Review of the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
And when I say that this book is lifechanging, I truly mean it. This book is sold as a historical romance, where you learn virtually a fictional, famous, old Hollywood actress and all her marriages. What you become is a volume that stars a bisexual, Cuban adult female who was never immune to talk about the dearest 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. This story is told from ii different timelines and 2 unlike 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 twenty-four hours her editor tells her how Evelyn Hugo is demanding her, and only her, to write something for her. I personally identify equally pansexual, only I felt like the bisexual rep in this was a tier in a higher place anything my eyes accept e'er seen. Seeing Evelyn love all the parts of her, and all the different parts of her love, was something and so awe-inspiring. I am still so overwhelmed with feelings, simply if yous identify as bi or pan, this is a dearest letter to you, I promise. This was the beginning thing I've read past Taylor Jenkins Reid, merely I will buy every single new thing she produces. The writing was so lyrical and addicting. I mean, I have a quote betwixt almost every paragraph. This whole book deserves to be highlighted. The characters, well, my mind has at present forever imagined that these are real people now, so there is that. The topics, themes, and discussions are beyond important. This volume just makes me feel so passionately. This book is one of the most empowering pieces of literature I've always consumed. And I am non the same person I was before this book. Blog | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram | Youtube | Twitch Buddy read with May & Alexis! ❤ UPDATE: I got to meet Taylor, see her interview Casey McQuiston, take her sign my book, and she is a confirmed angel! My Vlog ❤
"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. Information technology is probably in the top five for best books I've e'er read in my entire life. I accept been looking for a book like this my unabridged life, and no combination of words I'm about to blazon, and y'all're about to read, is going to do this masterpiece justice. But I will say that Gabby, Joce, and Elyse were all correct, and I'g so happy I listened to them, considering this book is worth every single ounce of hype. "And it volition be the tragedy of my life that I cannot love y'all enough to make you mine. That you cannot exist loved enough to be anyone'southward."
On top of this being a powerful book about race, sexuality, misogyny, and having to adapt to societies norms, the true pregnant I took from this book is that life is brusk, so damn brusque, and we shouldn't spend information technology pretending to be something we aren't. And nosotros 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 guild to experience good. And that realization gave me great power."
We follow Evelyn from the very start; losing her mother very young, her trunk developing very quickly, noticing others noticing her developing trunk, marrying a man and then she tin leave the expressionless-finish city she grew upwardly in, then she tin become something more than. Evelyn is unapologetic with her actions, and information technology 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 actually chop-chop how to play each and every man she is forced to collaborate with, and she quickly learns what she tin gain from each and every ane of them, as well. "Heartbreak is loss. Divorce is a piece of paper."
The other timeline(s) are all the dissimilar times in Evelyn'southward 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 prepare to talk about her life. But the unabridged volume we are guessing why she has chosen only Monique for this chore. "Make them pay you what they would pay a white man."
If you guys accept been following my reviews, you'll probably know that I talk about establish family and how important it is to me a lot, but The 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is the image of how beautiful a constitute 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, brand sure the reader understands that all I was always really looking for was family. Make sure it's clear that I found it. Make certain they know that I am heartbroken without it."
And the romance? The true romance in this book is the near romantic thing I have always read in my unabridged life. And you guys know I've read a ton of romances, but they are all lesser to this. Every single ane of them tin can't compare with the romance in this book. I feel like every fourth dimension 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 grin. At least to me it does. You're the but matter on this planet worth worshipping."
How many Evelyn and Celias are there in the world? How many are even so playing the office that Evelyn was forced to play? I cry for every unmarried person who must hide who they are, and who they desire to love. And this book talks near many big things in queer history; from the Stonewall riots to the icky Reagan administration, but life nonetheless 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, only people act similar none of those things exists because wedlock is legalized, begrudgingly. I'm not writing this review to get on my soapbox, but I promise, we take a lot more than work to do. And this book, this book lit a burn down under me. "I was a lesbian when she loved me and a direct 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 volition exist different for the generation of kids existence raised correct at present. "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 brand movies or habiliment emerald-green gowns and wave at crowds but to be her mother."
