The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Book Review

Murder in the morning and costumes at night, cryptic notes and burned butlers; whatever's happening here, I will not be yanked around like some puppet on a string. I must escape this house.

-Stuart Turton

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It starts with a murder and ends with one too..... with a few scattered in between... but what else would you expect from a title like this? I don't know if I can be very critical of this book. Not only because I definitely don't want to give any spoilers because this is a book I want ALL OF YOU to read but also because I'm blinded by my love for it and not sure I can find things to criticize. It's been a very long time since I've read a book that held me so enraptured that I didn't even notice it had gotten dark and I had no lights on in the house (bringing back memories of my mom harshly flipping on my bedroom lights and berating me for "straining my eyes"). This book consumed my thoughts when I wasn't reading it and was hard to drag myself away from when I did have to put it down. 

This book is a mix of old fashioned CLUE and Agatha Christie murder mystery. The book opens with our narrator running through the woods with no memory of who or where he is. He witnesses what he believes to be a murder and stumbles upon a great house that is slowy decaying, Blackheath mansion. Throughout his first bewildering day he meets a mysterious figure wearing doctors plague mask who informs him that he has to solve a murder and will relive the same day over again within different hosts until this murder is solved. And thus begins the investigation of a lifetime. 

The Things I Absolutely Loved:

• Everything! No seriously the set up of this book was amazing. The characters and their background and mannerisms. Each host had such a strong voice that it made me wonder countless times how many of the narrator's "inner thoughts" were his own and how many were that of the hosts he inhabited. 
• There were so many subplots that you'd think that it would just be a mess but everything was tied together so intricately that you couldn't unweave this web no matter how hard you tried. If the author had to change anything he would probably of had to start the book from scratch that's how interconnected every single moment is. Pay attention to everything.
• I couldn't guess what happens next. Nothing frustrates me more than a "mystery" that's way too easy to solve but this one kept me guessing right until the very end. And even now, I'm not sure I believe the ending is the truth! 
• The specific strenghts each host gave the narrator in order to get by day to day. Not all of them are strong, able-bodied men, not all are smart or analytical, but each one has certain strenghts that allow this character to slowly wade through the mucky history of Blackheath.

The Things That Bothered Me:

• In the beginning it felt like I would never be able to keep up. There were so many characters right off the bat that we didn't have much information on so I felt overwhelmed but as the book goes on and we relive the same day over and over it became pretty easy. The list of characters at the beginning was something I flipped back to constantly, definitely bookmark this page!
• There we a few cheesy aspects near the end that took some of the more scarier aspects out of the plot but even without the fear driving me towards the end, the unknown kept me glued.

The writing of this book was the main attraction. The author managed to make everything so visual. The characters were realistic and intricate and the house itself seemed to have a life of its own. I felt like I was there, at Blackheath, studying all of the guests as if I were the one trying to solve this case. The dialogue was intriguing as well. Every conversation left me with more questions than I had answers and left me wanting more. I love books that keep me guessing and everytime I thought I knew what was going on, I was proved wrong.

It's been a very long time since a book has wow'd me so much. When I finished it last night all I could think was "wow" over and over again. I want everyone to read this book so we can discuss how amazing it was. I give it 5 stars!!