The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Eight days, eight points of view, one protagonist. The protagonist is given eight chances to live the same day through a different point of view to solve and prevent a murder from occurring.

This book was riveting from the start – odd to say, I know, since I gave this 3.5 stars. There were so many questions, so many puzzle pieces to fit together that I couldn’t put it down. But then, I started to get bored. As the tangled story started to unwrap itself, the repetition of events became monotonous and I began to feel as though I was sloughing through the story (this was about 70% of the way through).

The writing style is excellent – this was absolutely a well-written book and a fascinating idea for a novel. However, I found the ending to be unsatisfactory. I was left with many questions surrounding the situation and the resolution. There were highs and lows of the pace of the story, but the questions kept me engaged enough to push through the low points.

I was unable to guess the ending, which is absolutely a positive, but it also fell flat and felt rushed. Additionally, one of the characters was described as a modern-day Hitler, but is forgiven in the end, which was not overly convincing character development that allowed me, as a reader, to be okay with this decision. It felt very forced for the sake of a redeeming character arc.

All-in-all, if you’ve been interested in reading this book, I’d encourage you to pick it up, but be prepared to read about the same day 8 different times.