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Preview — The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Taylor Jenkins Reid (Goodreads Author)
4.37 · Rating details · 258,265 ratings · 36,514 reviews
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life.
When she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and he Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life.
When she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated. Regardless of why Evelyn has chosen her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
Summoned to Evelyn's Upper East Side apartment, Monique listens as Evelyn unfurls her story: from making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the late 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. As Evelyn's life unfolds—revealing a ruthless ambition, an unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love—Monique begins to feel a very a real connection to the actress. But as Evelyn's story catches up with the present, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways. ...more
Published June 13th 2017 by Atria Books
https://taylorjenkinsreid.com/books/the-seven-husbands-of-evelyn-hugo/
Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York (United States)
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction (2017), Book of the Month Book of the Year Award Nominee (2017)
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You guys, I'm feeling a teeny bit stupid asking this, but is Evelyn Hugo an actual, real person??
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This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[ No but she does seem to have some characteristics and life events of several actual old Hollywood starlets. Hidden bisexuality - Greta Garbo & Tallula…more No but she does seem to have some characteristics and life events of several actual old Hollywood starlets. Hidden bisexuality - Greta Garbo & Tallulah Bankhead, Platinum blonde hair - Marilyn Monroe, seeming Prince Charming 1st husband who was abusive/many marriages - Elizabeth Taylor, Americanizing ethnic background to succeed - Rita Hayworth. (less) (hide spoiler)]
This question contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[I heard someone say this is all about lesbians in 1930s Hollywood. I wasn't interested in this book before I heard that. Without giving spoilers, does LGBT content have a lot to do with the story? If so, I'll add this to my to-read list. (hide spoiler)]
Jenni Frencham Yes the LGBT content has a lot to do with the story. It's worth your time.…moreYes the LGBT content has a lot to do with the story. It's worth your time.(less)
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Feb 06, 2018 Melanie rated it it was amazing
Shelves: historical, lgbtqiap, read-in-2018, romance, contemporary, buddy-reads, favorites, f-f
"I spent half my time loving her and the other half hiding how much I loved her."
This is one of the best books I've ever had the privilege to read. It is probably in the top five for best books I've ever read in my entire life. I have been looking for a book like this my entire life, and no combination of words I'm about to type, and you're about to read, is going to do this masterpiece justice. But I will say that Gabby, Joce, and Elyse were all right, and I'm so happy I listened to
This is one of the best books I've ever had the privilege to read. It is probably in the top five for best books I've ever read in my entire life. I have been looking for a book like this my entire life, and no combination of words I'm about to type, and you're about to read, is going to do this masterpiece justice. But I will say that Gabby, Joce, and Elyse were all right, and I'm so happy I listened to them, because this book is worth every single ounce of hype.
And when I say that this book is lifechanging, I truly mean it. This book is sold as a historical romance, where you learn about a fictional, famous, old Hollywood actress and all her marriages. What you get is a book that stars a bisexual, Cuban woman who was never allowed to talk about the love of her life; her wife. And when I say I cried during this book, I truly mean that I probably need to buy a new copy because I was the biggest mess you've ever seen.
"And it will be the tragedy of my life that I cannot love you enough to make you mine. That you cannot be loved enough to be anyone's."
On top of this being a powerful book about race, sexuality, misogyny, and having to conform to societies norms, the true meaning I took from this book is that life is short, so damn short, and we shouldn't spend it pretending to be something we aren't. And we shouldn't spend it doing anything less than loving the people who are worthy and deserving of our love.
"I didn't need boys in order to feel good. And that realization gave me great power."
We follow Evelyn from the very start; losing her mother very young, her body developing very quickly, noticing others noticing her developing body, marrying a man so she can leave the dead-end city she grew up in, so she can become something more. Evelyn is unapologetic with her actions, and it is one of the most empowering things I've ever read. She plays so many more parts than the roles she is cast in. And Evelyn learns really quickly how to play each and every man she is forced to interact with, and she quickly learns what she can gain from each and every one of them, too.
This story is told from two different timelines and two different points of view. One from Monique Grant, who is a biracial (white and African-American) woman who is going through a fresh divorce and trying to make something of herself in the journalism field. And her life changes the day her editor tells her how Evelyn Hugo is demanding her, and only her, to write something for her.
"Heartbreak is loss. Divorce is a piece of paper."
The other timeline(s) are all the different times in Evelyn's life, and the different seven husbands that she had, while she is recounting the events that lead her to be telling Monique this story. Evelyn has lived a very full life, and is in her late seventies now, and is finally ready to talk about her life. But the entire book we are guessing why she has chosen only Monique for this job.
"Make them pay you what they would pay a white man."
If you guys have been following my reviews, you'll probably know that I talk about found family and how important it is to me a lot, but The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is the epitome of how beautiful a found family can be. Evelyn and Harry's friendship in this was one of the most beautiful things I've ever read in my entire reading life.
"When you write the ending, Monique, make sure the reader understands that all I was ever really looking for was family. Make sure it's clear that I found it. Make sure they know that I am heartbroken without it."
And the romance? The true romance in this book is the most romantic thing I have ever read in my entire life. And you guys know I've read a ton of romances, but they are all lesser to this. Every single one of them can't compare with the romance in this book. I feel like every time I've used the word "perfect" to describe something that wasn't the romance in this book, then I used the word wrong.
"Please never forget that the sun rises and sets with your smile. At least to me it does. You're the only thing on this planet worth worshipping."
How many Evelyn and Celias are there in the world? How many are still playing the role that Evelyn was forced to play? I cry for every single person who must hide who they are, and who they want to love. And this book talks about many big things in queer history; from the Stonewall riots to the disgusting Reagan administration, but life still isn't anywhere close to equal in 2018. The prejudices, the discrimination, the virus/syndrome blaming, the looks I've experienced holding a girl's hand while walking into a restaurant? Those are still in 2018, in the United States, but people act like none of those things exists because marriage is legalized, begrudgingly. I'm not writing this review to get on my soapbox, but I promise, we have a lot more work to do. And this book, this book lit a fire under me.
I personally identify as pansexual, but I felt like the bisexual rep in this was a tier above anything my eyes have ever seen. Seeing Evelyn love all the parts of her, and all the different parts of her love, was something so awe-inspiring. I am still so overwhelmed with feelings, but if you identify as bi or pan, this is a love letter to you, I promise.
"I was a lesbian when she loved me and a straight woman when she hated me."
This book also focuses a huge importance on motherhood throughout the entirety of this book, and then I read the acknowledgement and started weeping all over again. Taylor Jenkins Reid was able to evoke the strongest emotions from me, and I just pray that things will be different for the generation of kids being raised right now.
This was the first thing I've read by Taylor Jenkins Reid, but I will buy every single new thing she produces. The writing was so lyrical and addicting. I mean, I have a quote between almost every paragraph. This whole book deserves to be highlighted. The characters, well, my mind has now forever imagined that these are real people now, so there is that. The topics, themes, and discussions are beyond important. This book just makes me feel so passionately. This book is one of the most empowering pieces of literature I've ever consumed. And I am not the same person I was before this book.
"I told her every single day that her life had been the world's greatest gift to me, that I believed I was put on earth not to make movies or wear emerald-green gowns and wave at crowds but to be her mother."
If you guys ever take a recommendation from me; please have it be The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Please, I'm actually begging you. I promise, this book is lifechanging, and I equally promise you that this book changed mine. There is magic between these four-hundred-pages. Pure magic. This story is addicting, enthralling, and so important. And if you're an Evelyn, in 2018, I see you, but I hope it doesn't take you as long as it took her to be happy. This will forever be one of the best books of my life, and I'll cherish it forever.
"People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is "You're safe with me"—that's intimacy."
Trigger/Content Warnings: death of a loved one, death of a child, talk of suicide, unhealthy dieting, underage sex with an adult, abortion, talk of miscarriage, a lot of physical abuse, cheating, dunk driving, and homophobic slurs.
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Buddy read with May & Alexis! ❤
UPDATE: I got to meet Taylor, see her interview Casey McQuiston, have her sign my book, and she is a confirmed angel! My Vlog ❤
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Oct 12, 2017 chai ♡ rated it really liked it
Shelves: read-in-2018, lgbtq-rep, favorites, young-adult, fiction, lgbtq-ff, poc-rep, adult-contemporary, adult, adult-historical
I want to be as motivated and focused in university as Evelyn Hugo was in continuing to flourish after all of her 7 divorces and getting richer than all of her 7 husbands combined.... then spend the rest of her days frolicking in sun hazed fields of butterflies and dandelion clocks with her wife.
This book was so wild I feel like it fundamentally changed me as a human being. I've witnessed cosmic justice at its coldest and its darkest. I'm genuinely so tempted to go buy myself an expensive bottle I want to be as motivated and focused in university as Evelyn Hugo was in continuing to flourish after all of her 7 divorces and getting richer than all of her 7 husbands combined.... then spend the rest of her days frolicking in sun hazed fields of butterflies and dandelion clocks with her wife.
This book was so wild I feel like it fundamentally changed me as a human being. I've witnessed cosmic justice at its coldest and its darkest. I'm genuinely so tempted to go buy myself an expensive bottle of wine and drink it alone in a hammock while listening to 80s music and cry just for the drama of it all. That probably won't solve all my life's problems but it would certainly distract me from them.
so what is this book about?
Contrary to appearances, this is not the mere tale of a sultry glamourous woman with seven husbands and a tragic fame. This is the multifaceted story of a woman who's lived her whole life being two people, two images overlapping. A woman who was driven by the sheer compulsion for recognition combined with a need to charm people and shine and in that process, she's built her own hell and heaven, solely crafted by the pure abstraction of her essence. A woman who's got everyone to kneel before her throne unaware that it was born of lies so easily because everyone's only ever liked the idea of her and not the reality of her.
This is her story after the mask has worn off and showed what was lurking behind it, her truth without being edited, moderated and filtered down by the time it makes it to the screen, and then given to the public to make them feel very comfortable.
This is her story 7 decades later after she's decided it was never her job to make them feel comfortable in the first place. Evelyn Hugo no longer desires to be off on her own diva planet. She wanted to be on Earth. She wanted to be seen. She was past needing celebrity. She needed to be heard. She refuses to be trivialized for being a woman, a sex symbol, and a celebrity. She wasn't just the Cuban girl who changed her name, dyed her hair, wore the emerald green silk dresses and the accompanying chains, smiled pretty, and shut up about everything else. She was ready to talk about the void, the unhappiness underneath the smile, her age, her divorces, and all the other unglamorous things that Hollywood likes to pretend never happens to its starlets.
