AHHAHAHA SHE DIED 7 1/2 TIMES

This book was a heck of a pain to read at first, but once I got through the first 3/5ths it got really good. Unlike the scarlet letter, it’s difficult because the story is really complex and takes a while to develop, not because the prose is complicated. The premise of the book is that some guy wakes up each day as a different guest in a very secluded and dilapidated household called Blackheath. The state of the estate makes sense because 19 years ago, one of the sons of the owners, the Hardcatles, was very suddenly killed. After that, Evelyn Hardcastle was sent away to France, and the family fortune was squandered away as the parents never recovered.

For reasons not explained, Eveyln comes back, and her parents throw her a party. This is the day that the main character relives 8 times. Evelyn dies at exactly 11:00, during the party, and in order for the main character to escape Blackheath, he has to be the first to meet a very cryptic dude at the lake at 11:00 with evidence that proves who’s her murderer. He has 8 different hosts to gather the information and evidence he needs, or else he’ll lose all his memories and the cycle will start all over again. Every time he jumps to another, their existing personalities and memories are stronger and more vivid. Lots of strange things happen at the beginning, and the piling questions are almost too many to remember, but in the end, all the details fit together. 

Green Flags:

Very suspenseful (duh)

Very satisfactory ending that's still realistic

Characters are very "deep" in the sense that they have their own agendas, roles, and backstories that shape the way they act, feel, and think. They're all in the gray area and their relationships with other guests are very complex. There's a great range of different types of characters, but lots of them are likable.

Setting is carefully thought out

Lots of metaphors in the narration (although it could've been a bit shorter)

The main character is not a know-it-all, and frequently loses battles against his antagonist and gets tricked but still preserves to save those who he's close to and to liberate himself, no matter how impossible it is.

Even though the main character jumps from body to body, at the very end of the book you see his character growth as the person before he was trapped in Blackheath trying to solve the murder.

Red Flags:

You don’t start to see the reason behind this "magical" situation until about ⅔ through the book, which might not be a huge problem for you. I just thought it would be a nice way to make the reader connect with the character more if they knew why they were stuck in Blackheath. 

The beginning is longer than it should be, nothing really important happens there, and when it does you

don't know enough to know it's important yet.

It's hard to keep track of all the characters and their actions throughout the day while the host is somewhere else. 

I think my favorite part of the book is by far the end because that’s when the theme really comes out. Before that, it seems like just a sequence of events that happen simply because of the main character’s desire to escape with another person. Also, I just really like the big plot twist at the end.