This week we are discussing The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, Ch. 43-End.
Trigger Warning!!! This book contains situations and subjects related to: murder, death, suicide, fatphobia, rape, gun violence, knife violence, poisoning.
Spoiler Warning!!! This post is full of spoilers for The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.
Discussion:
Jacilyn: Well, friends. Here we are. Our third and final discussion of The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. All I have to say is…..
What. the. fuck. just. happened.
We knew the mystery was multi-layered and hectic, but nothing prepared me for the onslaught of happenings in the last third of the book. After Anna’s supposed betrayal at the end of the last section, I wasn’t willing to trust anyone, but I continued to find myself fond of the Plague Doctor, and incredibly suspicious of Coleridge. Which, I absolutely called it that he wasn’t one of the hosts. I was suspicious of him from the very beginning, when he called off the search for what Bell thought was Anna’s body in the woods.
Honestly, so much happened that it’s kind of a blur in my head. I think I will need a re-read, with the answer to all of these mysteries in mind, to determine whether I think the author set the ending up well or not. I can say that I’ve mostly enjoyed the ride, though. This book threw me for a loop in ways that none ever have before.
Michaela: I feel like every time I thought I knew where we were headed, I got slapped by the real story telling me how wrong I was. At this point it’s hard to remember who all I suspected but Evelyn not being Evelyn never crossed my mind. I find it a little weird that no one besides Millicent realized that Madeline was actually Evelyn, or at the very least that Evelyn wasn’t Evelyn. That feels a little convenient. But really other than that the mystery flowed for me. It’s incredibly complicated, especially with the order in which we found things out but I loved it. I love complex stories with overlapping and tangled narratives, so this was right up my alley.
I loved that as I was reading I was continually shocked by finally figuring something out on my own or even along with the characters. I’ve never been so shocked reading a mystery novel. It definitely had the same kind of vibes as the Agatha Christie novel we read. I’ll need to re-read it at some point for sure to keep up with everything a little better.
So for this last third of the book we start off with the seventh host, Rashton, and with him I finally felt like we were going to make a lot of headway. Finally a quick mind again like when we had Ravencourt. And as with Ravencourt, Rashton was not meant to be a good person but through Aiden’s experience I couldn’t help but like him at least a little bit. The way Grace interacted with him and fully trusted his actions even though she didn’t know what they meant, she completely trusted this man to come back to her and tell her everything when he could. You gotta respect that kind of trust, and Cunningham trusted him that fully as well. I also got a little bit of satisfaction seeing Stanwin cower a little in the face of policeman consequences to his dirty business.
Jacilyn: Rashton’s sincere, genuine relationships with Grace and Cunningham was a breath of fresh air, with all of the subterfuge and distrust we had been experiencing. I had started to feel a bit fond of Cunningham, but wasn’t sure if I trusted him entirely yet…. I almost expected him to end up being the one who killed Thomas, but thank the gods that’s not what happened. I almost wondered if Michael was going to be the killer ultimately, but HOLY SHIT I wasn’t expecting Evelyn to not be the real Evelyn! I also agree that it seemed a little too convenient that no one else noticed that Evelyn was an imposter. It’s clear that Peter and Helena didn’t really care much for her, and they weren’t around the other guests often enough to see Evelyn interact with them and notice that she looked different, but I find it hard to believe that no one else except for Millicent picked up on it.
What really surprised me was the appearance of Silver Tear - another Plague Doctor! We finally got a little bit of information on the role of the Plague Doctors from the two of them interacting. I always suspected that the OG Plague Doctor was working a bit outside of the rules, but I never knew whether he was working for someone or if this was all just his own game to ease his boredom. I still wonder whether or not they and “the superiors” are some sort of otherworldly, paranormal beings, or if they are normal humans with a unique job. I’d love to know more about the world as a whole.
Michaela: I also suspected Michael a little, the sibling love was shoved in our faces so much that it started to feel like a distraction. The reveal of Silver Tear was a full wild card. I was not ready for that one. But I loved learning about this whole situation. Blackheath is a prison for Anna, who did things so horrible that the whole world hates her, and Daniel, who we know nothing about other than him saying he remembers he had a wife and family. Considering the little we know about what Anna did, I can’t imagine what Daniel did to get to this place. The author did answer some questions in the back of the paperback edition I have, and referring to the world he said it was a technologically advanced world but that they still hadn’t overcome human weaknesses. Take that to mean whatever you think it does. But a world that could create something as awful as Annabelle Caulker is meant to be and a prison to hold her like this, sounds like a crazy ass place and I need to know more about it.
I loved the Plague Doctor revealing himself to be a real man named Oliver. He still might be a supernatural something or other but he just seemed like a tired man who wanted to save someone his morals told him were innocent. The whole book is a book about the morals and morality of mankind, the fact that a simple manor house from the 1910s full of socialites was enough to be one of the worst forms of punishment shows what we were dealing with. I don’t really like books and things that are trying too hard to be a commentary on human life or morals, but this did it right. It’s commentary that you don’t realize is commentary, it’s almost like Lord of the Flies. Leave a group of humans stranded with seemingly no way or one way out, and see how everyone devolves to their lowest form unknowingly. This whole book was a mind fuck.