She is ready to declare that youth and beauty and the movies and the seven husbands were not her accomplishments. The family she's had and lost and the woman she's so fiercely loved for almost six decades were.
They are just husbands. I am Evelyn Hugo. And anyway, I think once people know the truth, they will be much more interested in my wife.
What I loved most about this book was how passionate it was in bringing to light so many important topics.
Starting with being a woman in an industry that beholds women to its whims, its likes and dislikes, promotes them as sexual objects and loves to build a woman up before tearing her down. An industry that estimates male celebrities based on intelligence or depth, while it values female celebrities based on how sexually available they are presented for male consumption. Especially when you're a woman of color. A woman of color could never escape from race or gender when she is making art. She can't take off her color and sex and leave them at the door, and for that she's unfairly redeemed unimportant and undeserving of a storyline and character development.
This book was also single-handedly smashing the patriarchy. So buckle up.
Evelyn Hugo's story was a Call Out against the men who had cut her down way below size and built themselves up at her expense, who only used her as an attention machine to brag about their accomplishments and relieve themselves of mental durress, who only considered her a sponge that they can fill with their worries and ego and squeeze out when they please. The men who admired her confidence only when it made her fun, flirty, and comfortable in her sexuality. But the second she claimed space for herself, demonstrated high standards, a strong will, and the kind of assertiveness required to challenge them, then all of a sudden, she was a bunch of derogatory terms.
And it's honestly so real how women are continuously expected to tone down and dilute their personalities in order for them to look more appealing to men. Women are always too opinionated, too educated, too confident, too strong willed, too passionate. Women are expected to chip away at their selves to become more soft and pliable and easy to stomach and all of it is just patriarchy's last attempt to uphold power and entitlement.
This book also broached the topic of divorce and how it often means eternal shame for women. How only women are blamed when their marriages fail and ostracized when they seek to open their lives up to a quiet and peaceful independence. The media tore into Evelyn after each divorce, dragged her, burned her (metaphorically) alive, and buried her body underneath thousands of unsubstantiated celebrity gossip while her husbands remained unscathed.
People don't find it very sympathetic or endearing, a woman who puts herself first.
Prior to reading this book, I didn't know it centered a queer woman of color and that it repped lgbtq+ themes which is why I didn't pick it up sooner. I really can't emphasize enough the importance of highlighting reprensentation in books. Readers from marginalized communities, including myself, long to see themselves in fiction, to learn that they can be the heroes of their stories and to finally get to star. Queer themes and issues had a prominent presence in this historical novel and it's really important that this be mentioned in reviews and blurbs!!
You imagine a world where the two of you can go out to dinner together on a Saturday night and no one thinks twice about it. It makes you want to cry, the simplicity of it, the smallness of it. You have worked so hard for a life so grand. And now all you want are the smallest freedoms. The daily peace of loving plainly.
This book is about Evelyn Hugo being honest about her negative habits and mistakes and taking ownership of her faults and flaws. This is her demanding to be humanized after being put on a pedestal her entire life. And most importantly, this book is a reminder that no matter how glamorous other people's lives might look, they've had days, many days, and many days in a row where they've felt unloved and rejected and ugly and like nothing they do has a point, they're not all that different and untouchable after all.
Overall, I really loved this book. The plot twists were incredible. I really can't recommend it highly enough!!
30/11/17: so Evelyn's had seven husbands and I can't even get (1) one person to wave back at me when I say hi............. ...more
Jan 28, 2018 Elle (ellexamines) rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: y'all have souls right
Recommended to Elle by: emma
Shelves: sapphic-books-shelf, characters-of-color, lgbtq, she-did-that, 5-star, z-2018reads, y-2017releases, contemporary, nonfiction, favorite-characters
reread review: absolutely as good. this book had such a profound impact on me and still does.
I think a lot about the idea of love as something dangerous, as something that you have to fight for. And it's only recently that I've decided that's something that probably has to do with loving women. I have been very lucky, in growing up in liberal California and in the 2000s. But I received marriage rights in my country four months after realizing I liked girls, and in reading about the past and thin reread review: absolutely as good. this book had such a profound impact on me and still does.
I think a lot about the idea of love as something dangerous, as something that you have to fight for. And it's only recently that I've decided that's something that probably has to do with loving women. I have been very lucky, in growing up in liberal California and in the 2000s. But I received marriage rights in my country four months after realizing I liked girls, and in reading about the past and thinking about the past, I am constantly, daily, reminded how being born ten years earlier would have made everything that much more dangerous, that much more violent, that much more fearful. And there is something so woefully romantic to me about the fact that there were people who braved that climate and loved anyway and paved the path, while doing so, for me and so many others.
So that's all to say that this book made me experience all five stages of grief and simultaneously made me feel every positive emotion in the world and I have no idea how that is possible. but listen, if you only read one book I recommend you this year, I want it to be this one.
"Make them pay you as much as they would a white man."
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is, yeah, about the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Seven husbands who are sometimes awful and sometimes sympathetic and sometimes somewhere in between. Ernie, who she used to get to where she is, Don, who beat her till she barely knew whether to continue, Harry, who she loved more than any of them, Max, who loves the idea of her more than he could ever love her.
But I think, despite its marketing, this book is really about Evelyn. Awful, complicated, completely lovable Evelyn. Evelyn is a flawed, compelling, brave, ambitious woman who got to where she was with teeth and claws and never gave up. She is also, and I'm not even joking, one of the most iconic characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading about. She is a woman with a lot of ambition but also one who loves and wants to be loved. She is such a good character.
This book is also fiercely and unapologetically socio-political and I love that. Evelyn's story is one of being a woman in a man's world. It is one of being a Cuban woman in a white woman's world. It is one of being a bisexual woman in an era where attraction to women was demonized by the whole culture. It is one of hiding yourself for ambition, one of trying to decide which one takes precedent, one of aging, and one of never knowing whether your choices were right.
Annnnnnnd this book also has the most fucking heartbreaking romantic relationship I have had the displeasure to read about in my entire life. I don't… I don't know if romantic relationships should be considered spoilers, but… well, I knew going in who the actual love of Evelyn's life was and it STILL WORKED FOR ME. So here it is: Evelyn Hugo and Celia St. James are one of my favorite fictional relationships, of all time, ever. These two have a complicated, flawed, at times tumultous relationship, and yet they love each other so much, always.
"People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is 'you're safe with me'- that's intimacy."
And perhaps my favorite part was the messaging around the importance of actual love in relationships, rather than just a willingness to try.
"You didn't come here and tell me how much you miss me. Or how hard it has been to live without me. You said you didn't want to give up. And I don't want to give up, either. I don't want to fail at this. But that's not actually a great reason to stay together. We should have reasons why we don't want to give. It shouldn't just be that we don't want to give up. And I don't... have any.
"You have never felt like my other half."
I know I've talked about a lot of specific things in the book, but I don't know exactly how to put into words what this book meant to me. You can almost feel how much Taylor Jenkins Reid felt this book. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo left me an emotional mess, but also a happy mess. All I know is I feel ruined for any other book, and I want you to be as well.
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Jun 06, 2019 Miranda Reads rated it really liked it
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The Written Review 3.75 stars
Heartbreak is a loss. Divorce is a piece of paper.
Evelyn Hugo was the star of the century.
She dominated the big screen for more than four decades. Every man wanted her and every woman wanted to be her.
Perhaps most famously, Evelyn Hugo was married seven times. Each divorce only increased her fame.
Rumors swept through the tabloids like wildfire.
I'm under absolutely no obligation to make sense to you.
And now, age 79, Evelyn Hugo decided to auction off her most wildly famous gowns and offered one lucky journalist (Monique) an interview that will last a lifetime.
However, Monique soon learns that this is beyond a two-page spread. Evelyn Hugo is offering a tell-all - a full biography - that promises to be the most scandalous and salacious thing that has ever graced this world.
Monique would be a fool - an absolute fool - to pass this up. But the thought, the 'it's too good to be true' sort of thought, continues to replay in her mind.
Sometimes reality comes crashing down on you. Other times reality simply waits, patiently, for you to run out of the energy it takes to deny it.
Overall, this one was good but I was never wowed.
Everyone and their mother was talking up this book and while I agree that it is engaging and scandalous (in a good way)...I don't know. I just expected more from it.
I definitely think it was well-written...just a bit dull in areas.
We start the book with 40 pages of just talking up Evelyn Hugo and it really did drag. There's only so many times I can hear about how wonderful and stunning a person is before it gets boring.
I think if more of the marriages were teased in the beginning - just to give the audience a taste of the mystery surrounding her love life (rather than going on and on about how intriguing it was...without telling us what was intriguing about it) would have helped significantly.
Once we got to her life, the book certainly picked up.
I really loved how Evelyn's sexuality was portrayed in this book. I liked watching her grow as a person - from a teenager using sex to get herself out of a hellhole to falling in love and finding it something to be cherished.
Her love for (view spoiler)[ Celia (hide spoiler)] throughout the years truly made this wildly unbelievable story cinch for me. Honestly, (view spoiler)[ her relationship with Celia (hide spoiler)]
Their love was expertly done, with all of the fear and paranoia associated with the times, that it truly felt like real life.
Ultimately, this was an enjoyable read, a bit slow paced, but enjoyable nonetheless!
Never let anyone make you feel ordinary.
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Jul 01, 2017 Emily May rated it really liked it
Shelves: botm, chick-lit, 2017, historical-fiction
Is Evelyn Hugo going to tell me just enough to keep me on the edge of my seat but never enough to truly reveal anything?
I can't say for sure what drew me to this book. It's not the kind of thing I usually pick up, and I haven't read anything by Reid before. But something about it intrigued me. So I checked out the kindle sample. Just a couple chapters, I figured, because I probably wouldn't like it anyway. And I was HOOKED.
It's perfect, easy beach read material. It's not particularly deep, i
It's perfect, easy beach read material. It's not particularly deep, it does not take the genre to new levels or make you think about something new, and yet it DID feel different. Evelyn Hugo's story was so delicious and compelling that it stood out, and kept me turning pages in a desperate need to discover the stories behind her seven husbands, and the answer to the one question everyone wants to know: who was her greatest love?
