Michelle Herbert reviews The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton…
Imagine having to live the same day over and over, although you are reliving the same day, you are always in someone else’s body, with their memories and personalities to contend with, or in some cases lacking their memories and personalities. This is the world we are thrown into. It is always interesting to start a story where the reader is as unaware of what is happening as the main character, who doesn’t know who they are or how and why they are running through some trees.
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is one of those books where the less you know going in, the more you will enjoy the book. The basic story is that during a party held by Evelyn’s parents, Evelyn will die. It is up to the man, we meet in the trees to work out how and why Evelyn must die. The man must also do this while inhabiting some of the guests’ bodies. The guests themselves are an assortment of characters, some of them rogues, whereas some of them are downright villainous.
The man moving from host to host is probably the character we know least about, although this doesn’t detract from the story. In fact, this makes it more intriguing as the man is also trying to find out who they are as much as we are. The man is also having to deal with the personality of the body they are in, as well as having to avoid being killed when inhabiting them. If this happens the man is immediately booted into the next host and like a computer game, there are only a certain number of hosts (lives) they can inhabit. Each host has positives and negatives about them, some being more useful than others in helping to find out who wants to kill Evelyn.
This leads to a lot of trust and mistrust throughout the story. Whether the man can trust the other guests not to be working against him and if they are, why? There are times where allies are miscast as untrustworthy and you have to wonder whether these days the man is living will lead to a conclusion or not. Turton has weaved a story that although allows for repetitions, never gets stale and is always gripping. This is especially true when you like a particular host more than the previous or present one.
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is really ambiguous, there are a lot of twists and turns and it really does make you think about the events that happen when the man inhabits each host. This is a really addictive book where you really want to get answers to the many questions given, as you find out more about each of the guests and their motivations. I also really enjoyed the ending, as it lets you wonder what will happen next and what is really outside the confines of the grounds.
Michelle Herbert
