The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

This book blew my mind, melted my brain, made me crazy. All in the best possible way.

I've never encountered a book that was this twisted in on itself. I actually felt like I needed a whiteboard to work out what was happening and by whom.

We start off in the woods, in the mind of someone who only knows the name Anna. This is Dr. Sebastian Bell, a guest at Blackheath, a guest of the Hardcastles. He has no idea who he is but he sees Anna getting murdered in the woods. Racing away, for we learn that he's really a coward, he comes across Blackheath manor and, inside, the other guests know him and take him in.

Our protagonist is not really Dr. Bell. Our protagonist is the person inside Dr. Bell, who is the person inside the butler, inside Davies, inside Derby. He is jumping bodies every time he falls asleep or is knocked out. But why? To stop Evelyn Hardcastle from being murdered. He lives 8 lives in 8 days and must solve the murder before it happens each day. If he doesn't, he starts back over with day one in Dr. Bell. This sounds easy enough, yes? Except he's being pursued by a killer footman and has other rivals in the house who need to solve the murder before him. The person who solves the murder goes free.

But it's really not what you think and it's STILL not that simple. Mind. Blown.

I refuse to hand out spoilers for this book because it was such a crazy "Are you KIDDING me?" ride to the end. The author does a fantastic job at revealing what is happening to us and the protagonist. He's learning who he is and where he is right along with us and, truly, I think we all get equally confused at points.

Transformer by Ezra Furman

I'm a casual fan of music. I'm glad music exists and I have bad/good/odd taste in it. Music isn't something I'm passionate about but reading about music, well, I can get on board with that. Ezra Furman wrote a 33 1/3 book about Lou Reed's Transformer and since I really love Ezra's music and Lou Reed confuses me, I gave the book a try.

I still love Ezra but I question the hero worship of a guy who is racist/abusive but...I get Ezra's point about paying attention to the other pieces. Still, I have trouble overlooking the negative pieces. And Lou Reed still confuses me a bit but it seems like I'm not alone in that.

33 1/3 books by Bloomsbury are small little books that go in-depth into albums, track by track, taking apart the artist behind the music. There are over 100 books ranging from Dusty Springfield and Johnny Cash to...New Kids on the Block? Hmm... ok.

Ezra starts out trying to piece together the personas of Reed: Lou the Queer, Lou the Failure, Lou and Bowie. The he dives in, one track at a time, and gives his ideas on what it all means. I had no idea that Transformer was so out there. On first listen, without knowing much else, it doesn't sound unusual. After understanding some backstory, the next several listens strike me as odd.

This little book is well worth reading, even if you aren't a huge Lou Reed fan. It took me some time to read because, after each track dissection, I listened to the track a few times. I might just learn to appreciate music as something other than sound in the background.

Full Transformer Playlist

Ezra Furman's new album. I put this here because it's amazing and so is Ezra