The framing of the story reminded me a lot of The Thirteenth Tale. Like that book, in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, a young woman - this time an ambitious journalist called Monique Grant - goes to interview an elderly woman. Unlike The Thirteenth Tale, this elderly woman happens to be one of the most famous actresses in the world.
Evelyn Hugo has lived a life in the public eye, but she is full of secrets. Only she knows what happened behind the scenes in her long career of scandals and highly-publicized heartbreaks. Just like the fictional world of the book longed to know the truth-- so did I. Reid and Evelyn's habit of giving you just enough to leave you wanting more was incredibly exciting. Throughout, we are encouraged to wonder why someone like Evelyn Hugo would specifically request a relatively-inexperienced journalist like Monique. Why Monique? What is Evelyn hiding?
The more I got to know Evelyn, the more I fell in love with her. She has made a lot of controversial decisions during her career, but she knows it and she also knows she'd probably do it all again. She's played the Hollywood game, dated famous men to further her career, and used her body to get what she wants. She has experienced the full force of the industry's sexism and, in some ways, capitalized on it. She is deeply flawed and aware of it. She has traded important aspects of her identity for more fame, more roles, more money. She was a badass Cuban woman working in an industry that didn't like women to be badass or Cuban. She manipulated and she lied. Despite everything - and because of it - I liked her.
I stayed fully engrossed in the story of Evelyn Hugo - and of Monique Grant - from the opening chapters when Evelyn demanded an interview with only Monique, through decades of Hollywood in all its shimmering ugliness, right until the ending's final reveals. I enjoyed every moment.
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Apr 29, 2018 Emma Giordano rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: audiobooks
This is genuinely one of the most remarkable novels I have ever read. It is a favorite of the year, it will be a favorite of all time. I am wholly enchanted by The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I will never forget how much I adore this book.
CW: domestic abuse, death/grief, homophobia/biphobia, racism (view spoiler)[abortion & suicide (hide spoiler)]
Adult fiction is not typically my cup of tea, especially a combination of historical fiction and contemporary with the amount of long flashback This is genuinely one of the most remarkable novels I have ever read. It is a favorite of the year, it will be a favorite of all time. I am wholly enchanted by The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I will never forget how much I adore this book.
Adult fiction is not typically my cup of tea, especially a combination of historical fiction and contemporary with the amount of long flashbacks (flashbacks: ALSO NOT MY THING). I have no idea how this combination of literary elements I typically do not like consumed my entire being, but it did. Taylor Jenkins Reid is an immensely talented author. Her prose is beautiful, vivid, and descriptive. There isn't a moment throughout this story where I was bored or underwhelmed. Every second of this book is completely engaging – it was a huge struggle to put the book down.
Evelyn Hugo is one of the greatest literary characters I have ever had the pleasure to read from. The exploration of her Cuban heritage and bisexuality is fascinating, especially given the era and her celebrity status. She is one of those intoxicating characters you will never be able to purge from your mind with her strong will, her independence, her strength, her cunning, and her compassion. Evelyn Hugo is unforgettable in my mind and hearing her story was one of the greatest pleasures I think I have ever experienced as a reader.
Personally, I didn't LOVE Monique, though I am always happy to see another biracial main character in literature. I appreciated her contribution to the story as I feel the book would lose some of it's strength if there was not another character for Evelyn to explain her actions and motivations to and it was just her story, but it's for that reason that I sometimes felt she was more of a plot device than an individual character. Compared to Evelyn, I just did not care for Monique's individual life and problems. I enjoyed seeing how Evelyn influenced her life, but her storyline was so drab compared to Evelyn. Edit 4/3/2019 - After a second read, I GREATLY appreciate Monique. Her character is so nuanced and necessary to the story. I totally relinquish much of my initial feelings on her.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is one of my favorite books OF ALL TIME. I will never forget how in love I am with this story and all the ways it has affected me. I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone who is interested in spectacular fiction novels (which should be all of you.) ...more
Mar 14, 2018 Emily (Books with Emily Fox) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
(4.5) I've been struggling with a lot of books lately because I just don't care about them. I don't care about the story. I don't care about the characters. I just don't care! I thought it was all me, that I must have a cold heart but then this book happened.
I thought this was a literary fiction but it read more like a chick lit. A deep chick lit if that can even be a thing. This book made me realize that it is absolutely not me but them!
I cared deeply for the flawed characters in this book. Wh (4.5) I've been struggling with a lot of books lately because I just don't care about them. I don't care about the story. I don't care about the characters. I just don't care! I thought it was all me, that I must have a cold heart but then this book happened.
I cared deeply for the flawed characters in this book. When reading a book heartless Emily does not cry. Ever. Well, I did while reading this one.
Just pick it up and read it already! ...more
Sep 23, 2020 _ngallagher rated it it was amazing
5/5!!!! Thank you to everyone who read along with us for the first month of our bookclub!! See you next month for The Secret History!! 💞💛
I'm going to wait to give my rating so that you can all find out ✨🌙 LIVE 🌙✨ THIS SATURDAY 9/26 @ 11AM PST on my channel!! So happy I got to read this for the first month of The Late Night Bookclub — hope to see everyone on the livestream this Saturday! (On my channel) (yes I will record it for those who can't make it this Saturday)
Apr 16, 2018 Victoria Schwab rated it it was amazing
What an extraordinary and surprising read. Absolutely adored this one.
Mar 08, 2019 Virginia Ronan ♥ Herondale ♥ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
"Evelyn always leaves you hoping you'll get just a little bit more. And she always denies you."
This book was so, so, so GOOD!! I swear I was barely two pages in and already knew that I'd love it with all my heart! <3 There's just something about that golden Hollywood era that captivated me right from the beginning and once Evelyn entered the scene I was a goner. I just loved the way her story was told!
We didn't only get the interviews with Monique but also were able to read news articles about "Evelyn always leaves you hoping you'll get just a little bit more. And she always denies you."
We didn't only get the interviews with Monique but also were able to read news articles about her life and this made everything so much more intriguing. I mean "Hollywood Digest", "Sub Rosa" or the "New York Tribune", they all wrote about Evelyn's life and those articles give an authenticity that makes this book feel real. It could have happened, Evelyn could have been a real Hollywood Star and people could have been as fascinated by her as by Marilyn Monroe or Marlene Dietrich.
I think to some degree Taylor Jenkins Reid might have even had Marilyn Monroe in her mind when she wrote Evelyn's character and knowing how awesome Marilyn was this really doesn't come as a surprise. XD Another thing I appreciated was that every husband got a part of this book and even though there were seven of them, who all influenced Evelyn and left a mark on her character, none of them actually was her one true love. It's a very particular approach to a great story and I loved the way it was carried out.
Still, after I read the ending my mind was reeling and my feelings were so mixed that I had a tough time coming to terms with everything that was revealed. There were so many things I felt conflicted about and even now, after more than a week has passed, I still didn't manage to sort out my feelings and I still don't know what to do with them. Maybe I'll have to get used to the idea that to think about Evelyn Hugo and her seven husbands will always make me feel conflicted and that there's no such thing as making peace with an ending like that.
And maybe, just maybe, that was Taylor Jenkins Reid's plan all along. ;-)
The characters:
Welcome to my characters section, aka "The spoilery spoiler zone"! If you didn't read the book yet and still want to be surprised by its revelations you better don't continue to read my review. I'm worse than any tabloid mentioned in this book and I'll spoil you relentlessly! If you still want to read my gossip, go ahead, but don't say I didn't warn you! ;-P
Evelyn Hugo:
"And I didn't say I was confessing any sins. To say that what I have to tell is a sin is misleading and hurtful. I don't feel regret for the things I've done – at least, not the things you might expect – despite how hard they may have been or how repugnant they may seem in the cold light of day."
Oh, Evelyn! Where do I even begin? I loved that woman so damn much, I can't even! <333 It's so rare to meet such a complex character in a book but damn Evelyn just had it all! She was neither white nor black, and if anything she was all different shades of grey. I loved that she was so ruthless, that she did what she had to do in order to get what she wanted, that she was unapologetic about her decisions and behaviour and that she never held back and just wanted it all! Celia was right, at times Evelyn could be really awful and egoistic, but damn did her good qualities make up for it. Compassionate, caring and protective of the ones she loved she would have done everything possible to keep them safe and happy. Gosh, WHAT. A. WOMAN! I think I might be in love with her! <333
"Did I want to make as much money as Don? Of course I did. I wanted to get the paycheck and mail a copy of it to him with a photo of my middle finger. But mostly I wanted the freedom to do whatever I wanted."
"I regret every second I didn't spend with her. I regret every stupid thing I did that caused her an ounce of pain. I should have chased her down the street the day she left me. I should have begged her to stay. I should have apologized and sent roses and stood on top of the Hollywood sign and shouted, 'I'm in love with Celia St. James!' and let them crucify me for it."
Celia St. James:
"I really like you. I like watching you on-screen. I like how the moment you show up in a scene, I can't look at anything else. I like the way your skin is too dark for your blond hair, the way the two shouldn't go together and yet seem so natural on you. And to be honest, I like how calculating and awful you kind of are."
Now here's the thing, I know that Celia was the love of Evelyn's life and I could see that they loved each other deeply, but – and here comes the huge BUT – I had the feeling that I could never truly connect to her. I don't know what it was that kept me from adoring her the way I adore Evelyn but I think it might have been the sum of thousands of little things that ultimately left a bad taste in my mouth. For instance I hated that Evelyn always seemed to feel like she had done something wrong and that it was her responsibility to set things right again. I mean Celia threw a lot of awful things at her too, but in the end it always seemed to be Evelyn that blamed herself for it. Also I didn't like that Celia wasn't only self-righteous but also more than just a little judgemental. You'd think a person who represents the "L" in LGBTQ+ would be more accepting and open-minded when her partner is bi, but nope Celia was almost as bi-phobic as the men in Evelyn's life and that made me really sad. =(
"That was how it was with Celia. When you denied her what she wanted, when you hurt her, she made sure you hurt, too."
"So I told myself that the spark between Celia and me was just a quirk we had. Which was convincing as long as it remained quirky.