If you guys e'er take a recommendation from me; please have it be The Vii Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Delight, I'k actually begging you. I promise, this book is lifechanging, and I equally promise yous that this volume inverse mine. There is magic between these four-hundred-pages. Pure magic. This story is addicting, enthralling, and and so important. And if you're an Evelyn, in 2018, I see you, but I hope information technology doesn't take you lot as long as it took her to be happy. This volition forever be ane of the best books of my life, and I'll cherish it forever. "People think that intimacy is about sex. Only intimacy is nearly truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you tin can show yourself to them, when yous 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 ane, expiry of a child, talk of suicide, unhealthy dieting, underage sexual practice with an adult, abortion, talk of miscarriage, a lot of physical abuse, cheating, dunk driving, and homophobic slurs.
This unabridged review has been subconscious considering of spoilers.
This review contains a spoiler for a reveal around 100 pages into the novel. I knew this reveal going in and do not believe knowing this reveal hurts the reading feel. I think a lot about the thought of honey as something dangerous, as something that you have to fight for. And information technology's merely recently that I've decided that's something that probably has to practise 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 later realizing I liked girls, and in reading about the past and thinking near the past, I am constantly, daily, reminded how being built-in ten years earlier would take made everything that much more unsafe, that much more violent, that much more fearful. And at that place is something so woefully romantic to me virtually the fact that there were people who braved that climate and loved anyhow and paved the path, while doing and so, for me and and so many others. So that's all to say that this volume made me experience all v stages of grief and simultaneously made me feel every positive emotion in the earth and I have no idea how that is possible. merely listen, if you but read 1 book I recommend you this year, I want it to exist this one. Simply I think, despite its marketing, this book is really nearly Evelyn. Awful, complicated, completely lovable Evelyn. Evelyn is a flawed, compelling, brave, aggressive adult female who got to where she was with teeth and claws and never gave upward. She is also, and I'm not fifty-fifty joking, i of the almost iconic characters I have ever had the pleasance of reading nearly. She is a adult female with a lot of ambition simply besides one who loves and wants to be loved. She is such a skilful character. This book is as well fiercely and unapologetically socio-political and I love that. Evelyn'due south story is one of being a woman in a homo's globe. It is one of being a Cuban woman in a white woman's world. It is ane of beingness a bisexual woman in an era where attraction to women was demonized by the whole civilization. It is one of hiding yourself for ambition, i of trying to determine which one takes precedent, 1 of aging, and one of never knowing whether your choices were right. Annnnnnnd this volume also has the most fucking heartbreaking romantic human relationship I have had the displeasure to read about in my entire life. I don't… I don't know if romantic relationships should exist considered spoilers, just… well, I knew going in who the bodily love of Evelyn's life was and it STILL WORKED FOR ME. So hither it is: Evelyn Hugo and Celia St. James are ane of my favorite fictional relationships, of all time, e'er. These two accept a complicated, flawed, at times tumultous relationship, and yet they honey each other then much, always. I know I've talked about a lot of specific things in the book, simply I don't know exactly how to put into words what this book meant to me. You tin almost feel how much Taylor Jenkins Reid felt this volume. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo left me an emotional mess, but too a happy mess. All I know is I feel ruined for any other book, and I desire you to be also. Blog | Goodreads | Twitter | Youtube "Make them pay you every bit much equally they would a white man."
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is, aye, virtually the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Vii husbands who are sometimes atrocious and sometimes sympathetic and sometimes somewhere in betwixt. 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 thought of her more than he could always dearest her. "People think that intimacy is virtually sex. But intimacy is about truth. When y'all realize y'all can tell someone your truth, when you lot can show yourself to them, when y'all stand in front of them bare and their response is 'you're safe with me'- that'south intimacy."
