Title: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Series: N/A
Dates Read: 25/07/2024 (One day read)
Published Date: 13 June 2017
Genre: Historical, LGBTQIA+
Pages: 389
Content Warnings (May contain spoilers)
Alcohol, Biphobia, Body shaming, Cancer, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Toxic relationship.
Who is this for? Young Adults, Adults.
This book covers:
- A tale of world famous actress, Evelyn Hugo & her 7 marriages
- A budding journalist and her chance at something more
- Learning the truth of major events in life.
Format/Disclosure: Library, eBook
Rating: 2.25⭐
Review:
Somehow I’ve managed to get through the past few years with the only “spoiler” of this book being that Evelyn was actually bisexual. Which, it turns out, isn’t even a spoiler, since the book is tagged as LGBTQIA+ as one of the genres on Storygraph (& yes, you could argue that’s because Evelyn’s best friend is a homosexual man, but.. I don’t think that’s the case). The actual reveal at the end is definitely not one I saw coming (If anything, I actually thought it would be something to do with her taxi driver that night having something to do with the accident, but then you barely ever hear about him again, so.. I guess not.)
Overall, I just found this book to be quite overrated. The writing is fine, the plot is decent – I just didn’t enjoy it very much. I understand that Evelyn isn’t meant to be overly likeable, and I didn’t overly like her. I found the main character (Whose name already escapes me – Monica?) to be forgettable and not really have any personality. It felt as though the entire book was written for everything to be overshadowed by the star that is Evelyn Hugo, and that feels like doing a disservice to the main character.
This is another one of those books where I finish it and just think to myself “What was the point in that?” and again – I’m not trying to say that’s the authors fault (The thousands of positive reviews of the book firmly puts this as being “my” fault), it’s just not the type of book that I enjoy reading. I’m glad I read it, since it’s been on my to read list for a long time, but now the cover is closed and I can happily move on with my life.
I will say – one of the character’s names is Frankie, and I have a cat named Frankie, so seeing my cats name on the first page was a very cool feeling. It’s a shame that it was mostly all downhill from there.