Harry Cameron:
"I want to be with someone I love. I want to have a companion. I'd like to bring someone home to my family. I don't want to live alone anymore. And I want a son or a daughter. We could have that together. I can't give you everything. I know that. But I want to raise a family, and I'd love to raise one with you."
Aside from Evelyn, Harry Cameron was truly the best thing about this entire book! <33 I loved this man so much and I think he's an angel! He was always respectful and supportive and even more important he accepted Evelyn exactly the way she was. I loved that he and Evelyn always tried to solve every problem together and I hated to see him so sad after the death of John. T_T Harry's grief broke my heart and even though he was drinking way too much he never did anything stupid. I mean he never hurt Evelyn or got frustrated with her, he only tried to compensate his grief without hurting anyone else in the process. Even when it came to this he was considerate and kind. =(( Poor Harry, though. It made me so damn sad that he had to go and I admit it, I actually shed some tears when he died. T_T
Monique Grant:
"Why, until this moment, did I not realize that the issue is my own confidence? That the root of most of my problems is that I need to be secure enough in who I am to tell anyone who doesn't like it to go fuck themselves? Why have I spent so long settling for less when I know damn well the world expects more?"
To say their relationship was complicated would be putting it more than just mildly! It was really interesting to see Monique's character arc though. I mean at the beginning she was a shy mouse that didn't dare to say anything to her boss and by the end of the book she was a young successful woman who stood up for herself and finally had the guts to make decisions she never even dared to consider. I think that to get to know Evelyn and to find out the truth behind her father's death was necessary to find her happiness and I'm convinced that both of those things were able to give her some closure. I could understand her anger towards Evelyn, her hurt when she found out what she had done and the inability to truly hate her for it. Because she got to know the person behind the movie star and she knew how broken Evelyn was on the inside, how much pain she had suffered, how much loss she had endured. =( Still, that scene when she pondered whether to get on the train or not, the thoughts that crossed her mind, her inner struggle how to deal with the situation at hand. Damn, this was one of the best book moments I ever had the pleasure to read. Well done, Taylor Jenkins Reid, well done! I had goose bumps following that inner conflict. *shudders*
"I'm Evelyn." She reaches out and takes my hand, shaking it. It strikes me as a unique form of power to say your own name when you know that everyone in the room, everyone in the world, already knows it."
"I insist that you be ruthless in your negotiating, Monique. Make them pay you what they would pay a white man. And then, once you've done that, every penny from it will be yours."
The relationships & ships:
Evelyn & Celia:
"I wanted to give her a lot of things. I wanted what I had to be hers. I wondered if this was what it felt like to love someone."
Those two were the death of me, I swear! Their ups and downs, their struggles and fights, their love and dreams, their hopes and shattered realities. ARGH! It was so obvious they loved each other, yet they could never be together. Because the world didn't let them and wouldn't have understood, because they didn't want the same thing, because they weren't ready to be in a relationship and unable to make arrangements. Because… just BECAUSE! There was always another reason why they couldn't be happy, another misunderstanding that tore at their foundations, another bump on the road that caused them to drift apart. They loved and lost and loved and lost again. It was so heart-breaking to watch! And Celia, she killed me. With everything she said to Evelyn! I knew she loved her, yet she hurt her so much! >_< I just wished she would have had more sympathy for Evelyn's outlook and I really wish she would have tried to understand Evelyn's sexuality. So many of their problems could have been solved, they could have gained so many years if they just would have allowed themselves to be who they are. Their love was so tragic… more tragic than any of the movies they produced over the years. And it really made me sad. T_T
"Evelyn, who was your great love? You can tell me."
Evelyn looks out the window, breathes in deeply, and then says, "Celia St. James."
The room is quiet as Evelyn lets herself hear her own words. And then she smiles, a bright, wide, deeply sincere smile. She starts laughing to herself and then refocuses on me. "I feel like I spent my entire life loving her."
"It's not wrong," Celia said. "It shouldn't be wrong, to love you. How can it be wrong?"
"It's not wrong, sweetheart. It's not," I said. "They're wrong."
"If you love someone enough, you should be able to overcome anything," she said. "And we have always loved each other so much, more than I ever thought I could be loved, more than I ever thought I could love. So why … why couldn't we overcome it?"
"We did," I said, turning towards her. "We're here."
She shook her head. "But the years," she said.
"There's a difference between sexuality and sex. I used sex to get what I wanted. Sex is just an act. Sexuality is a sincere expression of desire and pleasure. That I always kept for Celia."
Evelyn & Harry:
"You do not know how fast you have been running, how hard you have been working, how truly exhausted you are, until someone stands behind you and says, "It's OK, you can fall down now. I'll catch you."
So I fell down.
And Harry caught me.
Their friendship was everything, absolutely E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.!!! Gosh, I loved their relationship so much, I can't even!!! They were so perfect together and understood each other better than anyone else. They were so close it sometimes felt like they could read each other's mind and I think of all the husbands Evelyn married over the years, Harry definitely was the best! <333 (Of course her last hubby was awesome too but if you ask me no one was able to hold a candle to Harry!) I know Harry was gay and had no sexual desire for women and I know that Evelyn loved Celia but damn those two made so much sense! They shared a love that is sometimes even harder to find than the once in a lifetime love we all crave for and they were so much more than just friends. They were business partners, equals, best friends, partners in crime, confidants, soul mates and kindred spirits. And most importantly, they loved each other deeply! <333 It's so rare to find a friend like that, so rare to have a connection like that, to be loved liked that… ARGH! I just LOVED them!!! This was such a wholesome representation of a deep friendship and I'm incapable to put it into words. *breaks down and sobs*
"I promise I'll do whatever I can. I promise you we will figure this out."
"OK," Harry said, and then he squeezed my hand back and walked out the door. "We will figure this out."
"I want you to stay, Harry. We need you. Me and Connor." I grabbed his hand tighter. "But if you have to go, then go. Go if it hurts. Go if it's time. Just go knowing you were loved, that I will never forget you, that you will live in everything Connor and I do. Go knowing I love you purely, Harry, that you were an amazing father. Go knowing I told you all my secrets. Because you were my best friend."
The bi rep:
"It really makes you think, doesn't it? That people were so eager to believe we were swapping spouses but would have been scandalized to know we were monogamous and queer?"
And now we finally come to one of the most important subjects of this book: The bi rep! And let me tell you, it was spot-on! Evelyn is a bi icon and for the rest of my life I'll never get tired of emphasizing how important this kind of representation is! Throughout the entire book Evelyn is confronted with bi-phobia but she always took it in stride! She accepted herself the way she was and she did an amazing job at trying to explain her sexuality. I know some of you might say that it shouldn't even be necessary to explain your sexuality to others and I'm inclined to agree, but the bitter truth is that we have to explain it no matter if we want to or not. I can only speak from personal experience here but usually straight people have a hard time understanding how you can love both sexes equally and make no difference, while lesbian or gay people might just try to label you as one of their own. What Celia did?! It happens! It happens way too often and even though her actions and behaviour left a bitter taste in my mouth it still represented one of the many facets of reality. I loved the way Taylor Jenkins Reid gave Evelyn a voice though. Evelyn Hugo didn't accept those prejudices, nope, she gave us her honest opinion, her point of view and made the other characters acknowledge her for who she was! And this was wholesome and healthy and might help a lot of people to accept themselves! So thank you Taylor Jenkins Reid! Thank you very much! <333
"Being bisexual didn't make me disloyal," Evelyn says. "One has nothing to do with the other. Nor did it mean that Celia could only fulfil half my needs."
"I hated being called a lesbian. Not because I thought there was anything wrong with loving a woman, mind you. No, I'd come to terms with that a long time ago. But Celia only saw things in black and white. She liked women and only women. And I liked her. And so she often denied the rest of me."
"Wow," he said. "Incredible. I married a dyke."
"Stop saying that," I said.
"Evelyn, if you have sex with women, you are a lesbian. Don't be a self-hating lesbian. That's not… that's not becoming."
The more I think about this book, the more I love it! This is such an important read! I know Reid tackled a lot of problematic topics in this book, but she did it in such a positive and sensible way that I'm convinced everyone who reads "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" will learn something good from it! I'm usually not the kind of person who throws a book at you and says you should read it but in all seriousness: Read this one! Live and suffer with Evelyn, enjoy her good moments and cry with her when the world throws her for a loop! Hate her, love her, accept her the way she is. And most importantly, learn from her mistakes and don't hesitate to show the world your true self. ;-)
I know this review has been already way too long but I still want to thank the ever charming Ashley for this wonderful buddy read! We both didn't have it easy while reading this book together, but we always managed to find a compromise and were able to continue once our lives started to become a little less hectic. *lol* I'm glad we could read this together and I hope sooner or later we'll find another book to buddy read again! =) ...more
Sep 26, 2020 Joel Rochester rated it it was amazing
Shelves: late-night-book-club, favourites, five-stars, read-2020
HOW DO I COPE????
Sep 25, 2020 ELLIAS (elliasreads) rated it really liked it
Shelves: 2020-books, i-own
I HAVE FINISHED AND I AM JUST—
Reading vlog here: youtube.com/watch?v=reypJwEKmPQ&t=8s
Twitter | Bookstagram | Youtube | I HAVE FINISHED AND I AM JUST—
Twitter | Bookstagram | Youtube | ...more
Jun 27, 2018 Maria rated it it was amazing
5/5 Stars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
This book is phenomenal. This book is spectacular. This book is outstanding. I have nothing negative to say about this book. It's a pure 5 star for me. I'm irrevocably astonished and astounded. I want to hug and kiss th 5/5 Stars ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
This book is phenomenal. This book is spectacular. This book is outstanding. I have nothing negative to say about this book. It's a pure 5 star for me. I'm irrevocably astonished and astounded. I want to hug and kiss this book till I bleed. I couldn't leave it down. I just couldn't. Storytime. It's 12:36am, I have to wake up in 7 hours or so and I'm casually reading this book. I'm on page 233, 50 pages after it got amazingly good for me. And then this line makes its fucking appearance. "I have no idea that in less than a week, Evelyn Hugo will finish her story, and I'll find out what this has all been about, and I will hate her so much that I'll be truly afraid I might kill her." LIKE??? AFTER THIS LINE I HAD TO FINISH THIS BOOK. And I decided I would finish it. I would read more than 150 pages and finish it. So I went to my obligation the next day with 4 hours of sleep but I was happy about it. Because I knew I couldn't survive a whole day without finishing this book. I would die. This is the impact this book has had on me. Now, let's talk specifics.
Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated. Regardless of why Evelyn has chosen her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
Summoned to Evelyn's Upper East Side apartment, Monique listens as Evelyn unfurls her story: from making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the late 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. As Evelyn's life unfolds through the decades—revealing a ruthless ambition, an unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love—Monique begins to feel a very a real connection to the actress. But as Evelyn's story catches up with the present, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways.
Historical fiction is my favorite genre of all time. I love it in every form, books, tv shows, movies. But not this kind of historical fiction, the Outlander and Ross Poldark kind of historical fiction. The older one, you could say. Also, historical fiction about wars and stuff, which is more recent. But I have never read something about the Old Hollywood. I have only watched movies and tv shows about it. So this was new territory for me.
I will admit, it took me about 150 pages to get fully immersed into the story. Up until that point, the book was a 4 star for me. Which is still amazing, but I didn't quite understand the hype till that point. A little after Evelyn divulges her secret love, and basically everything starts, my wig is totally snatched. I'm into the book 100%, ready to know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING. The pace was so incredibly fast, there was not a moment I felt my eyes close. The writing was impeccable, some narrations of scenes kept my heart racing. There weren't any redundant descriptions of places or rooms, there were descriptions of faces and clothes which kept me enthralled into to the story. The author did an amazing research, it was obvious that she knew her shit, everything was on point. The story kept me on my toes each time with its smart maneuvers, the schemes, the plans, everything the main characters did, all the choices they made, to dodge unfortunate situations. Everything was just... on point. I have nothing bad to say. This never happens. This book was just too perfect. I want to cry because, if not for the hype, I wouldn't have picked up this book. And I would have lost such an amazing journey, such an important book. Thank you all for loving this book and making me love it too.
Evelyn. Evelyn Hugo is the most flawlessly written character I have ever witnessed. No, wrong. She isn't a character to me. She is a person. With influences from Merilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, the author made Evelyn Hugo her own star. Every time I would read about a scene from one of the movies, I was like "Oh, I will watch that movie next.", and then I remembered that she doesn't actually exist. Which made me sad, because all of the content of this book was so interesting. I felt like I was reading an actual autobiography from a real legendary actress. It was incredible. Evelyn is such a good written character, a good written character, not a good person. She is raw, devious, manipulative, scheming, cold-hearted. She is basically a bitch. But you can't help but to want to know everything about her. You want to slap the shit out of her one moment and then hug her the next. She is sensual, enticing, seductive. She always knows what to say to make you believe in her cause. She uses her greatest assets to her benefit, and she isn't ashamed about it. She doesn't give a fuck. She wants to climb the ladder and she will do anything to achieve her goal. Even marry seven men who will serve her purpose. And she does it. With her scandalous life and her improved acting skills and beneficial movie choices, she climbs to the top. But we also see her sensitive side, her human side. We see her deep friendship with Harry, another remarkable character. We see her love for her child. We see her devotion to Celia. We see her as a human too, with real emotions. And I find that marvelous. I wish all characters in books had so much depth, so much meaning. And not the John Green kind of pretentious deep meaning. The real one.
Monique. An underdeveloped character, in my opinion. I didn't care that much about her, but her story was gripping. To be honest, Evelyn didn't let me care a lot about any other character. She took my attention all to herself. Which is what she did with the entire world. But anyway. An unknown journalist requested to write one of the most popular actresses' biography. A 35 year old woman, who feels like she hasn't achieved much so far in her life. She has a ruined marriage, an under prestigious job, she has been under appreciated all her life, even though she possesses many skills. She is also a POC, and she is mislabeled literally every day. I needed more of her character, I needed to see more of her. But after Evelyn's story started, we didn't get much of her. But I'm so happy that she stood up to herself and her self love grew. That Evelyn showed her the way, and she got out of a meaningless marriage, she made deals regarding her job, her future, she stood on her own two feet. I'm really proud of her.
THE REPRESENTATION. THIS BOOK HAD THE BEST REPRESENTATION I HAVE EVER SEEN. Suck it all of you who keep saying a historian fiction can't entail good representation. IN YOUR FACES. We have two main interracial characters. One bisexual character, one lesbian character and one gay character. And these are just the main character. We also got side representation, from not as important characters in the story. This factor upped the story so much to me. We got to see the struggles that POV and gay people used to face in a time like this. We got to see our main character hide her true lineage to rise at the top of Hollywood. We got to see two lovers hiding their true sexuality, hiding their undying love for each other because the world would never understand. The conversations between the characters about homophobia of that time period were heartbreaking. I saw so much of our own time in them. So many things have changed since then in our world, and so many have not. We can see the comparisons from these types of books. And it's a reminder of how our society is moving forward of backwards. The representation made this book what it is. If every single character was white and straight, I wouldn't have been as awed by this book as I am now. And I am myself, a while straight female. Imagine how important representation is for people who can actually relate to it. I would never understand.
This book had so many layers. Everything was thought of and processed. Nothing was sloppy, nothing was lacking meaning. Every single word had its reason to be written. I feel privileged to have had the honor of reading this book. It will stick to me for a very long time. I also enjoyed the little snippets we got from the newspapers. They made the setting all the much more real. The relationships were everything, the friendships, the love stories. Evelyn's life is so engaging and complicated, you can't get enough of it. We truly see how corrupt the Old Hollywood was. And it makes us think about the New Hollywood. Is it still like this? Is everything we see just a fabricated lie? All the lies the characters came up with, seemed to work. I guess, we can never know what happens between closed doors. But I think the New Hollywood is more sincere. It's more about talent, at the most part. I'd like to hope so.
In conclusion, I could rave about this book for days. I have so much to say, I could write a book myself. But I'm gonna end it here. This book was a present sent to me by God himself. I want to read it again and again and again and absorb its wisdom. This book would be such an amazing source material for a movie adaptation. WE NEED THIS TO HAPPEN. But I'm scared they would ruin it. I'm always scared with book to movie adaptations. We all readers are. Anyway, I couldn't recommend this enough. It doesn't matter if you don't read historical fiction or adult, PICK THIS BOOK UP. You won't regret it one bit. So, till the next one... K BYE!!! ...more
Mar 26, 2019 chan ☆ rated it it was ok
Shelves: 2019, adult-contemporary
this didn't work for me, but i get how it could work for others
there's something so glamorous and sad about the golden age of film. throw in a cuban bisexual main character who has to hide her identities and it's a sure fire way to get people intrigued. and i was, throughout the entirety of the book. this book did not lack in keeping my interest.
but there were too many things i had issue with. and if i hadn't read all but one of TJR's previous works i might have been able to overlook it. but onc this didn't work for me, but i get how it could work for others
but there were too many things i had issue with. and if i hadn't read all but one of TJR's previous works i might have been able to overlook it. but once i notice a pattern it tends to color my judgment of an author's work.
2 big things for me: writing & relationships
first, i knew going into this that TJR's writing does not work for me. it's not hard to digest which is nice. but the writing is so clear and no frills that it's odd when we get these little nuggets of prescriptive morality. she doesn't want the reader to form their own opinions, she's rather just hold your hand to the "point." which happens in almost all of her books. makes for a super quotable book, but for me it felt forced at times.
and then the relationships. that was 99% of my issue with this book. it wasn't that Evelyn was a wholly unlikable character, it was her relationship with Celia that grated on my last nerve. again, this is something that is a recurring theme in TJR's book and honestly i hope to god this is not something she has intimate knowledge of. but it seems like the only way she can write relationship problems is by making the love interest awful. they have to have blow out fights, say things they could never take back/should have never been said, leave each other etc.
and i'm not saying that this doesn't happen in real life. but after the first time this kind of thing happens, i could like to see the characters grow and learn how to cope like adults. because i'm only 24 and even i don't pull those kinds of stunts with my boyfriend. cause i'm not 16 anymore.
and this issue was particularly egregious to me because yes sure the time period was hostile to F/F relationships. but when you have a veritable shit load of money you can cover things up. that wasn't the issue. these two were just too pigheaded to make things work. so. so. irritating.
there is a plot twist that occurs that the end of the book that i really did not appreciate. the twist itself was not bad but given the main character's identity in relation to a deceased person's identity i was honestly appalled. you would think a POC understands POC struggles and wouldn't frame a fellow POC but what do i know.
it was just a detail that really rubbed me the wrong way.
all that being said
it was really refreshing to see exploration into a time period, culture, and sexuality that is not often explored. i know some people really identify with these characters and i'm glad this book exists. it just did not work for me. ...more
Oct 08, 2018 Christine Riccio rated it it was amazing
Such a fabulous well crafted story! I'll be talking about it more in my stories I ate this month video going up tomorrow =) (Oct 9)
Aug 23, 2018 Kristin (KC) - Traveling Sister rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: favorites, contemporary-fiction, women-s-fiction
FULL REVIEW POSTED
*5+ Stars*
Brilliant! If I could recommend only one book for 2018, THIS would be it!
THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO not only surpassed my already-lofty expectations, but knocked my proverbial socks off as it shot straight into the open arms of my favorites-shelf.
The spirit of this story mirrors its leading lady, Evelyn Hugo, in that it feels gigantic and larger~than~life. I wanted to devour this whole, yet savor it in tiny pieces so I could linger with these characters whom FULL REVIEW POSTED
The spirit of this story mirrors its leading lady, Evelyn Hugo, in that it feels gigantic and larger~than~life. I wanted to devour this whole, yet savor it in tiny pieces so I could linger with these characters whom I grew to admire for their extraordinary strengths and unabashed weaknesses.
The exceptionally beautiful, world-renowned Evelyn Hugo spent most of her life doing whatever it took to not only become Hollywood's most iconic female movie star, but to remain planted in the fickle grip of fame and fortune.
Evelyn's now up there in years and wants to tell her story. Not the story the public knows—her real story—the one that's flooded with glamor, betrayal, secrets and deceit, and one hell of a complicated love story so intensely authentic it dares to bare it all, even the ugly. And I was so desperately in love with this love story.
This tale is delivered through the heart and eyes of a woman who's desperate to be seen beyond her celebrity, and it takes an unflinching look at what it means to "make it": The pride that follows success, and the trail of guilt that lingers for all those who were trampled and used on the way to the top.