And perhaps my favorite part was the messaging around the importance of bodily beloved in relationships, rather than just a willingness to try.
"Y'all didn't come here and tell me how much yous miss me. Or how hard it has been to live without me. You said you lot didn't want to give up. And I don't want to surrender, either. I don't want to fail at this. Simply that's non actually a great reason to stay together. We should take reasons why we don't desire to give. Information technology shouldn't just be that nosotros don't want to give up. And I don't... have any.
"You have never felt like my other one-half."
CLICK Here for a Booktube Video about: Ten Fabulous Book Reviews and Ane That Volition Brand You Go - doesn't that belong to Miranda Reads? At present that yous know this one made the list bank check the video review to see the rest (and find the stolen surprise)! Heartbreak is a loss. Divorce is a piece of paper. She dominated the big screen for more than four decades. Every man wanted her and every woman wanted to exist her. Perhaps most famously, Evelyn Hugo was married 7 times. Each divorce only increased her fame. Rumors swept through the tabloids like wildfire. However, Monique soon learns that this is beyond a ii-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 exist a fool - an accented fool - to pass this up. But the thought, the 'it'south too good to be true' sort of thought, continues to replay in her mind. Everyone and their mother was talking up this book and while I agree that it is engaging and scandalous (in a good fashion)...I don't know. I but expected more from information technology. I definitely think it was well-written...just a bit dull in areas. Nosotros commencement the volume with xl pages of just talking upwardly Evelyn Hugo and it really did drag. There'due south merely so many times I tin hear near 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 audition a taste of the mystery surrounding her love life (rather than going on and on about how intriguing it was...without telling u.s. what was intriguing about it) would have helped significantly. In one case nosotros got to her life, the volume certainly picked upwardly. I really loved how Evelyn'southward sexuality was portrayed in this book. I liked watching her abound as a person - from a teenager using sex to get herself out of a hellhole to falling in beloved and finding it something to be cherished. Her love for throughout the years truly made this wildly unbelievable story cinch for me. Honestly, Ultimately, this was an enjoyable read, a chip tiresome paced, merely enjoyable nonetheless!
The Written Review iii.75 stars
Evelyn Hugo was the star of the century. 
I'm nether absolutely no obligation to make sense to you.
And now, age 79, Evelyn Hugo decided to auction off her nigh wildly famous gowns and offered one lucky journalist (Monique) an interview that will last a lifetime. Sometimes reality comes crashing down on you. Other times reality simply waits, patiently, for you to run out of the free energy information technology takes to deny information technology.
Overall, this ane was skillful but I was never wowed.
Their love was expertly done, with all of the fear and paranoia associated with the times, that it truly felt like real life. Never let anyone make you feel ordinary.
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It'due south perfect, easy beach read material. Information technology'due south non specially deep, it does not take the genre to new levels or make you think about something new, and yet information technology DID feel different. Evelyn Hugo's story was so succulent and compelling that information technology stood out, and kept me turning pages in a desperate need to detect the stories behind her seven husbands, and the respond to the one question everyone wants to know: who was her greatest beloved? The framing of the story reminded me a lot of The Thirteenth Tale. Similar that volume, in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, a young woman - this fourth dimension an aggressive journalist called Monique Grant - goes to interview an elderly woman. Different The Thirteenth Tale, this elderly adult female happens to be one of the most famous actresses in the earth. Evelyn Hugo has lived a life in the public eye, but she is full of secrets. Only she knows what happened backside the scenes in her long career of scandals and highly-publicized heartbreaks. Simply like the fictional world of the book longed to know the truth-- and then did I. Reid and Evelyn's habit of giving you just enough to go out you wanting more was incredibly heady. Throughout, nosotros are encouraged to wonder why someone similar Evelyn Hugo would specifically asking a relatively-inexperienced announcer like Monique. Why Monique? What is Evelyn hiding? The more I got to know Evelyn, the more I savage 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 information technology all once again. She'due south played the Hollywood game, dated famous men to further her career, and used her body to get what she wants. She has experienced the total force of the industry's sexism and, in some ways, capitalized on information technology. She is deeply flawed and aware of it. She has traded important aspects of her identity for more fame, more roles, more than money. She was a badass Cuban woman working in an industry that didn't like women to exist 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 but Monique, through decades of Hollywood in all its shimmering ugliness, right until the ending'due south final reveals. I enjoyed every moment. Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube Is Evelyn Hugo going to tell me just plenty to proceed me on the edge of my seat but never enough to truly reveal anything?
