The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book): 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.
Filled with emotional insight and written with Reid’s signature talent, this is a fascinating journey through the splendor of Old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means—and what it takes—to face the truth.
MY OPINION: *****
*slight spoilers ahead*
I LOVED this book! It's fairly hyped-up a lot, especially recently on TikTok, but I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. The book is not something I would typically see myself enjoying, as it's not a romance-driven book and instead is about someone's life story, but I ended up finding this book to be thrilling, captivating, and beautifully-written.
The title is quite misleading, to be quite honest. The title makes you think that this book will be about a woman's life with seven different husbands; while Evelyn Hugo did indeed have seven husbands, the book centers more around her real love and her life struggles, which I appreciated a lot more than seven boring stories about seven different men. I don't believe that my review can do this book justice; it's one of those novels that you just have to read yourself to truly understand.
Evelyn Hugo is a Hollywood icon. She's been in tons of movies and has a long list of awards and achievements from throughout her life. However, she's always been quite secretive and has never told the truth about her life to any mass media before. Now, as a fairly old woman closer to the end of her life than the beginning, she recruits the help of burgeoning journalist and writer Monique Grant to write her biography and tell the whole truth, leading to confusion as to why Monique has been chosen to write such an epic and amazing story. However, Monique is summoned to Evelyn's New York apartment and there listens to the incredibly life story of Evelyn Hugo, movie icon and starlet.
Evelyn's life was incredible and highly flawed. It was not the perfect, happy life that the media presented Evelyn Hugo's life as her whole life. I learned a lot about how things can be manipulated behind the scenes to make audiences believe certain things about celebrities that are very much not true. While I obviously knew these lies and schemes exist in mass media and within Hollywood, I believe that this book portrayed that world so realistically and perfectly, highlighting the flaws and tough decisions people are forced to make to protect their image and careers.
Throughout her life, Evelyn ends up with seven different husbands for a variety of reasons. To be quite honest, most of her husbands don't particularly stand out, which I believe is intentional; the book is not about these random men and more about the role that each played in her life and covering up the truth. Although many believe one of her husbands, Harry Cameron, to be Evelyn's true love, we soon learn the truth: Evelyn Hugo's one true love wasn't any of her husbands; instead, her real love is Celia St. James, fellow co-star and Hollywood icon.
I loved this book. I loved how it dealt with identity and the different nuances of sexuality, highlighting how people can love so many different kinds of people. I especially loved how bisexuality was explored in this book, particularly when Monique is quick to make the assumption that Evelyn is gay simply because she loved a woman. Evelyn is quick to respond that although she loved a woman, she also loved many men, including some of her many husbands, highlighting the fact that she is bisexual. I think this is an important topic to touch upon, as many, even those within the LGBTQ+ community, don't understand bisexuality and often assign many biphobic stereotypes to those who identify as bi, such as the fact that they are either gay or straight and must be one or the other. I loved the way that this was portrayed in this book because it felt real and honest. I also adored the overarching theme of love within this book. While Evelyn may not have loved all of her husbands, all of them played a role in Evelyn's expression of love, either for them or for Celia.
I loved how each relationship between Evelyn and the particular husband at the time was explored. None of them felt the same as the others and all of them had their own ups and downs.
Harry Cameron was my favorite of Evelyn's seven husbands. I loved that man and everything about him. He identified as a gay man but the connection between Evelyn and Harry went beyond "romantic" love and I honestly felt more chemistry between them than with any other relationship within this book (save Celia and Evelyn). I think they also had an extra shared connection through their child, Connor, highlighting another type of love that was portrayed in this book in a beautiful and delicate way.
The ending was shocking and tragic. I was at work when reading it and therefore did not cry, but if I had been at home, a tear or two might have slipped out if we're being honest. I was not expecting what happened to have happened, and I also was not expecting the final reveal pertaining to Monique. I loved how it was executed because it all made sense in the end but in the moment, it felt incredibly shocking and confusing.
I loved the pacing of this novel. We moved forward several decades but it never felt too fast or too slow. I also liked how it touched upon different moments in history, particularly concerning the LGBTQ+ community, such as the Stonewall Riots or the AIDS crisis.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to readers looking for a beautifully-written, realistic, tragic novel.
Main Character: Evelyn, Monique
Sidekick(s): Harry, Connor, Celia, husbands, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstandings, alcohol, media, homophobia, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.
Comments
Post a Comment