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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Taylor Jenkins Reid

Start date: December 1, 2021

Finish date: December 31, 2021

Discussion: ❃Book of the Month (BOTMs)❃

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* January 2023 - One of Us is Lying
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What Members Thought

Jan 06, 2022 lj ♡ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult, romance, family-dynamics, completed-review, lgbtq-plus, favorites

I dont know how to begin to rate this.
I stayed up way, way, way too late reading this book. It’s just that kind of book.
my god it was a rollercoaster.

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“i’m under absolutely no obligation to make sense to you.”

◦ ˚○ ｡ ∙ ☆ premise

// everyone knows evelyn hugo, or at least they think they do. she's a glamorous icon of old hollywood, known for her gorgeous body and iconic style, and famously was married seven times. now she's aging and reclusive, but people are hungry as ever ...more

25 likes · Like · see review

Jul 08, 2021 Rebekka Cabral rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-books-of-all-time

I have so many thoughts I want to share but the biggest one is that this is my new favorite book. This has touched my soul in a way no other book has.

The way the book was structured was exceptional. The snippets of articles and the way it smoothly transitioned from “present-day” to the time period Evelyn was talking about. There was no mess, no confusion when we transitioned from 2017 to the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. I could easily hear Evelyn’s voice in my head narrating her life story for me. It I have so many thoughts I want to share but the biggest one is that this is my new favorite book. This has touched my soul in a way no other book has.

The way the book was structured was exceptional. The snippets of articles and the way it smoothly transitioned from “present-day” to the time period Evelyn was talking about. There was no mess, no confusion when we transitioned from 2017 to the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. I could easily hear Evelyn’s voice in my head narrating her life story for me. It felt like watching one of those movies where the main character is also narrating her thoughts and feelings and being knowledgeable about what was going to happen next. I loved how it was sectioned between each husband and how their sections has a main defining adjective about their personality before we even get to read about the husband. It went by so smoothly and I was devastated when the book was done.

The many characters we are introduced to were so complex and wonderfully described that I could see them extremely clearly in my head. Evelyn is obviously a big one. My favorite part about her character is that she never pretended that she was a good person. She knew she did bad things, and she knew she hurt people. But she didn’t regret it and she didn’t try to hide it. She didn’t lie to herself about what she had done to become famous. And she knew that she would have done the same thing all over again if she had to and still wouldn’t regret it.

Monique Grant had my attention from the beginning. She started as a character without very much self confidence and ended as a strong and independent woman who was ready to grab life by the balls. Her development and self discovery was incredibly written and wasn’t rushed in any way. Even though the interview between Monique and Evelyn took about a week (maybe a little over a week? I can’t remember), it felt like her development was a thorough one that took months. She truly looked inside herself and decided to become a person who would fight for what she wants. And this couldn’t have happened without inspiration from Evelyn and her story.

I want to talk about one last character, Harry Cameron. I realize that Celia St. James is one of the biggest characters in this story that had a clear impact on Evelyn’s life, but Harry was my personal favorite and his friendship with Evelyn was everything to me. They were the two characters who had known and stay friends with each other the longest. They truly defined true friendship. The things they did for each other and the way they never stopped having each other’s back was the highlight of this book for me. Harry Cameron was a kind, caring character who wanted to make a name for himself in Hollywood, and him and Evelyn did it together. They look out for each other even after death (you’ll see what I mean) and were always there for each other. Their chemistry was beautifully written and even through all the ups and downs of fame, they still had each other.

This book represented the LGBTQ+ community in a way no other book I’ve ever read has. In some books that take place in the 1900s forget to mention the fact that homosexuals were killed because they loved differently. They forgot that even when you were rich and famous, people won’t just turn a blind eye. This book strongly emphasized how it was for homosexual people and how they had to hide themselves in order to live a safe life. It shows the struggles from the 60s to now for the right for someone to say out loud that they are gay. People sometimes forget the fact that it’s still dangerous to be different. It’s dangerous for transgender people to be honest about their truth because of how homophobic other people can be. It shows how far the LGBTQ+ community has come and how much farther the world has to go as a whole. The things Evelyn did to protect her homosexual friends just go to show how far she would go to protect the ones she loves, regardless of what society claims is right and wrong.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo didn’t feel like it was just under 400 pages. This book went by so quickly for me that I’m ready to go back and read it again for closer inspection and breakdown of the plots and characters. Now that I know what I know, I want to read these characters from their beginnings and have the honor of watching them grow and learn and flourish once again. I really recommend this book just for you to open your eyes to how dirty the world is and how hard people fight to just be themselves. ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Nov 07, 2023 miz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: r-physical-owned, 2023

the plot twist felt underwhelming
4.5/5 stars ⭐️ – 11/07/2023

7 likes · Like · see review

Nov 09, 2023 April rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-time-favorites

Wow. Everything from the Old Hollywood aesthetic to Evelyn's allure to the unadulterated mystery pulled the story into this cinematic culmination of events that was, at its core, a love story. Reid was truly insane for this one. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Aug 21, 2021 madeliefje:) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: physical-copies

okay so, I saw this book on booktok like 5 times a day so obviously I bought it. I put it off for sooo long because these kinds of books are not what I normally read. Buuuuuuuutt I forced myself to start it thinking, whatever. If I don’t like it i’ll just dnf it.
Yeah let me tell you, that did not happen.
I started this and I just couldn’t put it down. Like literally, the book was stuck to my hands as if it was fastened with superglue.
But okay anyway, I LOVED IT. Absolutely adored it. Evelyn is a ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Aug 29, 2021 Paz 📚💖 rated it it was amazing

5⭐️

4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2022 kari rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

4.5
I really enjoyed this book but it put me on a MASSIVE reading slump.

4 likes · Like · see review

Jun 25, 2022 Abigail Joseph rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: library-books, 2022-fav, favs

This book is going to live in my head rent free for a VERY long time.

Evelyn Hugo is a character that I don't think I will ever be able to forget about and at times while reading I had to stop and remind myself that this is a work of fiction coz she felt like a real person. I felt like I was really reading someones biography and wow I don't think I can describe the feeling I got while reading the book, coz it is THAT good.

Also the way her life intersects with Monique's is both tragic and very hea ...more

3 likes · Like · see review