I tin can't say for sure what drew me to this book. It's not the kind of affair I usually selection up, and I haven't read anything by Reid earlier. Simply 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.
this didn't piece of work for me, but i get how it could work for others there'due south something so glamorous and sad virtually the golden age of film. throw in a cuban bisexual chief character who has to hide her identities and it'due south a certain fire way to get people intrigued. and i was, throughout the entirety of the book. this book did not lack in keeping my involvement. but there were too many things i had issue with. and if i hadn't read all but 1 of TJR's previous works i might have been able to overlook information technology. simply once i notice a pattern it tends to color my judgment of an author's work. two big things for me: writing & relationships first, i knew going into this that TJR's writing does not piece of work for me. information technology'south not hard to digest which is dainty. only the writing is then clear and no frills that it'due south odd when we get these little nuggets of prescriptive morality. she doesn't desire the reader to form their own opinions, she's rather merely 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 and then the relationships. that was 99% of my issue with this book. it wasn't that Evelyn was a wholly unlikable character, information technology was her human 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 promise to god this is not something she has intimate knowledge of. but information technology seems like the only way she can write relationship problems is past making the love interest awful. they have to take blow out fights, say things they could never have back/should accept never been said, leave each other etc. and i'k non saying that this doesn't happen in real life. but later the outset time this kind of affair happens, i could like to see the characters grow and larn how to cope like adults. considering i'm only 24 and fifty-fifty i don't pull those kinds of stunts with my young man. cause i'm not xvi anymore. and this upshot was especially egregious to me because yes sure the fourth dimension period was hostile to F/F relationships. simply when yous have a veritable shit load of money yous can cover things upward. that wasn't the issue. these ii were just also pigheaded to brand things piece of work. then. so. irritating. lastly there is a plot twist that occurs that the end of the volume that i really did not capeesh. the twist itself was not bad but given the master grapheme'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 simply a particular that really rubbed me the wrong way. all that beingness said it was really refreshing to see exploration into a fourth dimension period, civilization, and sexuality that is not oftentimes explored. i know some people actually place with these characters and i'm glad this book exists. information technology but did not work for me.
This entire review has been subconscious because of spoilers.
This is genuinely 1 of the most remarkable novels I take ever read. It is a favorite of the year, information technology will be a favorite of all fourth dimension. I am wholly enchanted by The 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and I will never forget how much I adore this book. CW: domestic corruption, death/grief, homophobia/biphobia, racism Adult fiction is not typically my cup of tea, especially a combination of historical fiction and contemporary with the corporeality of long flashbacks (flashbacks: Besides NOT MY Thing). I have no thought how this combination of literary elements I typically do not similar consumed my unabridged existence, only it did. Taylor Jenkins Reid is an immensely talented writer. Her prose is beautiful, brilliant, 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 condition. She is one of those intoxicating characters you will never be able to purge from your mind with her stiff 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 Beloved Monique, though I am e'er happy to see another biracial main graphic symbol in literature. I appreciated her contribution to the story as I feel the volume would lose some of it'south forcefulness if there was non some other character for Evelyn to explain her actions and motivations to and it was simply her story, but it's for that reason that I sometimes felt she was more than of a plot device than an individual character. Compared to Evelyn, I simply did not intendance for Monique's individual life and bug. I enjoyed seeing how Evelyn influenced her life, merely her storyline was so drab compared to Evelyn. Edit iv/3/2019 - Later a 2nd read, I GREATLY appreciate Monique. Her character is then 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 dear I am with this story and all the means information technology has affected me. I would recommend this book to absolutely anyone who is interested in spectacular fiction novels (which should exist all of you.)
