The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Author: Stuart Turton

Genre: Mystery, thriller, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction

Rating: ⭐⭐

TW: fatphobia

The story unfolds from Aiden Bishop's perspective. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor.

This was a disappointment. This book is so long and draggy. This gets a two-star because despite the strong feels to DNF, I did want to finish the book to know how the story ends. However, I did not think the ending was worth the time and effort to push through.

On top of being draggy, since Aiden wakes up as one of eight different people throughout the book, I found the plot quite confusing to follow. Furthermore, other than these eight people, there are also many side characters to keep track of. Since we keep going back and forth between characters and between different points of the same day, the sequence does not help me understand the plot at all. Thus, if there were any hints that allowed the reader to guess who the culprit was, I definitely didn't catch them.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. PROCEED WITH CAUTION. (going to mention the fatphobia part here!)

One of the eight people, Cecil Ravencourt, is overweight. When Aiden wakes up as Cecil Ravencourt, the comments made about his weight and how it felt to Aiden did not sit right with me. To quote the book:

"Though this isn't my body, I'm humiliated by it, appalled by the waves of flesh lapping against my hips, the way my legs rub together as I walk... I resemble some grosteque caricature of the human body, my skin jaundiced and swollen.. Overcome by disgust and humiliation, I let out a sob."

This may just be the fact that Aiden wakes up as different people, thus he could simply be describing the differences he feels in their physical appearances; after waking up as a different, slimmer person, he feels "lighter"; however, to me it read like being fat was such a bad and revolting thing to him. Being in Cecil Ravencourt's body, Aiden also feels the physical limitations of his body, like how he needs to take breaks after a short walking distance, and he needs help getting in and out of his bathtub. I am unsure whether I missed the fact that he is extremely obese to the point that he would require the help, or if it is simply because he is also a 60-year-old man.

END OF SPOILERS

I must say, some points in the book did shock me, especially the reveal at the end; however, the rest of the book was quite disappointing.