Evelyns and sevens. Sevens and Evelyns. They really shouldn’t mix. They either get stuck in very bad marriages or end up dead. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton has been on my want-to-read list for years. And this month was the time to finally read it and to answer my question of which of the Evelyns I prefer: the Hugo or the Hardcastle.
Title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Author: Stuart Turton Publication year: 2018 Length: 16 hours 41 minutes Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Time-travel Pace: Slow Story focus: Plot & Characters
Set in the run-down and isolated estate of Blackheath House, the Hardcastles are throwing a party. Distinguishable guests closer to the family are staying at the house, but today, some are not themselves. At night, when the party is in full swing, Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered, just as it happened the day before, and the day before that. Evelyn Hardcastle has been killed hundreds of times. Among some of the guests is Aiden Bishop, an outsider who doesn’t even remember his own name. Each day, he wakes up in another guest’s body, and he has eight days and eight bodies to solve Evelyn’s murder.
I did a false start with this book. Earlier in the year, I picked it up to read, but I couldn’t concentrate. I would doze off so often that I wouldn’t be able to say what was happening anymore. At that point, I realised that I needed to come back to this book when I had a clearer head. The only time that I experienced something similar was with Normal People by Sally Rooney. There’s something in the writing style that doesn’t grab my attention. And if I’m distracted, my eyes glaze over the page while my mind is doing something else other than reading. This is not to say that Rooney and Turton have similar writing styles because they don’t. Simply, my experience with both their writing was similar.
The story develops very slowly. The time-travelling aspect benefits a lot with this since there’s more time to calmly explore and to help keep track of what is happening. Because here’s the twist: this is not a normal Groundhog Day, time loop story. The progression is not linear. Aiden isn’t living one day, one host at a time. Each day has a host, and while that day isn’t over, he can always come back to that host. There are still rules on how that happens. It’s not by his will, but it means the story is jumping back and forward in time. I found this perspective of time loops very interesting and quite unique, and one of the major points why I never considered abandoning this book.
By the end, there is an explanation for why time travel exists. We get to know why the characters are living the same day over and over again and why they need to solve Evelyn’s murder. Although it doesn’t answer all the questions. And what was left unanswered would also make for an interesting book. Still, the explanation we get is enough to put a mind at rest and make sense of all of Blackheath, the Hardcastles, and their guests.
To my surprise, this is an Agatha Christie-inspired novel. Something that Christie does that not many mystery authors do is to leave breadcrumbs. The reader gets to play armchair detective. And Stuart Turton tried to bring that to this novel. And in a way, it reads like that, but the conjugation with the length of the novel and how the writing couldn’t hold my attention meant that none of that mattered to me. I couldn’t remember. The story didn’t stick to my brain, so I couldn’t recall past events or keep track of clues. I also never tried to solve the crime. I was there only for the ride.
And what a ride it was. Some plot twists had plot twists. And for someone who is completely immersed in the story, I can see them being completely mind blown, but for me, they were fine. It was juicy drama, don’t get me wrong. But since I wasn’t fully in the story, I couldn’t appreciate them.
However, I have something to point out. The cast of characters, mainly the guests, have particular personalities. And since most come from wealth, they are sort of rotten apples. On the outside, they are picture perfect, but on the inside, we see the ugly. Not a single character in this book is likeable. Some are worse than others, but they all come from the same tree. And I started to realise that Aiden despised them all. Even when he would compliment one of his hosts, it would be at the cost of undermining another. This made me see Aiden as just like all the other characters. Just another bad apple.
But the worst part of it all was the fat phobia. I don’t mind characters hating each other, no one being likeable, although the way the author treated and used the only overweight character was uncomfortable. And the worst part is that the character didn’t need to be like that to serve its purpose. At first, I was conflicted if it was fat shaming or not. There wasn’t explicit mockery in the simplest sense of the word. There was attention given to the difficulties that being overweight can bring, almost in a sympathetic way. But something never felt right until it became more obvious.
“Wrecks have been raised from the ocean bed with less effort”
p.153, ch.20
There was no need for the story to reinforce how heavy the character was and how often it was done. This character was supposed to create difficulty for the main character, preventing him from freely exploring the house. Instead, the objective was to be resourceful and use the means at his disposal, in this case, the character’s wits. But to create a mobility impairment, there was no need for the character to be fat. He could have had badly healed wounds, chronic illnesses, or old age. There were other ways to make the character the obstacle needed for the story without resorting to constantly exaggerating and reinforcing the idea of how fat the character really was. Thankfully, once the day with that character was over, it was never brought up. Still, it was quite an unpleasant surprise to find in the book.
I really thought this would be the Evelyn that I liked the most. Sadly, it wasn’t. Between fat phobia and a writing style that didn’t grab my attention, it was an average reading experience. I still read it cover to cover, and that should be celebrated. I don’t resent all the time that it took me to finish it. I was still enjoying myself. Needless to say, I won’t be picking up any more Stuart Turton novels in the future. His writing style really isn’t for me for some reason, and there’s no need to keep trying.
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