Even having finished this one I am still a little unsure what to think of it. The 7 ½ deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton is about a man named Aiden Bishop and his rather unusual quest to identify the killer of Evelyn Hardcastle. At a remote country manor the Hardcastle family is holding a ball to commemorate the anniversary of their son’s death but also to celebrate Evelyn coming of age. During the evening of the ball Evelyn is apparently destined to die and no one is sure who kills her. The morning of the ball, Sebastian Bell wakes up in the woods outside of the manor convinced he is helping a young woman flee from a man trying to kill her. However, Sebastian actually has no memory of anything before waking up that morning and it is only over time that he realizes there is a reason for that. Sebastian Bell is being inhabited by the spirit of Aidan Bishop and at the end of the day Aidan will move from Bell into the body of one of the other guests and repeat the day. He has a total of eight days and eight guests to solve the murder that will always happen that evening.
I knew this one was going to be a weird one going in because of the description on the book but I was not prepared for just how weird it was going to be. Seriously, the story ended up being an amnesia, time-travel, body hopping victorian period murder mystery. The idea of all of that being in one story was rather mind-blowing honestly and to actually see it all blended together was interesting. I can legitimately say that this book is definitely one of the weirder ones that I have read in a long time. I can also say that this book was an awesome read and I thoroughly enjoyed it at the same time. All of those different themes and ideas blended together to create this unique and interesting story and while I will admit it was weird it was still entertaining. Watching as Aidan works on figuring out what was actually happening and his own role in everything was nice and I was genuinely surprised by much of what happened at the end. Mind you a big part of that surprise was due to the slight difficulty of trying to keep track of the constant timeline shifts and body hopping that takes place, especially towards the end. It was still an incredible read and I did enjoy it so I am happy giving it four out of five stars.
This book is a bit of an odd one to categorize but I would classify it as a murder mystery primarily with hints of either science fiction or fantasy depending on how you classify the time looping element. I would think this book would appeal the most to readers who enjoy mysteries but it would also appeal to any readers who enjoy books that are just plain bizarre. As you might imagine considering the theme of the story there is the occasional graphic or gruesome scene but nothing overly explicit and there were only vague hints at other adult content. While this would be aimed primarily at adults I can also see older teens reading and enjoying it just fine. Hope you will consider trying it out and if you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.