The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

June 22-24, 2020 I’m still tempted to say that this is one of my favorite books of all time. It combines so so many story elements that I love - murder mystery (especially in the style of Agatha Christie), time travel, old time-y British setting, and impossible-to-guess, super clever reveals. It is definitely one of the most unique books I have ever read. There are a lot of mystery books, and a lot of time travel books, and old-timey Agatha Christie type books, and there are probably a few body swapping books out there too. But to combine all of that into this book plus for it all to play out so cleverly just kinda blows my mind. I have been wanting to reread it for some time. I FREAKING LOVE THIS BOOK. I loved it just as much as the first time I read it. It is slow moving at times and you are going to be confused a good bit of the time reading it. But that’s the whole point. And I promise that EVERY question is answered and the answers are worth it. It’s so clever that the ending is basically unguessable. There are so many tiny puzzle pieces that build the ending so so so cleverly. ”Are things always like this? The explanations arriving before the questions?” That quote basically sums up this super crazy puzzle of a book. But it’s awesome. I already wrote a long review below the first time I read this so I’m gonna end it there. I just want to say that Stuart Turton is a genius and I hope he keeps writing books set in this world. There are endless possibilities here. ***** Sept 18-21, 2018 I don't remember the last time I looked forward to reading a book after reading the premise as much as this book, and let me just say that it lived up to and more than completely surpassed my expectations. In the high I'm currently feeling after finishing this book I feel like it's one of the best books I ever read and will now be up there on the list when someone asks me what my favorite book of all time is. I just had a good feeling going into this one that it was right up my alley. It has time travel, murder mystery, old timey, body swapping...it's Agatha Christie meets Quantam Leap meets Groundhog Day meets the most twisty, amazing, mind-blowing storyline and an incredible cast of characters. This book should be a classic. It's one that as soon as I finished reading I wanted to start over and read again, and I guarantee on a second or third reading it would be even better because you'd pick up small clues and details you wouldn't get from the first reading. It's a book I wanted to read slowly because I never wanted it to end and also a book I wanted to devour because I couldn't wait to find out how it ended. Just the way everything came together was absolutely incredible. I cannot imagine the amount of planning and foresight it took for all of these pieces to connect SO seamlessly. Because everything doesn't happen exactly in chronological order, sometimes we got the answer before we knew the question. And yet everything came together so perfectly. Like when something would happen you’d wonder why in the world would that happen. And then days and chapters later from another host’s perspective it would be revealed in a way that makes completely sense. Literally EVERY detail is important, that's why I really want to read this book again. And maybe even again. Some things I saw coming, and I felt very clever for having figured it out. But seriously. I had no idea or even scratched the surface of the web of secrets yet to be revealed. The mystery kept changing, as one question is answered 5 more pop up in their place. But I felt completely satisfied with the answers by the end of it. I'm still processing everything. The characters were amazing. Aiden is great, but even though he's the narrator and the main character he's not even the main one you focus on, since each one of his hosts has a little piece of themselves in him. Every chapter, every new day, Aiden felt like someone new to fall in love with. Rashton was probably my favorite host, but all of them really were so different and awesome in their own way. Anna was such a good character too. It was never clear who was trustworthy and who was not. The characters were so memorable, I know I’ll keep thinking about them for a long time. The atmosphere was great too. It was dark and creepy, and the location was so well-described I felt like I was there. It felt like a real place and at the same time had this whimsical not-quite-real feeling that just set the mood for this crazy story. I want everyone to read this book!! 5 stars doesn't truly express how much I absolutely loved it. It took some of my favorite subjects and threw in memorable and real characters, an intriguing and twisty storyline, and reveals that had me reeling, that I can't help but classify it as one of my new absolute favorites. READ IT!