At least I know why Evelyn recruited Monique, the worst journalist of the year, to write her biography. I thought asking astute questions was a role of interviewing a famous person. Apparently not. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a quintessential beach read. The prose is very readable, the plot soapy. You infringe the juiciest, gossipiest parts of Elizabeth Taylor's or The novel is framed as a biography written by a talented upwards-and-coming jornalist, but reads as if thrown together by an employee of a gossip rag, who included all of the salacious parts of a famous person's life, but none of that person'south interiority. Totally encounter why it'southward a bestseller. It entertains simply never challenges.
Marilyn Monroe's love lives - you get a cracktastick pulp read. It reminded me of the family sagas of the yore, kind of like The Thorn Birds. Only this book needed some other 300 pages to dig deeper into the dramas of Evelyn's life and her psyche. I was entertained by the events of Hugo'south Hollywood adventures, but ultimately this book lacks depth. Nobody else noticed how superficial everything is in this novel - relationships, emotions, portrayals of race and queerness?
Worst Read of Decade, 2011-2020 As Abe Lincoln observed: "For those who similar this kind of a book, information technology is merely virtually the kind of a book they would like." I repeatedly winced and rolled my eyes at such soppy, silly prose as implausible as: Sometimes reality comes crashing down on you lot. 🥺 When y'all're given an opportunity to change your life, exist ready to do whatever it takes to brand it happen. 🫵🏼 It felt like water in the desert. If I desire things to modify, I accept to modify how I practice things. 🫡 If yous're still on the fence subsequently reading this review, by all ways, read the book!
Glucose Gluttony "I loved you so much, that I thought y'all were the meaning of my life... I idea that people were put on Earth to find other people, and I was put on Earth to find you lot. To find you, and bear upon your skin, and scent your jiff, and hear all your thoughts...."
😵💫🤢Seven Husbands, a trove of truisms, brims with bromides: Some marriages aren't really that nifty. Some loves aren't all-encompassing. Sometimes yous separate because you weren't that good together to brainstorm with. [hmmm, 🤔 ... you don't say...]
🙄
And schmaltzy advice: "You have to find a job that makes your heart feel big instead of one that makes it experience small." 🫶🏼
not to exist dramatic, just if there ever comes a point in time where the fate of the human civilisation is coming to an end and we demand to create a fourth dimension capsule to immortalise our posterity, this book improve be in information technology. there has never been a more honest and enthralling volume in the history of the world, always. i really dont even know where to begin. its books like this which confirm my belief that fiction will e'er be better than nonfiction, considering it would exist incommunicable to find a biography that could paint the story of a womans life half every bit well as this did. this was boggling, in every sense of the give-and-take. just the depth of this book was spectacular. not to mention the diversity and representation and writing quality and circuitous characters. everything was just outstanding. im kind of in that shocked state right at present (if you didnt already notice) where im even so reeling from what i just read. a more concise and coherent review will come up in one case i at-home downward from existence so hyped about the brilliance of this book and can process everything. ↠ v stars
(four.5) I've been struggling with a lot of books lately because I only don't intendance almost them. I don't care well-nigh the story. I don't care nearly the characters. I merely don't intendance! I thought it was all me, that I must have a common cold heart but then this book happened. I thought this was a literary fiction only information technology read more like a chick lit. A deep chick lit if that can even exist a thing. This book fabricated me realize that it is absolutely not me just them! I cared deeply for the flawed characters in this book. When reading a volume heartless Emily does not weep. Always. Well, I did while reading this one. Just option it upward and read information technology already!
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