The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton may be one of the most confusing books I have ever read, but I absolutely loved it and its uniqueness!

This book is confusing as heck, there are so many moving pieces and different people that I am actually amazed the author was even able to make sense of it. But it was also completely brilliant and unlike anything I have ever read in my life. I had initially started the book back when it first came out, but I couldn't get into it, so I eventually set it aside thinking I'd pick it up later. Well now I wish I wouldn't have waited so long to get back to it! I decided to do the audio this time and I think that is something that really helped me. I really enjoyed the narrator, James Cameron Stewart, and the way he read the book really got me in the mood for it, so to speak.

If you are not into books that might confuse you, you may not like The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, but I highly encourage anyone who thinks this sounds interesting to pick it up. It was witty, clever, and completely surprising. There are a few revels that I didn't see coming, and I loved the experience this book offered me. The fact that this is a debut novel also blew me away, and if you read it you will see why. I'm very excited to see Turton has a new book coming out in 2020 and I will certainly not wait as long to read it this time!

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book, all opinions and thoughts are my own.

4.5ish stars.

Bloody brilliant. As long as you can turn your mind off to ignore everything that’s missing and enjoy it for what it is: a wild, clever, twisty, genre-bender.

I’m a fairly avid adult mystery reader, but I’ve never had the patience to read (and enjoy) young adult mysteries. Countless previous experiences have left me apprehensive of the young adult mystery genre due to the predictability of the plot, blatantly obvious twists and turns, and pathetic characters that can’t piece together simple facts that are staring them in the face. Needless to say, I was apprehensive about picking up The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. The novel’s summary had originally piqued my interest, but it was fairly vague and didn’t give me a good insight into what YA tropes it contained versus avoided. Consequently, I initially wrote this one off altogether and decided against picking it up. However, after hearing one positive, raving review after another and receiving this book as a recommendation from a few friends, I opted to give this book a chance. In hindsight, I’m very glad that I reconsidered my initial decision!

One of my favorite components of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was the incredibly unique premise and format. The tale is recounted from the perspective of a single individual who attends a dinner party during which one of the guests is murdered. Throughout the book, the narrator relives the same day over and over again, awakening each day as a different guest at the dinner party. The only way that the narrator can stop this endless cycle is to identify the individual responsible for the murder. One of my immediate concerns about this setup was the potential for tiresome repetition, but the book exceeded all expectations in that regard. Any semblance of repetition was kept to a minimum, and each new perspective added additional depth and crucial detail that furthered the plot and character development. Following each character’s movements in-depth was highly engaging and intriguing, and I enjoyed unraveling the interwoven web of subplots, secrets, and character backstories.

The sheer scope of this book was very well executed and impressive, to say the least. It was incredible how complex and interwoven the various plots were, and one seemingly minute change could alter the entire course of the day. It was almost impossible to predict the downstream effects that would arise due to altering a guest’s decisions and actions, and this was partially what kept me on my toes for the entirety of the novel. Due to the level of detail that was incorporated into each scene and perspective, it was evident that Turton dedicated a great deal of time and attention to ensuring that there were no contradictions or inaccuracies in a narrative that must have been incredibly challenging to craft.

The constantly changing perspectives coupled with the constant twists and turns created an air of suspense and mystery throughout much of the book. This kept me engaged and invested in the tale, and the rapid pacing left me on the edge of my seat, unwilling to set the book down. Furthermore, unlike many of its contemporaries in the YA mystery genre, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle contained an impending sense of urgency and danger, rendering tremendously high stakes for the protagonist’s correct identification of the killer. This resulted in an easy and surprisingly quick read, despite the book’s length at over 500 pages. I greatly appreciated the absence of lulls in the plot or pacing, and I was completely engrossed in the dramatic, fast-paced narration for the entire duration of the novel.

This book was truly mysterious, and I struggled to piece together the small clues and snippets of information that were gradually revealed throughout the book. These details were inconspicuous and easily overlooked, and quite a few of them flew right over my head. The narrator correctly identified some of these hints as they were revealed, but was also oblivious to others, providing a realistic insight into the mystery as it unfolded. This was a refreshing change from the standard YA mystery protagonist who fails to pick up on information that’s repeatedly flung at them from every possible direction.

The cast of characters were interesting, realistic, and three-dimensional. Each individual was highly flawed, and the characters ranged from lovable to downright despicable. Furthermore, the unreliability of the characters led me to question everything that unfolded or was recounted secondhand, and it made the tale all the more interesting and baffling. By comparison, this degree of character development and complexity is notably absent in the majority of YA mysteries, and this has inarguably contributed to my dislike and suspicion of the genre as a whole.

I enjoyed The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle from start to finish despite my initial apprehension. It avoided all of the pitfalls and tropes that are frustratingly common within the YA mystery genre, causing it to stand out from the lackluster, disappointing books that I read previously within the genre. Consequently, this has become my go-to recommendation for younger readers who are looking for a quick, thrilling book and older readers who want to start picking up mysteries. It readily surpassed all of my expectations (and preconceived notions), and I’m so glad that I decided to pick this one up!

This book was a wild ride. It is the definition of a memorable story. The first few chapters were beyond confusing but I am so glad that I stuck it out. I've never read a book like this before. I bought a second copy just to lend out to friends who want to read something unique.

I appreciate having had an opportunity to read and review this book. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer simply to advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this book and to be an early reader via NetGalley! However, I will not be writing a review for this title at this time, as my reading preferences have since changed somewhat. In the event that I decide to review the book in the future, I will make sure to purchase a copy for myself or borrow it from a library. Once again, thank you so much for providing me with early access to this title. I truly appreciate it. Please feel free to contact me with any follow-up questions or concerns.

