At the beginning of the year, Isabelle and I chose 3 books we wanted the other to read. I finally finished the first one (and am over halfway with the second one), haha. One of the books Isabelle chose for me was The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I ended up doing a buddy read with Ellie from Read to Ramble and it was such an interesting ride. Keep on reading to find out what I thought of this story!

At a gala party thrown by her parents, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed–again. She’s been murdered hundreds of times, and each day, Aiden Bishop is too late to save her. Doomed to repeat the same day over and over, Aiden’s only escape is to solve Evelyn Hardcastle’s murder and conquer the shadows of an enemy he struggles to even comprehend–but nothing and no one are quite what they seem.

Deeply atmospheric and ingeniously plotted, The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a highly original debut that will appeal to fans of Kate Atkinson and Agatha Christie.

 

Review

“How lost do you have to be to let the devil lead you home?”

The review for this book isn’t going to be long or very easy to write. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is such an unique story with so many twists and turns. I’m afraid I’ll spoil this book if I say too much in my review. This book is 500 pages long and was able to surprise me until the very end.

When I started this book I was expecting a murder mystery, but this story was so much more. A group of guests gather together at the Hardcastle manor for a gala. Our main character Aiden keeps reliving the same day over and over again. His only chance at leaving is by solving Evelyn’s murder. Except nothing is what it seems and that made it so hard to figure out who was behind everything.

“So many memories and secrets, so many burdens. Every life has such weight. I don’t know how anybody carries even one.”

Aiden wakes up as a different person each day and comes to find out that he’s done this more times than he realizes. Each body he wakes up in starts taking pieces of him. It’s interesting to see him struggle to figure everything out while dealing with different personalities and things that motivate certain people. I can’t imagine what it’s like waking up in a different body everyday and trying to function with another personality and motivations. It was so interesting to see how Aiden has to switch strategies everyday, find out who’s loyal and who isn’t and stop events from happening that could lead to Evelyn’s murder.

I have to say Aiden definitely got a special place in my heart. He was so determined and felt so much during this journey. Even when he finds out things aren’t what they seems he won’t give up on certain people. That made me happy that someone will stick to what they believe in. Even in the middle of a chaotic time he’s in.

“We are never more ourselves than when we think people aren’t watching.”

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle kept me on the edge of my seat and I was excited to see what each day would bring. I think doing this as a buddyread made it extra special, because everyday we could talk about what happened and who we thought was behind things or what would happen next. I wasn’t right at all, but that was definitely half the fun! I may just have to pick this one up again in the future to see if I missed anything the first time around. I’m sorry if this review doesn’t make much sense, but it’s such a hard review to write.

 

 

This was such a surprising book. It’s been a couple of weeks since I finished reading The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and I still think about it. Have you read this book? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!