The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 06, 2019 Nadine in NY Jones rated it did not like it

Shelves: authors-i-don-t-ever-want-to-read-a, era-early-1900s, mystery, everyone-loved-it-except-me, historical-fiction, lotsa-buzz, alternate-planes-and-histories

The world's shriveling beyond the windows, darkening at the edges and blackening at the center. The hunters are beginning to emerge from the forest, waddling across the lawn like overgrown birds.

Recommended for fans of Blake Crouch.

Eh. This was a very clever idea, I've never read a book like this before, but I didn't enjoy the execution. At all. My main problem is that I grew to really hate the narrator, and since the entire damned book has us inside his head, I had a rough go of it. The aut ...more

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Jun 28, 2020 Colleen Chi-Girl rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, crime-mysteries, england, 2020

*** for this, which I read on audiobook.

Narrator was fabulous but the book was very confusing with all the different characters and the back and forth between the time periods etc.

Perhaps holding a book in your hand, it would be less confusing, but I think you’d still have to go back and reread passages. ?? Unclear if it would make it more interesting than a lot of bantering back and forth, which is exactly how the audio felt.

Time to read other reviews to gain a broader perspective.

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Feb 14, 2023 Agatha Donkar Lund rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery, 2023, pop-sugar-2023

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 05, 2019 Astrid Lim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller-mystery, twist, debut, whodunit

Wild roller coasters ride! Mind blowing and I suggest you to read this if you’re in the mood of a complicated, crazy book with difficult puzzles and lots of questionable characters. At first it was very exhausting experience, but I was glued to the story until the end.

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Jun 21, 2019 Rebecca Manery rated it liked it

Shelves: innovative-fiction, fiction, detective-fiction, speculative-fiction, goth, hopwood-library-pick, october-reading, mystery

It's difficult to know whether or not to recommend this book. Inventive, original, and well-written, it also requires a great deal from the reader--beach book this is not. On the grounds of a crumbling country house, the narrator wakens to discover himself inside a body he doesn't recognize and with no memory of who he is or why he is there. As events unfold, he learns that his name is Aiden Bishop and that he is doomed to relive the day of Evelyn Hardcastle's death, each time in a different bod It's difficult to know whether or not to recommend this book. Inventive, original, and well-written, it also requires a great deal from the reader--beach book this is not. On the grounds of a crumbling country house, the narrator wakens to discover himself inside a body he doesn't recognize and with no memory of who he is or why he is there. As events unfold, he learns that his name is Aiden Bishop and that he is doomed to relive the day of Evelyn Hardcastle's death, each time in a different body. Encumbered by the physical, mental, and moral limitations of his hosts, he has eight chances to solve Evelyn's murder and bring the evidence to a mysterious figure dressed as a plague doctor or the cycle will begin all over again. Indeed, he is told that he has already repeated the cycle several times. He discovers not only that there are competitors racing to solve the murder before he can, but an ominous Footman is attempting to kill all of the competitors to keep the mystery from being solved. Despite a map and a cast of characters included in the front matter, I found myself drawing floor plans of the house and taking a ridiculous amount of notes just to try and make sense of the overlapping storylines. As in a good Agatha Christie thriller, all of the characters have secrets and more than one body will surface during the investigation. Key to solving Evelyn's murder is unraveling another murder that occurred nineteen years before, making the plot feel both overly complicated and far-fetched. The more compelling mystery is how and why Aiden Bishop finds himself in his impossible predicament and who or what is behind the ordeal. The answer to that mystery both elevates this book above the average whodunnit and creates its own dissatisfactions. What I enjoyed most about the book was sharing Aiden's experiences of sharing a body and brain with an interesting assortment of complicated characters and his relationship with Anna, a competitor housed in a maid's body who may or may not be an ally. I'm hoping Stuart Turton's next book will focus more on the larger themes of guilt and forgiveness that begin to emerge here without subjecting readers to the vertigo of a rollercoaster plot. Then again, the reason I picked up the book at all was the intriguing idea of squeezing the setting and set-up typical of Christie into the structure of a Groundhog's Day . A second read might feel more satisfying, and it might make the suspension of disbelief stretch so thin that it snaps. I am a reader who loves to be challenged--David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is a favorite, for instance--but the pay-off should be worth it. By that measure, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a witty genre-bender that requires a great amount of effort relative to its pay-off. If someone could figure out how to make a movie out of it, I would gladly go see it. ...more

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May 11, 2023 Jillian rated it really liked it

3.5 stars! This isn’t my usual kind of go-to story. This is a murder mystery on top of a murder mystery on top of a…on and on. I had a slightly hard time keeping track of the characters and who was doing what in the story. I still have a couple of questions! But I do think that this is an extremely unique story, first in the way it plays out, but then also in the things we don’t understand, and aren’t shown, and never see. I think fans of locked room mysteries, Victorian drama, and sci-fi will e ...more

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Jul 11, 2019 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a really inventive mystery. Agatha Christie meets Gosford Park meets Groundhog Day meets Quantum Leap. Aiden Bishop wakes up in the forest outside a large manor house with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He just remembers one name: Anna. Soon enough, he discovers that for eight days, he will wake up in the body of a different witness to Evelyn’s murder. If he doesn’t discover the killer in that time, his memory will be wiped out and the whole thing will start again.

What’s so ...more

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