This was a great twisty turn of a book. I kept trying to figure out the ending to no avail, but it made the book a real page turner. I did not expect the ending at all. The depictions are crafted so carefully that the story truly plays out in your imagination and you are fully immersed in the story telling. My only wish was there was certain characters that I would have liked to explore a little more. Great read that I recommend to friends & family.

I can't get past the clearly fatphobic chapter in this book. There was no reason to write the perspective that way.

Words can't describe how much I hated this book. I actively try to prevent readers from wasting their time with the book. The idea with the body jumping had so much potential.

Special thanks to SourceBooks for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

I really thought this one would a great venture out of my normal genre. It sounds so cool and so thrilling. Unfortunately, there was just too much going on & too much to keep straight for me. Likely because this isn't my usual read.

Thank you for the opportunity to be an early reader.

This book was wild! If you like face-paced action coming at you from every direction, this is the book for you! Sometimes hard to follow, but the story line pulls you in and forces you to read way past your bedtime! It's a total mind-eff! The kind that makes you yell out loud and scare the shit out of your husband..

This book was amazing. Very fastpaced and movie-ish. In fact, I'd LOVE to see a move adaptation of this book. I loved the inner dialogue and the sci-fi elements.

The rules are simple: Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11pm. Their are eight days and eight witnesses. You can and will inhabit them, but only once. Truly unique and will keep you turning the pages faster then you can solve the murder!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this book

This is one of those novels everyone seems to love but I just couldn’t get in to . Unfortunately it was a DNF for me,.

He wakes up in the forest, disoriented. But he doesn't have time to figure things out as he sees a fleeing figure and someone chasing the woman who is running for her life. As he stumbles away, he realizes he doesn't even know who he is. After running for help, he comes upon a huge country house and bursts in only to find that no one really believes him. But he does get a name for who he is although it doesn't seem right.

As the day progresses, he finds out the rules. This is the Hardcastle ancestral home and the daughter of the house will be murdered that night at a dinner and dance. He needs to find out who will do the murder. To do so, he will go from host to host, waking up as each of them until he manages to put the clues together. He finally finds his name, Adrian Bishop, but Adrian's essence is not available as takes on the thoughts and emotions of each of his hosts.

What a collection of hosts they are. There is the coward, the blackmailer, the rapist, the massively obese businessman, the lawyer, the policeman. Each has a piece of the puzzle but can Adrian extract what each man knows and put it together? Just to make things more difficult, there are those fighting him to be the first to uncover the mystery and there are those who would kill him to prevent him winning. There are the Hardcastles, whose plan of a dinner and dance is less to celebrate their daughter than to remind her of the day her brother was killed years before, a death they blame on her. There are those who profess to be his allies, but can he trust them?

Turton has written a debut mystery that is full of twists and turns. The reader starts out as confused as Adrian and only slowly starts to understand what is going on as the clues he gets are given to them as well. This serves to underscore the confusion Adrian experiences and the various explanations come to the reader as much as a surprise as they do to Adrian. Underneath the surface, the tension steadily mounts and the ending is climatic and unexpected. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Overall I think the idea for this book is really cool and almost everyone I know loved everything about it. Unfortunately, I struggled a little bit. This might be the case of its me not you in the situation. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the story, it had LOTS of twists and turns to keep the reader (as well as the main character) guessing, with a drop of supernatural to make it very unique. I just could not get into the book, there were so many characters and skipping back in forth I feel like I needed a spreadsheet to keep the book organized because I felt confused when ever my attention would wander even for a minute, and the ending left me felt meh, as if I read this super long book for no real resolution. It just did not work for me, but I am in the minority so if you like a Clue-like mystery with tons of suspects and crimes with a different kind of paranormal twist, this is probably the book for you.

Unfortunately this was one of those books i could just not get into, disappointing as i see other reviewers did enjoy this piece. I think maybe it was just a bit complicated for me

Review: 3 stars

This was a very unique murder mystery novel. It was kind of like Groundhog Day, but in order to get out of the repeating loop of the day the character had to solve the mystery. Each day that he woke up he was in a different body, but repeating the same day. It was a very interesting plot to watch play out.

The characters in the story were interesting. Although Aiden’s soul remained with him while he inhabited each body, he also took on a bits of personality of the person whose body he was in. You did still get a picture of who the true Aiden was when his personality would shine through, but at times it was a bit muddled. The way the characters were developed in this story is very different from most, yet still remained captivating.

The plot was cool. I really liked that Aiden took on the different personalities of his hosts, it was interesting to see the different perspectives of the same day. When solving a murder these different ways of thinking came in handy. The murder was extremely hard to solve though. I couldn’t guess who did it and found that even when I had all of the pieces I had a hard time putting it together.

The pacing felt slow to me. It took me a while to finish this book. I think that the jumping from host to host, although very interesting, made the story feel disjointed at times. There were also times where I had a little difficulty keeping track of all of the characters, as there were so many minor and major ones. Stories can have a lot of characters, but minor characters have to be memorable in some way for it to work, otherwise it can get confusing like it did in this book.

Overall I am pretty satisfied with this one. It is very hard to pull something like this off. Stories that mess with time are inherently confusing at different points. I think this could have been done a little better, but for a debut novel it is pretty fantastic. I would be interested to see what Stuart Turton writes next.

This was an interesting book but not quite to my taste in plot. It got me a bit confused and I just couldn't get involved the way I usually do

The actual murder mystery of this was twisty, turny, and interesting, but the twist-ending explanation for the Groundhog's Day of it all was less so and left me a bit cold. I didn't think the two stories/concepts meshed all that well together.