Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

The ending was the only part of the book I was actually invested in - the rest of the book was slow and confusing. I like the idea of time travel/manipulation, but if the authour doesn’t explain/incorporate their “rules” into the plot it’s just frustrating… I was frustrated most of the book.
Also, the extreme fatphobia made it so hard to read!!! You can tell the authour is extremely discriminatory towards larger bodies through how he writes about people in the book - it was so much it was hard to read!!

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tneumann's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated

3.5

Ambitious and mostly entertaining, despite my low grade confusion for a good chunk of the book. I appreciate what the author was aiming for - quite the feat to keep track of all the details and weave them together. While I wouldn’t mind if it were shorter, not sure what’d you’d cut out so length was appropriate to fit in all the perspectives from the various hosts.

A few things that were not my favorite:
1. So much fat phobic language for Ravencort. It was lazy writing, there are better ways to write about this characters physically abilities.
2. Aiden took most things as truth for the first half of the book, happily accepting what various people said and being resolute in whatever the new truth was. Then in the later part, his theories became much more secretive to the reader. I understand why, but it was a bit shift and think there were more skillful ways to keep the reader in the dark.
3.

Wasn’t invested in Anna’s reveal and reformation, the latter felt very unconvincing. Aside from murdering Aiden’s sister, the details were so vague that it was hard to understand the magnitude of what she had done. And how much had she really changed and proven herself other than what we see in her actions over the course of the day. And all is supposed to be forgiven?
4. Would have liked to understood more about Daniel’s history, and the footman was just a rando killing for fun?

I liked the reveal of the Plague Doctor and that this was all a justice reformation system, and how much time they’d been there.

Interesting, ambitious, fun aside from being confused for a good part of it, and not quite as expertly executed as it could have been.

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cozyfantasyfaetay's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

2.5

Slow start, didn't really enjoy it until I knew the twist. Lots of characters and hard for me to follow 😵‍💫 But maybe better for murder mystery fans.

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crimsonsparrow's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Time travel meets murder mystery meets Face Off... This has got to be one of the most complicated, convoluted detective stories I've ever experienced - in the most interesting and unique possible way. I didn't care how it ended; it was a fascinating ride.

I was especially intrigue by the author's ingenious use of a unique, first-person narrative and meta-narrative. It had both both a science fiction feel and a psychological thrill without compromising the best character qualities of the MC.

The only reason it's not a perfect 5: I would have liked some of the details to be more meticulous. Some things that seemed important up-front ended up a tad slap-dash in the end. It got a little rushed at the end. And the final explanation was not terribly well-supported or as well-developed as so many other aspects of the story. I absolutely recommend it, though, if for nothing else than novelty's sake

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lonicera_fragrantissima's review against another edition

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mysterious 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

1.5

Can't recommend the audiobook, the reader was not up to the task - female voices were not good and male voices undifferentiated - a problem given the large cast of characters and complex plot frequently advanced via conversation. The premise is really interesting and I wanted to like it (there's a character I bet is an homage to Nero Wolfe!). But it was too convoluted, over-long, superficial, and ultimately very tedious with an incredible number of unmotivated plot twists and arbitrary rules governing character behavior until a character arbitrarily decides to break a rule. I stopped being able to care about what was happening. I might have liked it better reading instead of listening so I could skim/ skip the annoying parts.

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