Reviews tagging 'Incest'

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

35 reviews

jennifermoyas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Lovely book that truly explores the world it is in. I have a complicated relationship with the characters, especially Evelyn and I think that truly reflects on what a good writer TJR is. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Body shaming, Cancer, Classism, Domestic abuse, Death, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Death of parent, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

laurenleigh's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This lived up to the hype! I loved an Old Hollywood tale that was also conscious of class, gender, race, and sexuality. It makes me wonder about the celebrity stories we don’t hear. When we’re inundated with information about certain stars, we might think we must know everything about them, but there’s of course a private life behind every public persona. And this is true for us regular folk now too, as social media elevates just about anyone to a minuscule level of stardom. This novel reminds me that privacy is not necessarily a moral failing. Some may call it hiding your true self, and perhaps there’s an element of that, but we’re allowed to hold on to what little privacy we have left in this age. I could go into more detail about how this relates to the plot here, but I don’t want to give anything away! You should just go read it now and then talk to me about it. 🤓

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Sexism

Moderate: Abortion, Incest, Blood, Terminal illness, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Infidelity, and Death

krxshan's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book had me hooked, and I mean really really hooked. Genuinely couldn’t
put it down. Spent my time wondering throughout the day what would happen next. The author did so well with this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Homophobia, and Infidelity

Minor: Incest, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Alcoholism

Queer, Celebrity, Hollywood, Famous,

Lesbian

redcephei's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It had me gripped from start to finish. I could not put it down. The ending felt a little rushed. It portrayed the complexities of every character wonderfully. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Homophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Biphobia, Cancer, Child death, Homophobia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Drug use, Abortion, Drug abuse, Incest, and Miscarriage

illgiveyouahint's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Biphobia

Minor: Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexism, Racism, Pregnancy, Outing, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Lesbophobia, Infidelity, Infertility, Incest, Hate crime, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Drug abuse, Child death, Car accident, Cancer, Body shaming, Blood, and Alcoholism

paperback_moon's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide, Incest, and Miscarriage

jellyf8r's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

absolutely adored this book. got emotionally attached to harry teehee 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Lesbophobia, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abortion, Blood, Car accident, Homophobia, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Suicide

Minor: Drug use

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I enjoyed Malibu Rising a lot so I picked up The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo when I heard good reviews about it. 

 

 

Plot:

This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I preferred reading about Evelyn’s life more than the plotline involving Monique interviewing Evelyn. I can understand why Reid made the choice, but the book hypes up the “mystery” of why Evelyn chose Monique to interview her a bit too much. Evelyn’s story dominates the book to such an extent that Monique was neglected as a character.  Overall, I felt this book worked more as a character study. 

 

Characters:

True to form, Reid excellently portrays her main characters as deeply human. Each character is layered, flawed, complex, and yet consistent enough to be believable. Evelyn Hugo as a character is so masterfully written that it is hard to believe she is not a real person. However, I thought Monique’s character fell a bit flat simply because she was not a large part of the story. To me, it felt like she existed more in-service to fleshing out Hugo as a character than as a character in her own right. 

 

Setting:

Much like Malibu Rising, Reid gives enough detail to form a sort of hazy picture of places, but I simply created settings based on my own idea of what Hollywood looks like. As I’ve never been to California, much of how I envisioned the setting was probably not accurate. In The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the characters shine so brightly that the setting fades into the background. Personally, I think the book would have been better with more descriptions of the settings.

 

Themes:

This book is a wonderful exploration of fame, power, queerness, morality, and gender. Reid skillfully strips these themes down to show that behind broad philosophies and assumptions about how the world works (or should work) are flawed people existing to navigate the world the best that they can.

 

Writing Style:

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s prose is so natural and digestible that I almost forgot I was reading. If she worked on her descriptive language a bit more, it would be like watching a movie. 

 

Conclusion:

There is a reason that this book is highly recommended on BookTube and BookTok. It’s incredibly well-written and the characters are spectacular. 

 

Other Points:

·      I think the book would have been better if it had just told Evelyn Hugo’s life story without the interviewing process OR if it had spent more time exploring Monique’s story and character. 

·     

The plot twist at the end felt a bit gratuitous and made me a little uncomfortable. It served to showcase Evelyn’s contradictions and gray morality, but I felt that the book had already conveyed those attributes. This made Monique as a character seem to service Hugo.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Misogyny

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death, Terminal illness, and Car accident

Minor: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Racism

aleesquer's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cancer, Car accident, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Outing

Moderate: Abortion, Death of parent, Incest, Sexual violence, and Pedophilia

oliviafaye's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Misogyny

Minor: Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicide, and Terminal illness