#the 7 and a half deaths of Evelyn hardcastle

[wabblebees]

havent done smth like this in a Minute, thanks for the invite prev!!:)<3

1. house of leaves by mark z. danielewski

2. the left hand if darkness by ursula k. le guin

3. a shitton more shakespeare, specifically+especially twelfth night

4. reread the stormlight archive (brando sando) so i can catch up (havent read the most recent 2 so i wanna refresh before i do!!)

5. wrong norma by anne carson

6. a hundred lovers (poems) by richie hoffman

7. til we have faces by cs lewis (a reread, bc a friend is adapting eros+psyche's story for the stage this year & i remember liking the myth but hating this version in my highschool english class... but maybe ill hate it less now?? idk)

8. the seven & a half deaths of evelyn hardcastle by stuart turton (my mom REALLY wants me to read this one lol)

9. whatever playscripts or poetry collections i can get my grubby little mitts on!! maybe even some theory if i get a little steel in my spine!!

no pressure tags!: @toastedcornsnack @princesssarcastia @parafoxicalk & elfy ik you were already tagged but this is me tagging you too lmao. also tagging anyone who sees this & wants to share their tbr!!

Tagged by @dizaryswrites for 9 books on my 2025 TBR list! Most of these I've had sitting around for an embarrassingly long time but haven't gotten to yet... I don't tend to plan my reading much except for book club, so this will probably change wildly by the end of the year, especially once we do book club picks in April and I add a bunch of new stuff to my ever-growing list. XD

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell*

Ascender by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

System Collapse by Martha Wells

The Hub Series by James H. Schmitz**

Monarchs of the Sea by Danna Staaf

Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver by Jill Heinerth

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

*My book club leader asked us if we wanted to do a romantasy type book since we're SFF but haven't done that, and I said it probably wasn't my thing but I'd give it a shot, and she found me a monster one. So I'm very excited to see how that goes.

**This one is like my third reread of the series but I'm excited because I have actual physical copies now, so I'm counting it anyway.

I'll tag @dangerousdan-dan as my book buddy, and I know @raan-miir-tah has talked about books before! (and specifically books I also like XD)(@outtoshatter I don't know that you have stuff planned out like this, but if you have anything!)

[leondanteart]

Finished this book! Fun concept and had fun reading it when the plot picked up and started to run. It's not a murder mystery time loop story for everyone though. It takes some time to set up and feels long. But if you don't mind that, definitely give it the old college try! Ground Hog Day meets Clue is a good description. 4 out of 5 stars

[namethief]

Spoilers for a book

I'm frustrated with the ending. Is it a metaphor?

Like yeah I can take that their minds are somewhere else like a video game or something .

But they can't just run off from blackheath into the real world can they?

Oliver would be exhausted living every day with no break watching them. It doesn't make sense

So how would the superiors not be able to stop them?

Idk. I would have been fine with 'we will deal with that later' while the running off seeming to be solved is so odd to me.

[vonlipvig]

i love my Gaming Notebook, the notebook for gaming where i my handwriting goes to die feat. 1) some really old fl math for i think the poet laureate grind when base stats were still 200 without notability 2) return of the obra dinn late game insanity (FUCK YOU bitter cold pt. 1) 3) notes from a virtual mystery FMV game/play we were playing with my friend (i don't remember the specifics but i'm sure we were struggling) 4) some case of the golden idol puzzle i was working out 5) that time i played her story and jotted down every. single. video. in the game complete with timestamps and key words (it was actually very useful) and 6) transcribing someone's guide for the bludish dream achievement in suzerain, and somehow making it less understandable (well, i get what i mean)

[sixclawsdragon]

3 Ships I like: superbat, heishin (Detective Conan), wrightworth (Ace Attorney)

First Ship Ever: I’m not sure I remember… maybe datesana (Sengoku Basara)?

