of the prison industrial complex waiting inside this book and I am so frustrated that it barely gets any attention at all??? Like. Either commit to this bonkers insane idea and fucking say someting with it, or do your Agatha Christie imitation and don't bother with world building. Why would you want to do both?

... And on the third side, this is literally all I can to say about this book without sounding off the walls insane. I tried. In conversations with friends, I really tried. But I couldn't do it.

What the fuck was going on with Anna? Was she a terrorist? A supervillain? What the fuck do you mean, she tortured the sister and made the world watch? Did she livestream it? How did no one manage to arrest her during that? What the fuck is going on?

Also, why would you completely kill your own point like this? Yes, Blackheath is horrible and bad and torture and cannot produce anything good. But also, Anna and Aiden are defenitely 100% better people now, and get a nice redemption sticker and a new life. Are you kidding me? Or are you mad? Why are they friends, how did any of this happen, why is she constantly kissing him, is this a joke?? Are you taking the piss? Or is this book just a stupid prank, like the literary equivalent of 52 pick-up? How can something so boring leave so many questions unanswered. I am very sure that Gold says "ah yes, I prepared this and this off-page" multiple times in the end and I just yelled "bitch, when" every time, because... ??????

Also, Aiden was one of the mosty hypocritical, holier-than-thou, self-absorbed assholes I ever had the displeasure of inhabiting the mind of (yes, I know, ironic given what I'm going to complain about but still). He could not stop nagging his hosts for completely human behaviour and feelings and bodies. To be honest, I had dnfed this book a few years back, because I had gotten to Day Four and Aiden was just relentless in fat-shaming Ravencourt, spending literal pages on how disgusted with him he was, and I just couldn't do it. I picked it up again now in the vain hope that maybe at least the murder was good, once the book would finally get to it, but by the time it did it the tension was so used to eating ground dirt that it just kinda stayed there - flat at zero for the rest of the book.

Also, any book where you learn the protagonist's name either 120 pages in, or from the blurb on the back, deserves to be thrown into a time machine to assemble back into a tiny tree and some printer toner, for the crime of annoying the shit out of me.

In summary: no tension, every plottwist until about pg 350 delivers itself as an anticlimax, the world building sucked, the characters sucked, Aiden especially I want to throw into a woodchipper, and The Plague Doctor may at some point have sounded like a good idea, but his anachronism (this book is set in... the 1920s?? maybe??) and his "cryptic overseer, but make him cringefail" vibe just killed the tone stone dead any time he appeared.

Just read Christie.