But beneath the guise of fame, Evelyn's story transcends, and its pieces resonate with all of us, as we can all see a bit of ourselves in her struggles and triumphs; love and loss; pains and pleasures.
Evelyn Hugo isn't just a brilliant fictional character, she is a bold representation of life's extravagant journey being stripped down to its most basic components—i.e., the only things that actually matter in life.
The mystery entwined in this one is taut and sophisticated as it carries the plot full circle, opening our eyes to all that is harsh and all that is sacred. I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed—and my heart was overflowing with love for all of it.
Taylor Jenkins Reid masters the art of storytelling and epitomizes the value of honesty, the significance of life, and the beauty in love of all forms. Her writing is polished and engrossing, sophisticated and sharp, witty, fluid, and I can go on…but most importantly, it has a voice that carries its messages straight into the heart of the reader.
This story stole my breath from its first pages right up until its final line, which was perhaps my favorite line of the novel. To say I couldn't put this down would be an unjust understatement, because I don't think I'll ever truly be able to put this one down.
Book Stats:
▪ Genre/Category: Contemporary Fiction/Women's Fiction/Romance
▪ Characters: Wholly lovable, and really came to life. Unforgettable cast.
▪ Plot:The world's most iconic movie star wants to tell her story and release her deepest secrets to a journalist who seems entirely random at first.
▪ Writing: Smooth. Engaging. Skillful and experienced.
▪ POV: 1st Person Perspective: Heroine(s)
▪ Cliffhanger: None. Standalone ...more
Jul 16, 2018 Caz (littlebookowl) rated it it was amazing
Shelves: audiobook, favourites, owned
I... don't even know where to start.
This was absolutely FANASTIC, and I was expecting to love it (this is a 5-star predicted read) but I was completely blown away. The characters are utterly captivating and complex. The audiobook was wonderfully narrated. I am a FAN! I... don't even know where to start.
This was absolutely FANASTIC, and I was expecting to love it (this is a 5-star predicted read) but I was completely blown away. The characters are utterly captivating and complex. The audiobook was wonderfully narrated. I am a FAN! ...more
Jul 19, 2019 Matthew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: 2019, audio, historical-fiction, library, favorites
I read Daisy Jones and the Six a couple of months ago. Usually I don't read two books by the same author this close – mainly so I can spread out my enjoyment of their works. But, to be honest, when I put them both on hold, I didn't realize they were the same author! Then, the holds come in when they come in . . . so, I have to read them whether I am ready or not. In this case I am definitely overwhelmed with Taylor Jenkins Reid goodness! Spoiled, even!
Both of these books have an interview/tell a I read Daisy Jones and the Six a couple of months ago. Usually I don't read two books by the same author this close – mainly so I can spread out my enjoyment of their works. But, to be honest, when I put them both on hold, I didn't realize they were the same author! Then, the holds come in when they come in . . . so, I have to read them whether I am ready or not. In this case I am definitely overwhelmed with Taylor Jenkins Reid goodness! Spoiled, even!
Both of these books have an interview/tell all format. I have to say that I find it to be one of the best formats I have come across recently. Reid turns fiction into non-fiction; making it feel like I am standing in line at the supermarket looking at the most recent shocking celebrity news on the cover of Us or seeing the most recent clickbait links on me feed. I am addicted from the very beginning and I cannot wait for the next scandalous event to occur. And, she really does such a good job making it feel so real – I want to rush off and start Googling these people and then I remember they don't really exist!
This book deals with some very sensitive topics: gender roles (women being treated differently than men), the historical stigma of homosexuality, sexuality in general (i.e. how it used to be shocking for women to be depicted enjoying sex or be blatantly sexual), racism, death/suicide, etc. I know that some of these topics can trigger people, but I think Reid does a great job of interweaving them into the story and showing how each affects the characters. None of it is unnecessary, overdone, or purely for shock value.
Basically, Reid is just a fantastic storyteller. She pulls me in and doesn't let go. I don't want to put her books down and, when I do, I cannot wait to get back to them. I hope if you try her out, you have the same experiences I did.
Aug 25, 2018 jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
not to be dramatic, but if there ever comes a point in time where the fate of the human civilisation is coming to an end and we need to create a time capsule to immortalise our posterity, this book better be in it. there has never been a more honest and enthralling book in the history of the world, ever.
i really dont even know where to begin. its books like this which confirm my belief that fiction will always be better than nonfiction, because it would be impossible to find a biography that co not to be dramatic, but if there ever comes a point in time where the fate of the human civilisation is coming to an end and we need to create a time capsule to immortalise our posterity, this book better be in it. there has never been a more honest and enthralling book in the history of the world, ever.
i really dont even know where to begin. its books like this which confirm my belief that fiction will always be better than nonfiction, because it would be impossible to find a biography that could paint the story of a womans life half as well as this did. this was extraordinary, in every sense of the word. just the depth of this book was spectacular. not to mention the diversity and representation and writing quality and complex characters. everything was just outstanding.
im kind of in that shocked state right now (if you didnt already notice) where im still reeling from what i just read. a more concise and coherent review will come once i calm down from being so hyped about the brilliance of this book and can process everything.
↠ 5 stars ...more
May 06, 2017 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing
Shelves: lgbt-themes, historical-fiction, recommend, favorite, feminism
Update: $2.99 Kindle special today. This book is TERRIFIC. Men- women - most readers will love it.
Great price if you've missed it!
Evelyn Hugo, born Evelyn Elena Herrera, daughter of Cuban immigrants, grew up poor in Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. By 1955 she was in Hollywood.
Evelyn is beautiful....as tall and slim as a ballerina, with straight thick eyebrows, oversize almond shape eyes, blonde hair, ( dyed only after she arrives in Hollywood to help her get acting roles), rich, Update: $2.99 Kindle special today. This book is TERRIFIC. Men- women - most readers will love it.
Evelyn is beautiful....as tall and slim as a ballerina, with straight thick eyebrows, oversize almond shape eyes, blonde hair, ( dyed only after she arrives in Hollywood to help her get acting roles), rich, powerful, charming, and exudes a casualness and confidence that makes her all the more radiating.
This enchanting lovely woman was humble - down to earth in areas that mattered. Yes, she had seven husbands, too!
I was quickly bewitched, fully captivated by Evelyn Hugo. It was her calm wisdom - humble but direct speaking that moved me. She made a distinction about words and how they can be misleading, that made me want to SCREAM OUT AND SAY THANK YOU FOR THAT!!!!!!
There was a scene early in the book where it was very clear how one word could induce shame. Words really can hurt and paint evil pictures.... preaching...assumptions before asking.... sarcasm.....etc.
I sat and thought about all the times people have used words - not chosen them carefully - and as a result I'd feel hurt or belittled. I'm no better. I also thought about times I did the same to others. Words do hurt and damage the spirit- and the trust of relationships. Ms. Hugo, 79 year old Hollywood legend, handled those 'wrong words' with grace, correcting - teaching- inspiring her new-friend at the time while having compassion for 'herself'. Her purpose was not to hurt her friend who spoke the wrong words - but also not to allow for the misleading word to be, "misleading".
I started reading 'slower' ( wanting to take in every word out of Evelyn Hugo's mouth), when I realized this Hollywood notable Starlett was sincerely deserving- and worthy of the fans she has -- a celebrity to love!!!
I soon discovered this classy gorgeous woman had acute self-awareness, high levels of emotional intelligence, clearly socially aware, and relentlessly lived a full life of many experiences filled with joy and challenges.
I felt like I was given a gift - absorbing wisdom from this 79 year old woman. Her life experiences were fascinating, glamorous, scandalous and she herself was .....*extraordinary*. I was learning from this fictional character.
Monique Grant, Evelyn's new friend, 35 years old, is an unknown reporter at 'Vivant', in Los Angeles. Evelyn wants Monique to write a book about her life story. Everyone in the journalism community- including Monique's boss, Frankie, were shocked that Evelyn asked for Monique. ONLY Monique -- or no deal at all!!! There are some complications for Monique to figure out with work--plus her husband, David just left her....( not even married a full year), but her life is about to change.
Why did Evelyn pick Monique to write her book? We wonder right away!!!
We also want to know about Evelyn's life - her husband's - and which one she loved the most. We have many questions as we take this journey-- and it's delicious- with many insightful life lessons and messages.
Intimacy - closeness - trust - and real friendship grows as Monique listens to Evelyn's life story. Monique is past the point of remaining objective. She knows how specular of a human being Evelyn is. Against all of her journalistic integrity Monique feels a full range of emotions for her.
Monique begins to feel a deep connection and love with Evelyn. There are many juicy stories that get revealed about Evelyn's past marriages, relationships, and movies she stars in, "Father and Daughter", "Little Women", and the title role in "Anna Karenina", however when Evelyn begins to share about her present day life......a secret door becomes unhinged. Both women will have to face the truth together.
My final words.... THIS NOVEL IS EARTH SHATTERING FABULOUS- FANTASTIC -WONDERFUL -soooooo GOOD I can barely stand it!!!!!! It's 'not' what you think it is!!!!!!
I laughed, I cried, and thankful that this book kept me cozy company while sick in bed!!!!!
Many Thanks Atria Books, Netgalley, Jamie, ( my friend who demanded I 'not' wait for the audiobook book as planned - that I RUN over to Netgalley and begged for this book and then drop everything and start reading if given the opportunity -- bless you Jamie Girl.... and last to Taylor Jenkins Reid... ( you really out-did yourself with this novel... amazing!!!! Love You for it!!) ...more
Sep 17, 2018 Cindy rated it it was amazing
A spectacular book well deserving of 5 stars. All of the characters feel like real people: complex, nuanced, and painfully human. Not only is the story incredibly diverse despite its Old Hollywood setting, it also has the best bi representation I've ever seen. The journey through Evelyn Hugo's life is filled with trials and tribulations, love and loss, mistakes and redemption; all the while, Reid does a great job at making you feel all the emotions along the way. I left this book feeling reflect A spectacular book well deserving of 5 stars. All of the characters feel like real people: complex, nuanced, and painfully human. Not only is the story incredibly diverse despite its Old Hollywood setting, it also has the best bi representation I've ever seen. The journey through Evelyn Hugo's life is filled with trials and tribulations, love and loss, mistakes and redemption; all the while, Reid does a great job at making you feel all the emotions along the way. I left this book feeling reflective, melancholic, and touched by how many things can happen in life that are both awful and wonderful. Overall, a compelling read that is beautifully put together as it is emotionally satisfying. ...more
Nov 28, 2019 Samantha rated it really liked it
Shelves: favorites-2019
4.5 stars but I very well may move it to a 5. This book was surprising, not in a "twist" way but in how so much of it resonated with me. I saw a lot of the "twists" coming but I believe that is entirely the point. It's not about the twists, it's about the journey and that is a marker for a great story imo. I desperately hope this gets made into a beautiful film.
