Reviews tagging 'Pedophilia'

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

178 reviews

chronicacademia's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Because I picked this book unaware, and I worry others might too, I think it’s so important to put this out into the world: this book grossly glorifies suicide.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Ableism, Car accident, Death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Mental illness, Blood, Cancer, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Abortion, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism

kappafrog's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I zoomed through this book. I was really compelled to find out all its secrets. But now that I'm done, I'm not sure how o feel about it. The ending should have had more to it after a major revelation late in the book. The handling of race was clumsy. But I loved the fictionalization of a situation many in Hollywood found themselves in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexism, Blood, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Child abuse, Cursing, Grief, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Car accident, Classism, Body shaming, and Homophobia

Moderate: Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Racism, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Pregnancy, Outing, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Alcohol, Addiction, Alcoholism, Abortion, Cancer, Injury/Injury detail, and Miscarriage

Minor: Sexual violence, Hate crime, Incest, and Rape

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Car accident, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Biphobia, Classism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Cancer, Outing, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Suicide, Alcohol, Infidelity, Racism, Violence, Medical content, and Sexual content

Minor: Miscarriage, Abortion, Fatphobia, Child abuse, Drug use, Pregnancy, and Transphobia

mirandyli's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

1.5

Do you want to read about the completely unrelatable struggles of famous white lesbian/bisexual millionaires? Do you want to read about the struggles people of color face, from the POV of a white author? If so, this is the book for you. 

Evelyn is so ashamed of her identities, to the point of changing her name and dying her hair blonde to hide the fact that she's Cuban, and eloping with a man to show the press she isn't in a relationship with Celia. She manipulates everyone around her and is not afraid to admit it. She does anything she can to be on top. As a result, she has millions of dollars but almost no friends, and she doesn't give a cent back to people like her until Harry and Celia decide to donate anonymously to the gay rights movement. She leaves her abusive husband and doesn't warn his next wife, despite knowing that she is being abused. Then she does a movie with him to boost his career.

You can tell this was written by a very privileged white woman. "Brilliant, Kindhearted, Tortured Harry Cameron???" Excuse me, but he isn't that kindhearted considering he drunkenly killed Monique's dad! And Evelyn covers it up - a white woman covering up the murder of a Black man to protect his white murderer. And Evelyn claims to think that giving Monique the rights to her life story is not her trying to make up for that, but because she is wrapping up all her loose ends before she dies. Evelyn barely shows any remorse for it, and Monique forgives her. Excuse me what??? In the end Monique describes Evelyn as "complicated." She is not complicated. She is self-serving and evil.

It seems like Evelyn and Monique were just characters created for diversity points. They are so unrealistically written.  Monique's biracial struggles are very obviously written by a white person. She marries a white man and feels secure that he'll never consider her "Black enough." Lmao what??? Evelyn even encourages Monique to do whatever it takes to get to the top. This is not what solidarity looks like. 

I relate to the struggle of being closeted. I even relate to the second-gen struggle of being ashamed of one's heritage. But if I'm gonna read a book written about these struggles, especially one written by a white woman, I would rather read about someone who doesn't feel shame about who they are. I definitely don't want to read a book about a person of color stepping on the backs of other people of color to get to the top.

I probably would have stopped reading this but I forced myself to finish it because it was on hold at the library. I honestly don't get the hype. This book was unrealistic at best and repugnantly offensive at worst. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Death, Biphobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Abortion, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Murder, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Lesbophobia, Death of parent, and Sexism

c_e_w's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Miscarriage, Abortion, and Body shaming

axel_p's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-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

5.0

I am an Evelyn Hugo apologist. I wish I could marry Harry.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Domestic abuse, Cancer, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Car accident, Violence, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Child death, Blood, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Death, Biphobia, Terminal illness, Addiction, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Abortion, Outing, Misogyny, Grief, Alcoholism, and Alcohol

jrozin's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

I finished this book in 3 days and I didn’t ever want to put it down! I loved how the narrative was told,  the characters were compelling, and the writing style was easy and had a nice flow to it. The plot twist at the end was well executed but I felt like it wasn’t necessary.   

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness, Car accident, Alcoholism, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Cancer, Racism, and Sexual content

Minor: Biphobia, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia

iwephay's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Car accident, Suicide, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Cursing, and Death

amy_howard28's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed Evelyn’s point of view throughout the book, but didn’t get on with Monique’s parts in the beginning, I eventually saw how it connected together but I just didn’t find those breaks in the story that interesting. Very good book club book, there are questions at the back to discuss too! I was slightly suprised at how rude Celia could be at times but I guess that demonstrated how she was as flawed as Evelyn even if she didn’t think so. It also show another side to the Georgia Peach, the friendly, cute, girl next door neighbour personality painted by the media.
Very interesting read too, to see the “Golden Era” of Hollywood through Evelyn. I would definitely recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, Classism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Suicide, Biphobia, Car accident, Alcohol, Death of parent, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Death, Lesbophobia, Cancer, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Abortion and Pedophilia

particledamage's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

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

0.75

I feel like I am actively going insane.

Seeing good reviews for this books feels like I am on another planet.

This book is genuinely dreadful. It is both rushed and a slog. It is both biphobic and bisexual, racially inclusive and racist, about misogyny and sexist. It's preachy but only ever about like... basic decency things we all agree about. Finding out the author is straight and white clarified the book for me, truly felt like someone had just lovingly pried open my third eye so I could see the truth of the matter. 

I honestly don't even think I can neatly summarize all of my complaints here. I sent myself emails with incoherent notes to myself about every new thing that set me off--her "soulmate" being emotionally abusive in patterns identically to her physically abusive spouse. The weird bullying about coming out as if was a CW show handling its first gay plotline and not about two grown women in the 50s and 60s. The weird contrived bit where whenever someone needed to get exposed for something, everyone would suddenly become letter-writers so that the letters could be found. The plot twist that was so insanely stupid I dropped the book.

The way that not only did the book pause to go on diatribes to know that terms like "whore" are bad but also spent an entire chapter knowing every single historical event that has happened, Evelyn was on the right side of it. She's complicated and obsessed with herself and money and glory but don't worry, she was right about Vietnam and treats her hired help well.

God, her character was repugnant but mostly in a dull way. Every character in this story was uninteresting, heinous, or both. Even Harry gets ruined in the end and he was the single enjoyable character the entire way through.

Just... what an awful experience. I'm speechless. 

Read it just in a day though, so at least there's that.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Death, Cursing, Biphobia, Abortion, Sexism, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Car accident, Cancer, Outing, Physical abuse, Incest, Homophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Classism, Toxic relationship, Racism, Pedophilia, Infidelity, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Eating disorder, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy