The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Stuart Turton
3/5
When Aiden Bishop wakes up, he has no idea who or where he is. He has just one name on his lips, Anna, who he thinks he just saw being murdered. He soon discovers that everything is fabricated, that he isn't just one person and that he has been hopping from mind to mind for eight repeated days for decades. The only way out is to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle, but he is not not the only one attempting to do so.
This book is so complicated. It's non-chronological in the most difficult way to process because you're constantly getting snippets from other days, that are also simultaneously the same days? I really think that the best way to describe it is Knives Out meets Black Mirror, only because it's very Knives Out in the attempts to solve the murder but has a weird paranormal sci-fi element that's somewhat reminiscent of Black Mirror?
It just felt a little difficult to make it through at points because it was just so heavy with information. I don't have great critical thinking skills so it was hard for me to understand. I'm also much more character-focused than plot-focused, and this wasn't really a book that focused on the characters. Like, the characters and their senses of self were important to the plot but I also felt like I didn't really know them because they were so lost in their alternative lives. It just made the choice at the end feel kind of weak because I couldn't really feel the buildup to it?
It wasn't bad by any definition, it just felt a little too complex. I did appreciate what it was trying to go for though, it's a super unique premise that really kept you guessing until the very end.
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