Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

50 reviews

annareads97's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

5.0

Honestly mind blowing. A book that I already can’t wait to read again just to see what I pick up on, now that I know how it ends. At no point did it go where I was convinced it was going. This is one I would pay a good amount of money to be able to read again for the first time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

bergha1998's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.75

It’s a groundhog’s day Clue mystery. Everyday the main character wakes up as a different guest at a country party trying to solve a murder. Every different guest has the MC’s soul, but their own personalities and wants. The plot twists are crazy. Such a good mystery with a lot about morality and character development. 

Murder Mystery, Slightly Fantastical, Lots of Violence/Murders

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

trippalli's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

This starts out is a Sherlock Holmes style " who done it" but evolves into a philosophical reflection on life, evil, and forgiveness...a race to escape a bizarre philosophical prison, more like Sartre's "No Exit". 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, and Alcohol

stilestastic's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

i didn’t know what was going on at any point in this book and i LOVED it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cursing, Rape, Sexual assault, Medical content, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Classism

lisaarnsdorf's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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

3.0

This was an unusual story. It was very readable and, except for the first few chapters, moved right along. It kept me thinking and engaged.

However, it was overly complicated. There were too many details to keep track of, too many jumps in the timeline, too many characters, too many twists and reveals. The story needed some serious editing and simplifying to make it truly great. There was a character whose sole purpose in the book seemed to be for gratuitous violence that isn't even in keeping with 1920s sensibility of the story; I didn't need that at all.

When the bigger picture is finally revealed, it feels like you've been dropped into an entirely different story. (Inception, anyone?) The main motivation for being at Blackheath is almost disorienting, not a fully fleshed-out story, and frankly, not even believable. And I just didn't like the ending. If there was a spot where we could have used more, the ending was it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Gore

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Drug use

jhbandcats's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I found this book somewhat overwhelming - it was so convoluted that I felt exhausted reading it. It felt like the author was trying to shoehorn his story into a certain format and it didn’t really fit. 

I liked the concept - a single entity jumping, or thrust into, a lot of different bodies. In that sense it reminded me of Claire North’s Touch. But this book left me with too many questions. I felt unsatisfied reading it, that too much was going on for it to make sense. 

That said, I liked the story. I just wish it had been tighter. 

An aside: I wonder why this is titled The 7 1/2 Deaths whereas the British edition is The Seven Deaths. Perhaps because The Seven Deaths of Evelyn H [Hardcastle] is too close to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn H [Hugo]?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Classism

artstitute's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

This book was full of twists and turns, some of which I found more compelling than others.

The big twist that the whole plot was some cooked-up punishment a la Black Mirror kind of felt unnecessary to me. It didn't ruin the rest of the book, but it introduced a lot of moral quandaries that I don't think added much. OTOH, the Evelyn twist? IMMACULATE.

All in all, though, I definitely couldn't put it down and I would recommend it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Gore, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

heoleen's review

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

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

3.25

The story itself is very unique. However, I was confused throughout most of it, which is why I gave it a lower rating. It was difficult keeping track of the different characters and their personalities. The concept was good though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Fatphobia, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

shaylashaylala's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

mgcord's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

It was fine. Slow to get into, incredibly so. But the ending was good. It definitely surprised me towards the end, I just struggled to dig into the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Rape