Last Song You Heard: the last song on my spotify is 孤独なheaven from love live, so probably that

Favorite Childhood Book: I really liked Nancy Drew as a kid

Currently Reading: Batgirl (2000), a Chicago travel book, and The Ectoplasmic Man (which is about Sherlock Holmes meeting Houdini, who is accused of a theft)

Currently Watching: assorted youtube videos

Currently Consuming: mediocre leftover chicken (all my cooking is mediocre lol)

Currently Craving: kroger store brand peanut butter (I ran out and couldn’t get to the store today since it’s a bit far)

Tagging: if you read this and thought “oh how fun!” consider yourself tagged

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better:

Tagged by @goth-automaton yo! thanks for the tag :)

3 Ships I like: mannn jus' three? okay my favored children are Nemestine, Creva, and Weskertine

First Ship Ever: Freddy Kruger/Nancy Thompson. I am nothing if not consistant in my villian/final girl (heroine) pair supremacy

Last Song You Heard: "Renegade (We Never Run)" off the Arcane Season 2 soundtrack

Favorite Child Lichhood Book: "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak

Currently Reading: Still reading those Resi Novels by S.D. Perry whenever I get a chance to

Currently Watching: Arcane, Season 2

Currently Consuming: nothing, I ate [sou- redacted] before doing this, woops

Currently Craving: a good strong drink but that requires me to get up and pour a glass and I don't feel like pushing through the multiple layers of reality to grab a [redacted] to swig down my [also redacted]

Tags for 9 people pffh I tag whoever I want:

@naerwenia​

@coiled-dragon​

@s-dei​

@lmshady​

@depraveddove​

@the-bar-sinister​

@unchartedperils​

@sweet7simple​

@meltic-daze​

@meiguiuk​

and whoever else wants to I'm not your parental aid

[lumilescense]

Get to know me tag game!

Thanks for tagging me @julienbakerstreet!!! I am now going to ramble on for far too long!

Three ships: Nagisa Misumi/Honoka Yukishiro (my precure girlies. My sweet precure girlies), madohomu and kyosaya (the amount of thematic weight held in their relationships. I could never choose) and Mina Harker/Lucy Westenra

First ship: knowingly, percabeth. Unknowingly, aisha/musa from winx club (i didnt realize gay people existed at that point)

Last song: i dont know. I think it was something by Marianas Trench so im going to guess it was A Normal Life

Last movie: ...it might genuinely have been across the spiderverse

Currently reading: im trying to get through the audiobook of Emma rn, along with Chris Claremonts xmen run (i think its called the uncanny xmen but dont quote me), i also have the 7 and 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle that i want to finish but ough the fatphobia, Ulysses (will spend 3 years reading this), To the Lighthouse, Near to the Wild Heart, and Im getting through the apothecary diaries and beast player manga

Currently watching: ...nothing........

Currently eating: likely a sandwich within the next half hour. But i also have tater tots and recently learned they do actually taste good in ranch and im still in shock.

Currently craving: puella magi madoka magica walpurgisnacht rising trailers with clearer images of the girls new outfits

And for tagging people... i need to get to know more people... but @lytransthropy and @xmascritter

[librarycards]

My favorite books of 2024 were Hamlet, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Stuart Turton), and Four Thousand Weeks (Oliver Burkeman). Thank you for any recs :)

hello!!

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride

[notsocooljess]

Trick or Treat!!!

trick or treat, candy for you!! 🍬🍫🍭

here’s a few not-THG books i recommend to read

the vanishing half by brit bennett (this is a perfect book imo)

the 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle by stuart turton

beloved by toni morrison

the sixth extinction: an unnatural history by elizabeth kolbert

dark matter by blake crouch

[knightleysbookshelf]

Mid year book freakout 2024

Total books so far: 33

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2024

the crazy thing is i haven't had any 5 star reads this year (unless they were rereads). I just haven't found something i REALLY vibe with. but the closest to 5 stars would be Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe. I thought is was really beautiful and expressed so many real emotions when it comes to living outside the gender binary.

2. Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2024

just now realizing i have been reading mostly standalones this year, but i did read the All Our Hidden Gifts trilogy by Caroline O'Donoghue. Not bad!

3. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to.

i really want to give The Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montell a try! i've heard it is a tough read, but it seems so interesting

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

I AM SO EXCITED FOR COMPOUND FRACTURE BY ANDREW JOSEPH WHITE!!!! i have had it preordered for months now! i have LOVED his other two books and i have to assume this one will be good, too! i can not wait until september!

5. Biggest disappointment.

haha i have had a few disappointments this year, but i think the biggest one was A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab because i had hyped it up for myself so much. i really enjoyed most of her other work, and this was just not hitting the same. i loved the world building, but one i got near the end i realized that i didn't care about any of the characters. she didn't spend enough time getting the audience invested in their lives. i did not finish the trilogy (and i had made the mistake of buying the box set)

6. Biggest surprise.

speaking of this author, the biggest surprise was The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. i know i am a few year late to the hype for this one lol, but i just assumed that it couldn't be as good as everyone was saying. but i ended up really enjoying this one! it was such a cool premise and it was so fun to go on the adventure

7. Favorite new author. (Debut or new to you)

all of these questions are really making me realize over many books i've read this year that i just did not enjoy. there really hasn't been a new author that has grabbed me. :( i am hoping this changes by the end of the year!

