Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

128 reviews

pinkupengu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Disorienting by design, this book was interesting yet somewhat overwhelming. There are a lot of characters— most unlikeable for their own individual reasons — and they’re hard to keep track of. There’s a tricky time loop. The story isn’t told in a linear narrative structure. There’s deceit and confusion and the narrator is incredibly unreliable. The conclusion is intense but satisfying — it was hard to get there but mostly worth the trek. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

klm2620's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Sexual content

erundlett's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

Pretty much everybody in this book could be justifiably called a bad person. Some have done some truly heinous things. With the exception of some moderate depictions of violence it’s almost all allusions to things that happened off screen

taryn_g's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Torture, and Alcohol

Minor: War

sai_like_sigh's review against another edition

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: Ableism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Torture, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual assault, Torture, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Medical content and Medical trauma

lebskaj's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Torture, and Murder

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

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, 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, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, and Suicide attempt

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: Violence and Murder

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

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