A Fantasy Tale with Room for Improvement
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by all accounts, should have been a book I devoured and adored. My opinion seems to be at odds with the majority of reviewers out there, because I find myself disappointed. I have seen all the comparisons and likenesses drawn...Quantum Leap, Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, Clue, Agatha Christie, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which is a list filled with plots, aspects of time travel, and characters I absolutely love. But throughout this book, I struggled to stay engaged.
The plot and its various threads were easy to follow. Aiden Bishop, our narrator, wakes up with no memory—he can't even tap into his name. Through the course of events, he is introduced to the body he is inhabiting, to a game he's caught up in—on which his very survival depends, and his own true name. Bishop learns that there are other players in this game, the object of which is to discover the true murderer of Evelyn Hardcastle.
Though she appears to commit suicide, Evelyn Hardcastle has someone else to blame for her death. She will die and Bishop will repeat the same day, but in a different body, until he can gather enough evidence to identify the person responsible and break free of the time loop.
Honestly, I am a sucker for time travel and detective stories, and I really should've loved this one, but the first blockade I hit was immediate and unending. First person, present tense. No way should an entire book be told in first person, present tense (let's go with FPPT for simplicity). While there are exceptions, the writing style that can hold up an entire book to this level of constantly being in the immediate is rare. To dip into FPPT for a suspenseful moment is fine—that would add the appropriate amount of tension for a scene which depends on a certain tautness or quickness. But to cover every movement with I go, I do, I see, I want, I know, I say, I walk, I stumble, I fall, I sit, etc., makes me physically agitated—and in a negative way, not in a suspenseful way that is conducive to enjoyable reading. To be constantly up against the immediate, constantly in the now, is oppressive. Yes, it can be powerful and intense, but to be used sparingly...like yelling.* Otherwise, it feels like a cheap and easy crutch for creating suspense.
While I liked some of the characters Aiden Bishop borrows, they all seem some level of dead or lifeless unless they are doing something Bishop has to suppress...lust, obesity (the fat-shaming is horrendous here for no reason), or too strong a will. Other than that, there seems to be no point in dropping into these other people and inhabiting them—aside from the police officer, and uncoincidentally he was my favorite. The plot points surrounding these people are messy, and the construction of the loop falls apart and seems thrown away the closer we get to the ending. If you're looking for that moment when the odd things in the loop finally make sense, and the pieces slide together with a satisfying click, look elsewhere.
However, my main problem comes after the reveal. There were several items to be revealed as the novel's plot unfolded, and while one seemed fairly easy to predict, there's a twist to it that I just cannot fathom. Two twists, actually...and the novel just became absurd at that point. To the degree that I found that the end of the novel didn't match the rest of it.
As present tense is what, by the laws of physics, we watch happen in a movie, I could see this making a rather interesting film or miniseries...and any flaws in the characters could be patched up with the right actor. Though, I don't know if the ending could be saved, but some people like that sort of thing...I, however, do not.
The plot and its various threads were easy to follow. Aiden Bishop, our narrator, wakes up with no memory—he can't even tap into his name. Through the course of events, he is introduced to the body he is inhabiting, to a game he's caught up in—on which his very survival depends, and his own true name. Bishop learns that there are other players in this game, the object of which is to discover the true murderer of Evelyn Hardcastle.
Though she appears to commit suicide, Evelyn Hardcastle has someone else to blame for her death. She will die and Bishop will repeat the same day, but in a different body, until he can gather enough evidence to identify the person responsible and break free of the time loop.
Honestly, I am a sucker for time travel and detective stories, and I really should've loved this one, but the first blockade I hit was immediate and unending. First person, present tense. No way should an entire book be told in first person, present tense (let's go with FPPT for simplicity). While there are exceptions, the writing style that can hold up an entire book to this level of constantly being in the immediate is rare. To dip into FPPT for a suspenseful moment is fine—that would add the appropriate amount of tension for a scene which depends on a certain tautness or quickness. But to cover every movement with I go, I do, I see, I want, I know, I say, I walk, I stumble, I fall, I sit, etc., makes me physically agitated—and in a negative way, not in a suspenseful way that is conducive to enjoyable reading. To be constantly up against the immediate, constantly in the now, is oppressive. Yes, it can be powerful and intense, but to be used sparingly...like yelling.* Otherwise, it feels like a cheap and easy crutch for creating suspense.
While I liked some of the characters Aiden Bishop borrows, they all seem some level of dead or lifeless unless they are doing something Bishop has to suppress...lust, obesity (the fat-shaming is horrendous here for no reason), or too strong a will. Other than that, there seems to be no point in dropping into these other people and inhabiting them—aside from the police officer, and uncoincidentally he was my favorite. The plot points surrounding these people are messy, and the construction of the loop falls apart and seems thrown away the closer we get to the ending. If you're looking for that moment when the odd things in the loop finally make sense, and the pieces slide together with a satisfying click, look elsewhere.
However, my main problem comes after the reveal. There were several items to be revealed as the novel's plot unfolded, and while one seemed fairly easy to predict, there's a twist to it that I just cannot fathom. Two twists, actually...and the novel just became absurd at that point. To the degree that I found that the end of the novel didn't match the rest of it.
As present tense is what, by the laws of physics, we watch happen in a movie, I could see this making a rather interesting film or miniseries...and any flaws in the characters could be patched up with the right actor. Though, I don't know if the ending could be saved, but some people like that sort of thing...I, however, do not.