8. Newest fictional crush.

this isn't "new", but it is the newest (it has been close to a year). i love kaz brekker with my whole heart.

9. Newest favorite character.

see previous LOL

10. Book that made you cry.

nothing so far! :(

11. Book that made you happy.

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang! cute graphic novel about gender expression

12. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)

mentioned the book above, but i got the deluxe version of Genderqueer, and it is a very nice hardcover.

13. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

oh so many! my main goal is to finally have a 5 star review (NOT a reread)! the main books i am hoping to get to are Gideon the Ninth, Legends & Lattes, 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, and The House in the Cerulean Sea.

i tag anyone who wants to do this! just say that i tagged you, lol!

[longeyelashedtragedy]

in person interview today (aggh) and lots to do otherwise, but i'm going to lampard life it up in bed and have coffee and read "the 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle" (another @steeple-sinderby recommendation!) for the next half hour

[jhezenkoss]

16?

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

I am very disconnected from popular book promoting arenas so honestly idk what counts as hyped. Just went to check on Goodreads and books I thought were popular had like 1000 ratings, so it seems I really have no idea haha. Like half the books I read were published more than 20 years ago anyway.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton is probably one of the more popular books that I ended up disliking. Hooked by Emily McIntire (a friend made me read it....) was also EXTREMELY bad.

[miserywizard]

The PROBLEM with the 7 and a half deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is that the loop is METICULOUSLY constructed the passing out of information is genius but the reasoning behind it doesn’t land at all because it came in the form of another character informing the protagonist his own reasons for getting involved. We got like. 8 scenes with Anna that were all frantic and in passing! It’s not enough! I’m frustrated. The whole book is technique but there’s no feeling between the characters.

[advanced-procrastination]

I regret to inform my loyal followers that, after months of trying… I’ve decided to DNF that Poe collection. I just got so sick of the stuffy, over-written style — libertarian reddit philosophers would be jealous of how much this man can say without saying anything at all, and that’s not even touching on how jealous they’d be at his well-worn thesaurus. The only story I actually enjoyed in the first half was Rue Morgue, because things were actually happening; everything else was a 1-2 page story written like he had a 10-page minimum requirement. And let’s not forget the one where LITERALLY NOTHING happened, he just spent 10 pages describing scenery and then fucked off into the next title page. Looking at the ToC, it seems that the second half of the collection has a lot more of his more well-known stories, but I just can’t stomach reading any more of his writing. I’ll try to finish it some other time — maybe next Halloween.

To put it mildly, reading Poe is torture. No wonder so many kids lose their love of reading in high school, if THIS is what they’re being forced to read. Dude might have good story ideas, but he should have given those ideas to a good writer. He does not belong within 10 miles of a “literary geniuses” list.

—————

Anyway, I finished Bloodmarked. With most of the worldbuilding and exposition taken care of in Legendborn, Bloodmarked was truly able to shine as an action-packed fantasy. The overarching theme of how to free yourself from generational trauma was also particularly poignant, and if you have yet to read it, I strongly suggest that the Author’s Note at the end be considered required reading.

Now reading McCarthy’s The Road (physical) and Turton’s The 7-1/2 Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle (Audiobook).

[katherinejblackwell]

Yours, Katherine #07 - Planning My Fall TBR

Also read on my website! | Other Socials

Photo by dilay (:

Dear Readers, It's technically still the middle of Summer, but with registering for classes and getting my things together for school next month, I'm starting to feel those first hints of Fall. I'm going to try to enjoy the Summer while it's still here and be grateful for the warm weather before we creep back towards Winter, but I also can't help being excited for my favorite season to start again. So, today, I'm going to plan out some of the books I'm hoping to read come Fall.

#01 - The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I've been trying to read this book for I want to say the past two or three years and, every time I start, I get maybe a fourth of the way through and then get distracted by something else and end up DNFing it. I think this year, it's going to be the first book on my list because I want to finally finish it and fill in the gaps in the story I have. I am interesed in the story, and I love the writing style, I'm just having trouble finishing. I think if I can push through the section I've already read and get into the new stuff, it'll pique my interest and I'll be able to make it to the end. I also think treating the paragraph breaks more like chapters than the actual chapters will help. If I remember correctly, every chapter is 50+ pages long, with a bunch of paragraph breaks per chapter. So, being used to chapters that are at least half that length, it can be a little hard to keep motivation when it almost feels like I'm not making any progress. Hopefully, treating those paragraph breaks like chapters instead will help me feel like I'm making tangible progress.