Sep 28, 2018 Warda rated it really liked it
Shelves: i-fell-in-love, close-to-5-stars, characters-of-colour, lgbtqia
This has been one of the most well-developed, character driven stories that I've read. It's the type that'll leave a mark and I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience.
Throughout the course of this book, I became enamoured with Evelyn Hugo. She isn't likeable, but I fell in love her. The whole story felt real. As if I could google one of her movies, and I'd be able to start watching it right away. I was dazzled by her beauty, her bravado. I fell in love with her personality, her ugliness and f This has been one of the most well-developed, character driven stories that I've read. It's the type that'll leave a mark and I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience.
Throughout the course of this book, I became enamoured with Evelyn Hugo. She isn't likeable, but I fell in love her. The whole story felt real. As if I could google one of her movies, and I'd be able to start watching it right away. I was dazzled by her beauty, her bravado. I fell in love with her personality, her ugliness and facade of a life she lived for a while, and how accepting she became of the mistakes she made.
She learned from it. This is what you call learning from your mistakes, accepting them and moving on. She didn't drown in regret, berate herself to the point where one can break oneself down. She dealt with her circumstances in the best way she could back then. She dealt with the cards that she was given in a way that made sense to her alone, but doesn't condone it either. However, it was her truth and she was unapologetic. There was so much strength in her character that seeped into me.
(And Hollywood is just fuckin' dirty.)
I also love the title of this book. I think anyone's initial reaction is to be slightly shocked. I mean, I believed it. Evelyn Hugo really did marry seven men. But this story highlights that there is always more to someone than what meets the eye and what others may perceive. I don't care how strong you are in your assumption towards someone. It's an assumption, a so-called opinion and it's flimsy at the of the day. The truth is that people are more complex, more layered and human.
I think what I was missing though was the same type of intensity that I was feeling whilst reading the first half of the story - though I don't know how much importance I should place on the 'missing intensity'. But I also wished that the plot twist was looked at with more depth. It felt like the story ended almost abruptly once that reveal was made and I needed it to be more fleshed out and come round full circle.
But other than that, Evelyn Hugo, you are an icon.
The time has come for me to become acquainted with Evelyn Hugo. ...more
Nov 27, 2018 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it it was amazing
Shelves: audio, own, kindle-own
Okay! I bought this in an Audible sale because of all the rave reviews! I better love it 😳 And I bought it on Kindle!
Omg!! I can't believe I loved this as much as I did!! Once in awhile a book will surprise me. But I did the wrong thing! I listened to it first. I usually like to read it first so I can highlight things!! Soooo there will be a reread on my kindle. But the narrator for this did an awesome job!
This was fantastic!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾 Okay! I bought this in an Audible sale because of all the rave reviews! I better love it 😳 And I bought it on Kindle!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾 ...more
Jun 28, 2017 emma rated it really liked it
Shelves: non-ya, owned, historical, diverse, recommend, reviewed, 4-stars
was tempted to spend my whole day watching old movies and not reading at all.
compromised by rereading this instead.
this was a very good plan.
WOW I NEVER POSTED THIS. What a pleasant surprise! After dozens of unposted-unwritten reviews, finally an unposted-but-written one. Life is beautiful.
But first off (I can call this first off if I freaking want to!!!) I wanna say: DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT HISTORICAL FICTION CAN'T BE DIVERSE. Tell that anthropomorphized tennis ball they're eit was tempted to spend my whole day watching old movies and not reading at all.
But first off (I can call this first off if I freaking want to!!!) I wanna say: DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT HISTORICAL FICTION CAN'T BE DIVERSE. Tell that anthropomorphized tennis ball they're either uncreative or a secret bigot or a full-on dunce or ALL THREE. Because this book pulls it off with more than a tablespoon of grace, I'll tell you that.
My guy, there aren't even that many characters in this book. And we're following the majority of them starting in the 1950s. Not exactly, y'know, the peak of support for diversity in America. AND STILL WE DON'T LACK FOR REPRESENTATION. Do you get how great that is? I'm ready to punch the whitesplainers of Disney's Frozen in their boring pale faces. The word "Frozen" is actually a reference to the lack of movement in the creativity centers of their brains. (Follow for more behind the scenes Disney-Pixar facts.)
This book includes three (three!) interracial relationships. Actually, it's more like ten if you count the fact that our protagonist is Latina. Yes! This may be the bare minimum, but I'm so used to YA wherein one pale as snow teen romances a - gasp - pale as paper teen! Diversity in young adult books = one character is of Western European descent and the other Eastern European. Talk about a vanilla romance. (Buh dum ch.)
This book proves how important it is to provide diversity. The difference in the believability and intricacy of the story is incredible.
I will say we don't often get a good look at the variance in culture that comes with diversity here. Evelyn Hugo, though the daughter of Cuban immigrants, purposefully represses her heritage in order to fit in with the whitewashed 1950s and '60s cinema scene. Our narrator, though half-black, expresses a fear that someone will tell her she's "not black enough." I wish the ethnic diversity played a little more into the text, but it didn't feel unrealistic or anything. The reasoning was explained.
But there's even more diversity. Like, it gets even better. Because, again, despite the time setting, this book contains A SH*T TON of LGBT+ rep. And these are some of the most beautifully portrayed LGBT+ relationships I've ever read. If you don't read this book for anything else, read it for that fine-ass inclusion, boi.
Beyond that, this is the ultimate guilty pleasure book. IT IS SO FUN READING ABOUT OLD HOLLYWOOD AND OLD MOVIES. I wanted to watch the entire Evelyn Hugo canon after this, and then it was like, oh wait, she's not real.
I don't have much else to say. This is chick-lit-y historical fiction at its finest. It's just so fun. Some people say they got bored halfway through, and I get why you could, but I didn't. I really fell in love with the world of this book, and the depiction of Old Hollywood, and all that jazz.
A lot is revealed over the course of the book, and the best part is just being surprised at each twist and turn, so I don't want to go to specifics even a little. I'm just going to cut off this review here before I risk, like, accidentally mentioning that Evelyn Hugo's third husband turned her into a vampire and she was a vampire the whole time and she turns Monique at the end of the book.*
Damn it!
Bottom line: This is very fun and cool and maybe even important. Read it!!!
*This isn't true, by the way. Duh.
This book? It's really great.
I got a hell of a lot more than I bargained for.
Not sure what the rating is - between 4 and 5 - but MAN I'm hype to write this review ...more
Jun 27, 2018 Claudia Ramírez rated it it was amazing
Shelves: 2018, exceeded-expectations, to-re-read, favorites, top-2018, absolute-faves
I'm going to think until I do my wrap up if this will be a 4.5 stars read or 5 star read. BUT WOW. Just know that I loved it.
No puede ser que no hubiera escuchado sobre este libro antes, ¡es una maravilla! Y las miles de reseñas positivas lo respaldan. La historia de Evelyn Hugo te quita el aliento. Es intrigante y muy cautivadora; y es de esas de las que simplemente quieres saber MÁS Y MÁS. Yo no podía creer lo inmersa que estaba en la lectura. Solo quería saber más sobre Evelyn Hugo, sus logro I'm going to think until I do my wrap up if this will be a 4.5 stars read or 5 star read. BUT WOW. Just know that I loved it.
No puede ser que no hubiera escuchado sobre este libro antes, ¡es una maravilla! Y las miles de reseñas positivas lo respaldan. La historia de Evelyn Hugo te quita el aliento. Es intrigante y muy cautivadora; y es de esas de las que simplemente quieres saber MÁS Y MÁS. Yo no podía creer lo inmersa que estaba en la lectura. Solo quería saber más sobre Evelyn Hugo, sus logros, sus triunfos, sus tropiezos, sus motivaciones y, obviamente, sus siete esposos.
¿Cómo fue que se casó siete veces? Y aún más importante... ¿quién fue realmente su gran amor?
No creo que sea un libro con mucha profundidad, pero sí muy adictivo, hace tiempo que no me la pasaba TAN BIEN y tan picada leyendo una historia. Es que WOW, me sentía dentro del libro, como si Evelyn Hugo fuera un ícono del mundo real y yo fuera su fan y quisiera conocer cada uno de sus secretos.
Me encantó, de verdad. ...more
Dec 06, 2019 David Putnam rated it it was amazing
Wow. I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. Absolutely LOVED it. This is a story of a powerful love between two women in a time when it was unacceptable. The author has a huge command of language and seamlessly shifts from first person present tense to first person past tense and even to second person. Amazing. I marveled at the writing craft, the storytelling. The language and the passion to communicate the love is mesmerizing. The main character Evelyn Hugo is a swirling whirlwin Wow. I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. Absolutely LOVED it. This is a story of a powerful love between two women in a time when it was unacceptable. The author has a huge command of language and seamlessly shifts from first person present tense to first person past tense and even to second person. Amazing. I marveled at the writing craft, the storytelling. The language and the passion to communicate the love is mesmerizing. The main character Evelyn Hugo is a swirling whirlwind that pulls everyone that comes near into her vortex. Even though Evelyn Hugo does some truly heinous things, the justification and motivation is clear and we pull full her.
The atmosphere, setting and flavor of old Hollywood is captured in just enough detail. The underlying plotline, the mystery that was carried along and always there lurking really paid off in the end. In all the thousands of books I have read in my life time I have found very few that have been able to pay-off with the last line of the book. This author does it with stunning panache and verve. Loved it. For me this book is a true "tear-jerk-er," as my mother used to call them. (She was married five times, so I might've had a little insider experience with Evelyn Hugo. Mom, married three Jim's, a Bill and a Bob. The third, and last was a Jim and my sisters nicknamed him Jim de jour. Sorry I digress).
