The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Welcome to our book club!

This is the third of our books to read and discuss.  Please use the comment section to add your thoughts.

How this works:

Please be respectful of other commenters, their ideas and their interpretations.  There will be no bullying.  Politics and religion are off limits.  Please limit your negativity.  This is supposed to fun for everyone.

Our third book is:

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.

by Stuart Turton

Our schedule will be:

*Day 1 & 2 - due November 1st

*Day 3 & 4 - due November 8th

*Day 5 & 6 - due November 15th

*Day 7 to the end - due November 22nd

*Please don't read ahead.  If you do, don't spoiler things for others.*

What is The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle?

From Amazon:

"Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day...quite unlike anything I've ever read, and altogether triumphant."―A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

The Rules of Blackheath
Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m.
There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.
We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.
Understood? Then let's begin...

***
Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others.

For fans of Claire North and Kate Atkinson, The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive novel that follows one man's race against time to find a killer― but an astonishing time-turning twist means that nothing and no one are quite what they seem.

Praise for The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle:
Costa First Novel Award 2018 Winner
One of Stylist Magazine's 20 Must-Read Books of 2018
One of Harper's Bazaar's 10 Must-Read Books of 2018
One of Guardian's Best Books of 2018

From GoodReads:

"Gosford Park" meets "Groundhog Day" by way of Agatha Christie – the most inventive story you'll read this year.

Tonight, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed... again.

It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed.

But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden – one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party – can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot.

The only way to break this cycle is to identify the killer. But each time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath...

SELECTED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, I PAPER, FINANCIAL TIMES AND DAILY TELEGRAPH.  

 

The Haunting of Hill House - discussion

Please discuss this wonderful, classic horror story at the bottom of this page.  

I've included a selection of questions from The Valley Cottage Library's "The Haunting of Hill House discussion guide".  You don't need to read any of them and you can discuss whatever interests you.  They are only here to give you ideas on what to write.  I can't wait to hear from you!

    Discuss the reasons Dr. Montague chose Eleanor, Theodora, and Luke to stay in Hill House. The psychic phenomenon which they experienced does not seem to have made a great impact on them. How is this significant?

    Eleanor often tells herself that she deserves her newfound happiness at Hill House. What is the cause of this happiness? Is it real or an illusion? How do her feelings about both the house and its temporary inhabitants change over the course of her stay?

    How does Jackson establish a romantic triangle, given the social proprieties of the era in which the novel is set? (It was first published in 1959.) What is the significance of the song refrain Eleanor keeps repeating, “journeys end in lovers meeting”?

    Do you believe Eleanor was justified in feeling resentful towards the others for treating her like a hysterical female? Or do you believe the others in the party saw something in Eleanor that alarmed them? 

    Did Eleanor intentionally let her mother die, or is she merely suffering from bereavement and a mistaken feeling guilt? 

    Discuss the differences in the methods Dr. and Mrs. Montague use to study the paranormal. Which approach, if any, do you believe is most successful? Why?

    Why does Mrs. Montague believe that a loving attitude is more effective in a haunted house than a fearful one?

    The planchette is similar to the ouija board; it is a method of communicating with spirits from beyond through the process of automatic writing. What do you make of the planchette’s messages to Eleanor?

    While The Haunting of Hill House is told in the third person, by an omniscient narrator, the point of view throughout the novel is almost exclusively Eleanor's. Is her viewpoint reliable?

     It seems clear that we are meant to believe the reality of the physical manifestations of Hill House’s “possession” by otherworldly forces, as many of the phenomena are witnessed by two or more people, whereas many authors would have left the reality of these events ambiguous. What do you make of Jackson’s decision?

     Do you see Hill House's horrors as being different for its male and female inhabitants? If yes, then what differences did you notice, and how do they suggest the novel's take on gender issues? If no, explain why you don't see any differences, and what this equal-opportunity terror has to say about gender in the novel?

     Assume that the ghostly manifestations are the result of Eleanor's blooming telekinetic ability. What does this suggest to you about the character of Eleanor?

     Imagine that the events of Hill House took place this year. How would the story, themes, and characters change to become relevant for our brave new(ish) world?

    The Big One: what is it about Hill House that allows it to consume Eleanor's sanity so efficiently? Or, what is it about Eleanor that allows Hill House to consumer her sanity?

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Welcome to our book club!

 

Please use the comment section to add your thoughts.

The book club sessions will start on the days listed below but comments are not limited to the day or even the week.  Busy?  Feel free to join in anytime after the discussions are available.

 

How this works:

Please be respectful of other commenters, their ideas and their interpretations.  There will be no bullying.  Politics and religion are off limits.  Please limit your negativity.  This is supposed to fun for everyone.

 

Please join us for:

The Haunting of Hill House

By Shirley Jackson

The discussion for this book will be available:

*October 12th

From Barnes and Noble (BN.com):

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

 

"Book Review: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson" from The Book Smugglers , accessed 7/21/2020

There are two things that TERRIFY me: ghost stories and haunted houses. The Haunting of Hill House combines both in a story of psychological Horror. That is to say: this book is like my kryptonite and I have been sleeping with the lights on ever since I finished it.

First published in 1959, The Haunting of Hill House is considered one of the best Horror stories ever and I can see why: I found myself loving it completely. This is a brilliant book.

Dr. Montague is an investigator of supernatural events who puts together a group of people to spend a few months at the infamous Hill House. He has chosen those he invited very carefully, based on previously experienced paranormal activity, hoping that will mean that those people would be more attuned to the paranormal. In the end though only two people show up, two young women named Theodora and Eleanor. Theo is a bohemian artist who just had a fight with her flat mate (possibly a lover?) and needs to clear her head; Eleanor is a reclusive, shy woman who spent most her adult life nursing her recently deceased mother. The group is joined by Luke, the young heir to Hill House.

The story is narrated from Eleanor’s point of view and it’s through her eyes that we experience everything that the group does. The story starts really slowly and for the first 100 or so pages nothing significant happens in terms of paranormal activity. Until it does: and it is terrifying.

The thing is, those first pages are essential to this storytelling and to understanding the presumed supernatural elements. In those first few pages we get acquainted with our narrator and see her frame of mind at the starting point. We follow her as she experiences the freedom of making her own choices, as she drives through empty roads and small towns, hopeful she is driving toward new things (perhaps it will end in a love story?). As get to Hill House it is her description of its darkness and strangeness and her description of its creepy caretakers with their message of DOOM (who oddly, work really well as comic relief) that colour our own view of the house and its inhabitants. And of course, there is also her depiction of the rest of the group and how she perceives them to be, how she sees her place in the dynamics of the group and how the relationships develop between them.

In Eleanor’s narrative lies the brilliance of this novel. It is as engaging as it is unnerving – all the more so because it is possible to see the little, subtle lies she tells the group about herself. Then, little by little, things start to change as the group experience the events. Is the House really Evil and haunted? Is it affecting the dynamics of the group and changing their personalities? Or is the house (or perhaps the idea of the house) affecting only Eleanor and as such Eleanor’s views of them that are being altered? There is a lot that could be said for both explanations of the events that take place in the book.

More than that though, there is a lot of subtext when it comes to the characters that is open for interpretation: is Theodora lesbian? Is Eleanor and Theodora’s relationship romantic in nature? What about Luke? Does he have feelings for either woman or none of them? How to interpret those will depend on what each reader brings into the reading of the book.

But even if the supernatural elements never really happened (or have they), I will still sleep with the lights on for the time being, thank you very much. Another thing I will do is to buy the author’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle which, I hear, is also fabulous.