I enjoyed reading this book. It took me the first 3 chapters to really get into it, but the chapters are short, so it didn't take long. Some chapters are so short that I had to hit the back button on my Kindle to make sure there wasn't a glitch. If I had to do a read-over, I would have a pen and paper to take notes on, which is not something I have ever done when reading a book for pleasure. There are so many characters that become intertwined the further along you read the book, and it does become confusing. The fact that there are so many characters to keep track of is the reason for the four-star review; some parts are simply confusing. The main character is the consciousness of Aiden jumping into 8 different bodies and living out one day as each character. The storyline jumps back and forth between these different characters while slowly revealing clues to the mystery. I honestly didn't figure out where to attribute the 7 and 1/2 deaths unless it is referring to the number of characters whose days we get to see played out in the storyline. I liked the concept of the book and the way the author gave each character a completely different body to inhabit. He gave descriptions as to what it would feel like in a different body and working with a different brain. It touched on an aspect of empathy for what other people might experience living out their lives, that we will never know, since we only get to experience one body and one brain. This concept of brain/body jumping alludes to either a magical world, a fantasy world, or hell, but none of that is explained in the book. I would have liked more explanation about this strange world the reader is taken to, even if it was revealed at the end of the book. Unfortunately, the book ends a bit more abruptly and leaves the reader question about this world. As for the story, it is enjoyable, and I looked forward to every reading session I had. It was nice to be immersed in so many different aspects of the mystery from a variety of viewpoints. There are revelations and mysteries revealed throughout, leading up to the final reveal. The ending was not anything I would have guessed or gathered from putting the clues together. I was actually questioning how the character derived the conclusions and was able to solve it by the end. I got some of it, but I felt lost on a portion of it as well.

Turton turns many a fine phrase. I was impressed with his wit. However, although he has metaphors and similes galore, even his descriptive language is lacking. A person with 8 different hosts, and yet I could not picture any of them clearly for lack of description of their physical attributes. It was this vagueness as well as the frequently convoluted storylines, vagueness of the importance of Blackheath and its purpose and then not caring when it was revealed what the place was for, and lack of mention of some of the most important characters (in the end), that frustrated me. If this wasn't for a bookclub, I may not have finished it at all. It dragged a lot and was an effective sedative at the end of a long day. One of the main bad guys didn't have a motivation! The majority of the excitement is in the last 30-ish pages, and it shouldn't have taken so long to get there. The big reveals didn't seem that interesting after such a long time to wait for them, and I didn't really care about the main character and what happened to them. I guessed far from the ending who the real villian was, but forgot about tertiary characters that were part of the answers because the main character simply does not mention them. If we are constantly in his head, how is it that it takes so long for him to reveal so much of what he was formulating to us?! In many ways I felt like I was reading the equivalent of a too-long second-class Agatha Christie play. Also, I usually read books with female protagonists. Perhaps being in the mind of a male character, in the bodies of only male characters, written by a male author was too single-note for me. It would have been more interesting to have the male character in the bodies of the female characters as well.

Le procédé d'écriture est un peu déroutant mais l'intrigue et les personnages sont intéressants. Toutefois ce livre aurait pu être plus court.

My friend recommended me this book. I enjoyed the reading, but the story is not for me. The story is somewhere in the middle of fiction and detective. I think I didn’t like the set per se.

An enjoyable read, on the whole good but at some points I lost the thread & had to go back & reread bits. It was an interesting story line. Worth reading.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is the most unusual mystery I have read. I have finished it for a first time, but shall soon go back for a second go-around to take in some of the very unusual aspects of the novel. The death referred to is viewed from the perspective of several people, each who contributes to or obfuscates the advancement of the eight days in which the plot develops. It is a fascinating and far from simple telling and will best be read by people who are willing to accept that the basic premise is certainly not at all basic as the novel develops. I am enjoying it greatly but it is not a straightforward read, and it is far more complex than an 'Agatha Christie' novel.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend to fans of Agatha Christie or Josephine Tey. It was interesting and just the kind of light read I needed for a recent holiday. The chapters were short enough you could stop and go and not get too lost when picking it back up.