View The Secret History on Goodreads​

#02 - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Assuming I manage to finish The Secret History, I'd also like to read Donna Tartt's most recent novel, The Goldfinch. To start with, it won a Pulitzer Prize in 2014, and I'm not sure you can get a better recommendation than that. I also think I'll find the art elements interesting, and this particular line from the description really intrigues me: "As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works." As a Downton Abbey fan, drawing rooms of the rich and dusty antiques sounds right up my alley. I'm also really interested to see what messages will lie behind the story since I know The Secret History is at least in part a social commentary about elitism within academia. I'd also like to watch the movie that came out a few years ago, and I always try to read the book before the adaptation.

View The Goldfinch on Goodreads​

 #03 - Deadfall Hotel by Steve Rasnic Tem

I'm honestly not super excited about this one, although I do still want to read it. I (semi)recently pulled this book and a ton of others I hadn't read off of my shelf and moved them to a different part of the room so I could try to work my way through them all and decide if I wanted to keep them or pass them along. The reason I'm not super excited, and haven't read it yet despite owning it for a few years, is because I think it's supposed to be kind of a horror, and I'm not really a horror person. I'm a big scaredy cat and horror tends to freak me out or just make me feel sick. It was kind of hard to get a good grasp of how scary it is from the reviews, so I'm preparing to DNF it while also holding out hope that it'll just be a semi-spooky-semi-sweet story that I'll end up enjoying enough to revisit now and again.

View Deadfall Hotel on Goodreads

 #04 - The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

I'm pretty sure I've talked about this book here before, but I'm always ready to bring it up in any conversation ever. I don't generally like mysteries all that much, but I LOVED 7 1/2 Deaths, and it's my favorite mystery ever. I normally reread it around Fall and Winter and so far I've reread it once a year since I first read it 3 years ago. I think Stuart Turton is incredibly clever and I'd also like to read some of his newer works this Fall if I get a chance. I'm not sure what his other two books are like, but 7 1/2 Deaths at least is super interesting, particularly for the time loop element it has going on. The idea is that the main character is reliving the same day for seven days, and ever day he wakes up in a different person's body. (There's also a little more to it than that, but I won't write any spoilers here, and you can always feel free to go looking for them yourself.) The reason I find this so impressive is because it means that the author had to have a deep understanding of how the day progressed and be able to keep track of exactly what everyone was doing at different points in the day, as well as plot out how he was going to slowly reveal key details to the main character and the audience using the different perspectives. I'm really eager to take a crack at his other novels and see what else he's come up with.

View The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle on Goodreads

#05 - The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

This is technically four books, but this series has been high on my priority list for such a long time. As a lover of the fantasy genre, I think this a long over due read. I have technically read The Hobbit a handful of times in audiobook* form, and I absolutely adored it, but with audiobooks, I tend to space and miss bits, so I want to be able to sit down and properly read the whole thing before I get into the trilogy. I was originally going to read these books during the Summer until I decided to read the Riordanverse books instead. When I get through all the Riordan books I'm trying to read (hopefully by September but unlikely), I'll probably get started on this series to transition me into Fall if I don't go for The Secret History first.

View J.R.R. Tolkien on Goodreads

Book Recommendation

My book recommendation for the month is the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series. I haven't gotten to rereading this in my quest to reread all the Riordanverse books yet, but I remember the first one being one of my favorite Rick Riordan books of all time. I think the cast of main characters are all really sweet with each other and I love their friendship. I specifically remember loving the final battle scene in the first book where all of the characters kind of have their moments to shine and they all come together against the enemy. 

No real drink rec this month, but once again encouraging you to go and drink some water because it's still summer, it's boiling out, and you need to replenish your body's stores.

I hope you enjoyed reading my letter this month. I look forward to hearing back from you, and I'll write again soon!

Yours, Katherine

*PS, The absolutely stellar audiobook of The Hobbit I read is by Bluefax. Unfortunately, the original uploads to YouTube had some strikes against them and had to be taken down. However, you can still find a few of the chapters on Bluefax's Soundcloud, and the full audiobook can still be found here on Spotify as a podcast, so even if you don't have premium it can still be played in the correct order from mobile. The Spotify doesn't belong to Bluefax, though, so if you'd like to support the creator, you can view the official YouTube channel I linked above to see BTS Hobbit content, and listen to a Pride and Prejudice audiobook!