Further into that idea for me was when Aiden began to lose himself. He had so many hosts he was being crushed down by all their memories, personalities, and morales. Aiden’s internal narrator said “I’m no longer a man. I’m a chorus”, that line gave me chills. Just…ugh guys…what a cool concept for a book.
I think Evelyn’s fake suicide plot would have been satisfactory for an interesting ending. But the fact that it went even further than that was like bonuses for me. I appreciated that the Plague Doctor didn’t even know the full story, he’d been there for 30 years and did not know Evelyn was actually Felicity and that Madeline was Evelyn. I will say I wish there had been a little bit more to the real Evelyn’s history of murder. In the current time’s mystery she killed her mother, Helena, and her father, Peter (well not her real father, who we now know is Carver). Then, 19 years ago, she killed Thomas for figuring out she killed the stable boy who went missing. It felt…rushed? Random? I don’t know. I think if her murder of the stable boy had been a little more premeditated then it would have made more sense for her to jump to such a planned out murder for her little brother, Thomas. Also how did a seven year old Thomas so easily figure out what happened to the boy? Feels a little stretched. But anyways, that part didn’t quite work for my brain. Maybe if she had continued with her murdery ways afterwards then again it would have made a little more sense, she still obviously enjoys killing people but maybe it’s the family aspect that really gets her boat going. Otherwise, her killing Thomas felt a little extreme, not necessarily unbelievable because kids don't understand those things but like extreme still.
Jacilyn: What didn’t quite work for me with Evelyn’s story about killing the stable boy and Thomas was that she killed Thomas because he supposedly knew she killed the stable boy. When she first said that, I envisioned that he saw her do something violent towards this boy, not just kill him via her inaction. But at the same time, it still feels like a logical possible trajectory for someone who becomes a serial killer. Realizing she could cause the death of this boy so easily with her inaction, might have been the tipping point into that behavior. She goes from this murder by chance, to escalate to a whole premeditated murder. Perhaps she was simply looking for an excuse to kill Thomas, and this provided the justification she felt she needed. Devious, though, no matter which way you look at it. It’s interesting that she and Michael loved each other so much, when she clearly had so much disdain for all of her other family members.
I think one of my favorite aspects of this book was how the author wrote the chapters from each host’s perspectives. He really nailed the subtle changes in the way Aiden saw things, from other characters to sunlight. I particularly enjoyed Gold being the last of the hosts, with his artist’s eyes to see the world. The writing in those chapters was particularly enjoyable to me for that reason in particular.
I appreciate that this story wasn’t super preachy, but also leaves you remembering that even the worst people are capable of redemption and might not be evil to the core. Of course, that’s easier said than done. I recognize that, if someone existed in our world like Annabelle (who immediately reminded me of Hitler based on the very vague descriptions we got of her activities prior to being imprisoned), I would be much less likely to believe that someone like that could be redeemed and rehabilitated. On the other hand, I firmly believe in rehabilitation over retribution when it comes to our criminal justice system, and the line “...bars can’t build better men and misery can only break what goodness remains” really struck me as quite apt. Not only was I left with my mind reeling when I tried to process the mystery as a whole once the book ended, I was left contemplating that overall message.
Michaela: I think removing their memories helped with it. Taking away their memories showed that their most simple version of self was not evil or vile right off the bat, it was the environment and experiences around that version of self that made them who they were in Blackheath and as well in the world outside. It’s the nurture versus nature theory taken to an extreme form of circumstances. But even within those extremes Aiden learned to let go of his hatred towards a woman who didn’t exist anymore because of those circumstances. Aiden himself changed drastically from the man he came to Blackheath as. He started this journey wanted to torture Annabelle for killing and torturing his sister. But we end with Aiden willing to protect Anna from the world outside. I felt like it reflected Bell and Evelyn from the very first iteration of the day, Bell not remembering how horrible of a person he was only ever wanting to be a better man than the version he was (which were the real feelings underneath Aiden as well, since he gets so much of his emotions from his hosts). And Evelyn, actually Felicity, was charmed by how Bell wanted to be better, befriended him and helped him even though she knew who he used to be.
I really enjoyed seeing how differently Aiden saw the world through each host's eyes. Then with that how the author portrayed each person’s version of reality, I think Gold was the one you could tell it was happening the most with. He really saw the world in a completely different way than all the other 7 hosts. I liked that every host had an important role to play, even the ones with smaller parts were incredibly important to get to the ending we got. From what I can recall from the book as a whole, everything was there for us to see along the way to figure it out. Obviously there were some things kept from us for theatrical reveal value but that’s to be expected. There was some things that didn’t quite work fully for me as a reader such as Evelyn’s murder history, the unnecessary and extensive fatphobia, and Rashton getting a message to keep those drugs on him to save fake Evelyn (the only reason Gold knew which drugs to write down was because he had seen the note before, logically why would Gold know that combination of drugs. And if he did, it was never mentioned how that I noticed).
Well friends, I think for the most part almost everything was resolved or explained by the end. The mystery was solved in a neat little bow while the main character's ending was left to the imagination which I actually loved. This is one of the most interesting books I have ever experienced. I hope you all had fun reading this book, it was a wild ride for sure! Until next time!
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