Hello there! I’m back with the first post in my Buzzword Reading Challenge series for 2023! **And every day we are reminded that discrimination against marginalized communities is still a serious problem, so click here to find a compilation of resources where you can donate your time, money, or whatever you can to support these communities. I still encourage you to research these causes on your own to educate yourself and find the best way to lend your support.**
This will be my third year taking part in the Buzzword Reading Challenge, and every year I’m just as excited to find these titles on my shelves to fit the prompt words / categories, and get some suggestions from the community as well. In case you’re new here, the Buzzword Reading Challenge (also called Buzzword-a-thon or the Buzzword Readathon) was originally created by Kayla at the YouTube channel booksandlala. It centers around readers choosing books that include specific words or ‘types’ of words. This is the third year where all 12 prompts were selected in advance and it’s being loosely hosted once a month on sites like Goodreads and Storygraph. Each month we search our shelves for books with either specific words in the title, or title words that fit a specific theme. Previous years I’ve done recommendations, or multiple books for each month, but in 2023, I think I’m just going to stick to one book per prompt, as to [hopefully] prevent burn-out later on in the year. This is a reading challenge after all, and it’s supposed to be fun. In January, the prompt was word specific – “life” and “death,” so I finally got to read a book that’s been sitting on my TBR for years.
“life” and “death” – The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
I remember people talking about this book because the title was changed from “The 7 Deaths…” to “The 7 1/2 Deaths…” in America due to possible confusion with the book “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The two are not related or similar in their synopses in any way, but the publishers wanted to further differentiate the two. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle opens at Blackheath Manor, where guests are invited to The Masquerade. One particular guest finds himself in a rather precarious situation – every time he goes to sleep, he wakes up in the body of another partygoer. Eventually he is told why – he has eight hosts and eight chances to solve the murder of a woman named Evelyn Hardcastle. Each of his hosts has different strengths and provides him with access to different rooms / people / conversations he needs in order to solve this heinous crime, but will he be able to pinpoint the perpetrator in time, or be destined to continue this search for loops to come? I bought an ebook on sale a few years ago and decided to listen to the audiobook alongside reading along, which definitely was the way to go for me. I honestly don’t know if I would have been able to finish it if I was just reading the ebook alone. It was interesting to see the different pieces of information unfold, and how his actions in one host on one day were affecting things he was able to do in another, and how he had to think ahead in order for that to work. There were some twists and turns I didn’t see coming – this could have been because I wasn’t paying enough attention or they were just cleverly placed. At times I felt some of the timing was off – we spent so much time exploring the first few hosts, and when things started to spiral I thought the last few flew by in a hurry in comparison. Other reviewers have pointed out the fatphobia and other harmful character descriptions our narrator uses, which also made me uncomfortable to read at times – I urge you to search out other reviews that offer specific examples of this language used if you would like to know more. And lastly, while I now I can appreciate the ending for what it was, at the time I felt it a little anti-climactic and I was left wanting a little more explanation. Overall I’m not upset I read it, and I’m glad I finally did so I could take it off my TBR, but I hesitate to widely recommend it.
And there you have it, the first Buzzword Reading Challenge post of 2023. I’ll be interested to see how the rest of the year plays out.
Where to find The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle:
Bookshop
Amazon
Goodreads
Storygraph
Stuart Turton’s Twitter
Thoughts About Things 