This one is going up in my top five of the year.
Highly recommend this book.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series. ...more
Jun 09, 2018 destiny ♡⚔♡ [howling libraries] rated it it was amazing
Shelves: diverse-reads, lgbtqiap, adult, the-best-of-the-best, feminism, owned-physical
"Don't ignore half of me so you can fit me into a box. Don't do that."
Let me go ahead and say that I had no idea what to expect from this book. When it first released, I remember seeing it everywhere, and I honestly didn't take any interest in it until I was told about how diverse it was. It's full of incredible representation: you've got bi rep, gay rep, lesbian rep, a Cuban woman, a biracial woman—so when I heard about all of that, I finally decided to give it a try, and I'm so gl
Let me go ahead and say that I had no idea what to expect from this book. When it first released, I remember seeing it everywhere, and I honestly didn't take any interest in it until I was told about how diverse it was. It's full of incredible representation: you've got bi rep, gay rep, lesbian rep, a Cuban woman, a biracial woman—so when I heard about all of that, I finally decided to give it a try, and I'm so glad that I did, because whatever I thought Evelyn Hugo was about, didn't hold a candle to the experience of reading it for myself.
Throughout the entire book, Evelyn is more or less laying her soul bare to Monique, this reporter who she's asked to write her life story. As this famous actress, Evelyn's memories are juicy and full of drama, hidden pains and secret triumphs, and most notably, her seven marriages—not one of them having been to the hidden love of her life. Despite the descriptions she gives for judgments she received and the snippets of gossip articles laid out intermittently through the book, Evelyn isn't ashamed of herself in any way, and it creates this incredibly feminist, sex-positive atmosphere that I could've soaked in forever.
"I made it fifty-fifty. Which is about the cruelest thing you can do to someone you love, give them just enough good to make them stick through a hell of a lot of bad."
Despite Evelyn's status as this film goddess by this point, she feels so relatable and she manages to work even the celebrity aspects of her life into this narrative that anyone could understand, as she admits to the sins she committed and the lies she told, and even to the baser things like the fact that she realized early on, no amount of fame or fortune would ever truly satisfy a successful actress like herself. She constantly owns up to selfish motives and awful behaviors, yet she's tremendously likable, and I think that's a fact that points to how terrific Taylor Jenkins Reid's storytelling is: because we are hearing everything through Evelyn's memories, from the mouth of an elderly woman who has settled down and found peace, it makes it difficult to ever blame her for a single crime she committed.
"It's always been fascinating to me how things can be simultaneously true and false, how people can be good and bad all in one, how someone can love you in a way that is beautifully selfless while serving themselves ruthlessly."
Of course, Evelyn's not all bad—she overcame circumstances that many people would've simply given up under, and yet, she managed to love beautifully and to put her family first at every turn, even if the moves she made to protect them didn't always make sense on the surface. Whether it's her hidden love, or her endless commitment to her best friend, or her breathtaking adoration of her daughter, when you reach the end of the story and look back, it's easy to see that nothing mattered more to Evelyn than the people she held dear, and it makes her feel spectacularly human.
"It's a hard business, reconciling what the truth used to be with what the truth is now."
Of course, Evelyn isn't the only character who's enjoyable in this book; underneath her memories is the story of Monique, the reporter who's just trying to find her place in a world that doesn't like to make room for strong women, much less women of color striking out on their own. She grows so much in a short span of time, and while the circumstances of the writing process aren't always kind to her, and while she's never really the star of the show, you can't help but root for her, too—and everyone else in this complex, layered, masterpiece of a book.
"You have to find a job that makes your heart feel big instead of one that makes it feel small."
I feel like there is so much more that I want to say, but at the end of the day, it all boils down to one thing: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is one of the most brilliant pieces of writing I have ever had the pleasure of reading. It sets itself so solidly apart from anything I've ever read that even remotely resembled it, and is probably one of the most powerful, emotional, and incredible things I have ever read. I am forever grateful for each and every one of who you encouraged me to pick it up, and for Taylor Jenkins Reid, the genius behind the pages. I cannot recommend this highly enough.
Buddy read with Meisha, Angie, and Delanna! ♥ ...more
Mar 02, 2018 Riley rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favorites, sapphic-read
I finished this at 3am and then cried myself to sleep. This was truly remarkable. Evelyn Hugo is a character I won't get out of my head for a long time. I finished this at 3am and then cried myself to sleep. This was truly remarkable. Evelyn Hugo is a character I won't get out of my head for a long time. ...more
Dec 30, 2017 ✨ jamieson ✨ rated it it was amazing
Shelves: bi-mc, lgbtqiap, 2018-reads, audiobook, books-that-made-me-cry, favorites, favourite-covers, fiction, owned-books, romance
REREAD 3/1/2019 i love this book so much i love this book so much i love this book so much THERE ARE TRULY NO WORDS FOR HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS BOOK
and YES I cried just as much the second time. WHAT. ABOUT. IT
::FULL REVIEW BELOW ::
Folks, this book just came into my home and murdered me personally I'm shaking
So, I literally cried for 20 minutes when listening this and not like cute little sniffles either I mean full on tears streaming down my face heaving sobs crying I'm talking having to keep wipi REREAD 3/1/2019 i love this book so much i love this book so much i love this book so much THERE ARE TRULY NO WORDS FOR HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS BOOK
So, I literally cried for 20 minutes when listening this and not like cute little sniffles either I mean full on tears streaming down my face heaving sobs crying I'm talking having to keep wiping your eyes so you can see. I rarely get truly emotional in books so the fact this book drew that reaction from me is a testament to how fucking damn good it is. Like, please believe the hype people
Like genuinely, I 100% believe if the fucking bus I was on had just HIT ME that would have been less painful then what happened in the last 20% of this book
anyway, it's like day 8 of trying to write this review but I keep restarting it because I don't know how to communicate how much I just loved this book so much but here goes.
this is one of those books that you don't think you'll love so much and then it just surprises you and immediately steals your heart.
⭐ it's so hard to explain what this book is about because it's so, so much more than I ever expected
On the basic level, it follows Monique, an up and coming journalist who has been invited to write a tell-all about the life of Evelyn Hugo. Evelyn Hugo is a retired Old Hollywood actress, fashion icon, sex symbol and known for her glamorous and scandalous life that included seven different marriages.
Evelyn Hugo hasn't done an interview in decades but she insists that Monique write the tell-all and so the story is told both in flashbacks as Evelyn recounts her life through the seven marriages and current time as Monique tries to unravel why Evelyn Hugo, potentially the worlds most famous actress, wants her of all people to write this tell all.
And listen, there is so, so much more happening then that but it's so, SO hard to explain. You just have to read it and trust me. Seriously I'm begging you, I'll go full Rumpelstiltskin and trade my first born for everyone to read this book because it is seriously incredible.
I think one thing that is so amazing about this is how real it is even though all these characters are fictitious they feel SO REAL. They're so well developed and nuanced. Evelyn Hugo, Harry Cameron, Celia St James and the other characters who appear are incredibly flawed and did some questionable things (especially Evelyn) and I loved that about it so much. The depth that Taylor Jenkins Reid gave these characters made them feel so, so alive. And it also made the pain I felt at their struggles and their joys that much more real.
This book absolutely broke me because I was SO, SO invested in these characters. I care about each one of them so much and even though eight days later I MISS them like they're real. I keep wondering what they're up to and how they're feeling. Because Taylor Jenkins Reid sets this book right in the heart of the old Hollywood era, and makes them so compelling and realistic, it honestly feels like they're real actresses and actors and producers and I have to keep reminding myself they're not. That sounds literally ridiculous but thats how WELL WRITTEN these characters are.
despite the hetero sounding title, this book is very gay a large portion of this is about Evelyn Hugo explaining her love and on/off relationship with fellow actress Celia St. James. And oh my god, I love them so much. And I loved the representation so much.
I've mentioned I'm queer here before and this book really had me thinking. The book explores a little what it was like to be queer in Hollywood in this era and what it cost both Evelyn and Harry to hide their relationships. The incorporation of events like the Stonewall riots and the AIDs crisis, and showing how the community reacted to that, was upsetting but important. And it really highlighted how hard it was to be gay or bi or lesbian like these characters at the time. I think that was just something really important in this book and again, brought it up a level from a regular literary fiction book to something a bit more.
I also just really loved the bisexual rep. Like, a lot. So many things Evelyn said really hit home for me, and the tensions betwene her and Celia were really relatable because I've experienced that that too. This is not OwnVoices but I did read an article in which Taylor Jenkins Reid explained her research, and you can definitely tell she took her time to gather first person experience, read memoirs and generally research to make sure she was doing this right and she did it SO RIGHT. This is probably one of my favourite lgbtq+ books of all time
"But I like you this way. I like you impure and scrappy and formidable. I like the Evelyn Hugo who sees the world for what it is and then goes out there and wrestles what she wants out of it. So, you know, put whatever label you want on it, just don't change. That would be the real tragedy."
Okay, I'm getting emotional again so lets leave it here. I love these messy, beautiful characters so much and I just ..... my heart is exploding thinking about all the HAPPINESS they deserved.
If you think this book is something you won't like, I did too. I thought there was no way I would care about a literary fiction book focussing on Hollywood but OH. MY. gOD. It's so much more than you think it is and it truly both made and broke my heart. this is one of my favourite 2018 reads and also a new all time favourite, and I am so, so happy it exists. ...more
What was your overall thoughts on this book and who is your favorite character? Would you like to see this book get adapted into a movie? 6 68 Jan 15, 2021 08:53AM
YA Buddy Readers'...: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - Restarting November 15th 2020 142 244 Dec 01, 2020 06:59AM
Play Book Tag: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – Taylor Jenkins Reid - 5 stars 1 11 Nov 28, 2020 09:59PM
Challenge Corner: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid -> Restarting October 20th. 2020 30 27 Nov 04, 2020 09:24AM
Historical > Historical Fiction
GLBT > Queer
About Taylor Jenkins Reid
Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of Daisy Jones & The Six, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, One True Loves, and three other novels. She lives in Los Angeles. You can follow her on Instagram @tjenkinsreid. Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of Daisy Jones & The Six, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, One True Loves, and three other novels. She lives in Los Angeles. You can follow her on Instagram @tjenkinsreid. ...more
Books by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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