New Beginnings

If it wasn't obvious from my last post, I don't have as much time for pleasure reading as I would like. I'm taking two literature classes this semester, so I really don't have time for it this semester. However, I'm going to use this blog to force me to do at least some pleasure reading, and really think about books that I gravitate to for pleasure. What's good about them? What's bad about them? I want to be a more active reader, and think about these books in relation to what we are learning about and discussing in this class.

For this week's post, I've decided to read the first chapter of a new book and write about it. This week's book is one I purchased with a Barnes and Noble gift card I got for Christmas (the default present for an English major). It's called The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. I found this book on Booktube, as someone I regularly watch recommended it. From what I can tell, it's a murder mystery, here's the link to the Goodreads synopsis if you're interested. Apparently it's the winner of the Costa First Novel Award and selected as book of the year (2018 I think) by the Guardian and a few other publications. The back of the book features a comment from Harper's Bazaar saying, "Pop your favorite Agatha Christie whodunnit into a blender with a scoop of Downton Abbey, a dash of Quantum Leap, and a liberal sprinkling of Groundhog Day and you'll get this unique murder mystery." I've got high expectations, I won't lie.

This is a solid first chapter. Turton drew me in, although that is expected given the genre. The first line "I forget everything between footsteps" made me pause. I reread it a few times, as if that one peculiar sentence would make more sense. It didn't. That is a successful first line though. It is intentionally confusing. That sentence alone drew me in, never-mind the following paragraphs. The narrator has no recollection of his identity, but is in a male body that is not his own. There is a person within his mind talking to him, telling him to "Be calm" and "You can breathe; you just need to calm down" which is also intriguing. Does this voice belong to the person whose body he is inhabiting? The narrator sees a woman running through the woods, followed by a man. After a moment of hesitation, he gives chase, falls, and hears a gunshot. The presumed murderer then comes back to the narrator, places a compass in his pocket, and tells him to go east. Our brave narrator is too petrified to move, much less see the murderers identity. The chapter ends with our narrator reluctantly deciding to follow the murderers instructions, saying "How lost do you have to be to let the devil lead you home?" This line, wow, this line is good. I'm impressed. However, I think the last line of the chapter takes this analogy a bit too far saying "I'm a man in purgatory, blind to the sins that chased me here." It's objectively a good line, but a bit to eloquent for a man who is freaking out in the woods over a murder he kind of just witnessed. I don't find it super believable.

I'm well over 500 words, so here are my final thoughts: I like this first chapter and it's more than enough to draw me in. I think it's a great beginning to a novel, especially a murder mystery and I am excited to see where it goes. Stay tuned.