[sixty-silver-wishes]

so I finished the 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle today and thought I'd share my thoughts since it's decently popular and I don't usually read modern fiction

overall, I liked the book a lot. the concept was original, and the prose was definitely a high point. as a writer myself, there were many moments where I had to put down the book because there were so many clever descriptions and turns of phrase that I kept feeling inspired to write. I thought it was interesting how each character was so layered, and as someone who loves fictional rich people family drama, the prospect of uncovering all the secrets of the hardcastles definitely kept me turning pages. for a first novel, I found it really impressive how turton was able to balance so many characters and plot points and keep a consistent story, although his editors of course deserve credit as well for that. I thought the hardcastles were the most interesting part of the book, and I wish we were able to spend more time with them, especially evelyn herself.

[spoilers ahead]

in terms of issues with the book, sometimes the story felt too complicated. I found myself constantly flipping back to the page at the beginning to remind myself who was who, and keeping track of every character's motivations could be a headache, as I was also trying to follow the complex plot. I felt that the final act could have been paced better; a lot of big twists were revealed, one after the other, without a lot of room for the characters to process them; for instance, I felt like the story should have dwelt on the fact that anna was originally aiden's nemesis much longer than it did. the part where evelyn reveals her motivations at the end also felt very unsatisfying; we just had this big dump of important information all in one high-stakes scene, and I wish it was something that could have been revealed more gradually, at least in the latter half. helena hardcastle was a very unconvincing red herring in my opinion, but I did like the twist where she was dead pretty much the entire time.

as for aiden himself, I found him to be the least interesting part of the book. I was intrigued by all the guests at blackheath and their secrets, but aiden just felt like a boring do-good protagonist, with little to no flaws (aside, as many people have criticized, his contempt for overweight people, which isn't really addressed by the story, and, if anything, only really served the plot in the sense that it illustrated how aiden underestimated ravencourt's usefulness as a host). If aiden was apparently corrupt enough to be trapped in blackheath, we never get an explanation why; he just seems like some guy who always does the right thing because it's the right thing, and he's not given a lot of depth beyond that. the opposite is true of the footman; he just came across as a bland villain who was evil for the sake of it. characters like anna, the plague doctor, and michael hardcastle were all very interesting to me because we saw how their unexpected actions were guided by their respective moral compasses, but we didn't really get a lot from aiden, which was a shame; I would have liked to see how his natural personality conflicted with each of his hosts, aside from him just wanting to do the right thing. I felt like there were times where either I missed details, or he'd just figure things out with no reasoning as to how he'd know those things, and I found myself a bit frustrated with him as a character and narrative device.

the twist with evelyn being the ultimate mastermind was unexpected, but again, it sort of felt frustrating. everything was rushed toward us at the very end, and I wish we were able to spend more time with her character before the reveal. pretty much the only hint we got that something was off about her was when she was dismissive of seeing gregory gold strung up, but I think I would have liked to see her build up a friendship with aiden and some of his hosts, but for the audience to increasingly become conflicted about her, and whether aiden was doing the right thing by trying to save her life. having her go from seeming kind and brave to Suddenly Very Evil felt disappointing, and I think more time with her would have made that reveal feel more earned.

tl;dr- I'd rate this book maybe a 7.5 out of 10. great prose and concept, and some strong characters, but rushed pacing when combined with a complex plot, as well as a bland protagonist, could sometimes make it a bit of a headache.

[toomanystoryideas]

so this was totally from several days ago and i just remembered to do it LMAO ty @phantom-does-a-thing for tagging me :)

last song: antivist -bring me the horizon

last movie: the passenger (2023)

last book: the 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle by stuart turton

last tv show: succession

last thing i googled: “the seven and a half deaths” to make sure i got the title right

looking forward to: my friend picking me up to do hw together at the library in a few minutes (im in my hometown not on campus)

anyone can hop on :)

tagged by @saintundying !!

last song: one beer by MF DOOM ‼️

last movie: frozen lmao

last book: queen of the damned 😌 also between two fires by christopher buelhman

last tv show: star trek voyager baby!!!!!!!!!!

last thing googled/looked up: research for a class project about. politics 😔

looking forward to: my concert this weekend ^_^

tagging @loumandivorce @boyfriendyke @talesfromthebandgeekmafia @strawberri-syrup @peearrdee my beloved mutuals. no pressure ofc <3