The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Book Review.

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. (Goodreads)

*CONTENT WARNING: MENTION OF DOMESTIC ABUSE AND NON-CONSENSUAL SEX*

So last week I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, because I had seen so much hype about it online. I absolutely adored it.

This book was so transportive in so many ways. There are flashbacks to 1950s-80s Hollywood, which I absolutely loved. It made me think of the film Singin’ in the Rain with all the references to the behind the scenes of 1950s studios, which was really fun!

This book also tackled some really interesting themes, but from an interesting almost dual perspective. What I mean by this is that Evelyn Hugo is discussing a lot of interesting themes that were prevalent during vintage Hollywood and which impacted her life and the lives of those close to her at the time, such as female beauty standards, patriarchy, ethnicity, poverty, homophobia, domestic abuse and more. However, the discussion becomes interest because Evelyn is addressing them through flashbacks in her memoir, with the perspectives she has now and the understanding and progression of society since then, which leads to some interesting observations of how fucked up and – oftentimes – backward societal expectations were at the time of her fame.

This book is heartbreaking in a lot of ways, particularly in discussion of society’s attitude towards sexuality. There are a number of LGBT characters in this novel, and reference to pivotal moments in history which defined the progression of LGBT rights, such as the Stonewall riots and popular figures such as Elton John coming out as gay. I found these parts really well done but also so heartbreaking in that it disappoints me that people had to hide who they truly were for fear of being seen as ‘deviant’. I think this book does a great job of showing how society was and how people hid their sexuality and how they had to censor themselves for their own safety, which is very harrowing.

This book had so much excitement and drama and luxury to it that I found it really hard to put down. The book focuses on Evelyn’s rise to fame, her husbands and other conquests and in doing so there is never a dull moment. What I also thoroughly enjoyed about this book as that parts of it did happen in the present day, so we got to see the development and life of Monique (the journalist/biographer) in between the drama of Hugo’s life.

The characters in this book were great. They were so multifaceted and were never purely good or bad. I particularly loved that each husband was completely unique to the other, came into Hugo’s life for a purpose and was completely three dimensional. Evelyn is such a complex and great character. She is completely aware that she was corrupted and is not a good person and that the view that others had of her is not the truth, but there are also so many moments throughout where she proves she has good facets to her character. I loved her character, and I also loved Monique’s character. They were completely captivating and interesting.

This book was drama filled start to finish. There were no dull moments and it was so gossipy and moreish, but also incredibly power. I would honestly recommend this to anyone. It was so good! I cried and I was shocked by twists and I found it really full of heart. I’d really recommend it. It is entertaining and I really loved it.