Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

1061 reviews

mmoranag's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Grief, Suicide, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexual content, Death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Car accident, and Domestic abuse

1jessicabearx's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

"Evelyn always leaves you hoping you’ll get just a little bit more. And she always denies you."

This book broke my heart and mended it at the same time. The character arcs and relationships were gripping and shocking and beautiful. Harry Cameron you have my absolute heart. 

There were lots of twists and turns, some expected and some completely out of the blue.
There were a few chapters that felt a little slow so that's what dropped this down to a 4 star - but looking back, all was necessary and made perfect sense at the end. 

I’ve learnt so much from this story, I think a little part of me has changed because of this story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Racism, and Pregnancy

maritareads's review

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

It felt like Carrie Soto was a copy of Evelyn, but why does this writer keep writing about white latin women and pretending the world sees them as brown?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Cancer, Domestic abuse, and Car accident

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Lesbophobia, Alcoholism, and Biphobia

Minor: Suicide, Drug abuse, and Abortion

lulusreads's review against another edition

emotional inspiring 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Car accident

Moderate: Misogyny, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Homophobia, Outing, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Pregnancy, and Biphobia

bellasierra's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Biphobia, Car accident, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia

Moderate: Sexual content, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, Abortion, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Minor: Outing and Suicide

astrangewind's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.5

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo tells an incredibly queer story from what seems like an incredibly heterosexual premise, which is something I can totally get behind. In fact, I was quite surprised by how gay this book turned out to be. Despite that, though, it was sad, and I couldn't stop reading once the pace picked up. Each husband had a unique flair and purpose in Evelyn's scandalous life, and the sections are executed well.

Despite liking the plot, I liked neither Monique nor Evelyn. I think Evelyn isn't meant to be a likable character; she herself even claims she's a bad person to Monique's face. That's the whole point of the book. She's beautiful, and cruel, and generous, and loving. All of these things at once. However, Monique was probably meant to be likable, but I found her mostly annoying, and her own story much less compelling than Evelyn's.

I am happy that this book is queer, and I'm happy that it's not just about being queer during puberty, as a lot of books with queer characters are. It's about being queer in Hollywood in the late 20th century, dodging the media and dealing with the AIDS crisis. That said, it bugs me that the only characters who treat Evelyn with any kind of respect are queer.

When Evelyn first meets Harry, she makes a note of it that he doesn't stare at her breasts, like all the other men do. It seems unfair for the one man to treat her like a human instead of an object only does so because he doesn't like women. Similarly, it feels unfair that the only woman who treats her with respect happens to be in love with her. Queer people can have platonic friendships with non-queer people.

Also, every mention of

Evelyn's

bisexuality reads like two people talking back and forth on a Tumblr post; it's over-explained and stilted, like Reid is afraid to offend bisexuals. It's fine, Taylor, I promise, to not repeatedly explain that bisexuality is liking men and women (Gasp!). Truth be told, though, that's my main gripe with Seven Husbands, and it's not that bad. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Pedophilia

Minor: Drug use, Car accident, and Suicide

moltedmilk's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective 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

Beautiful story, I read this really fast and I am usually a slow reader. I loved how complex Evelyn’s character is. Such a good book 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Abortion, Cancer, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Terminal illness, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, and Alcohol

pianokeys's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Cursing, Miscarriage, Rape, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Addiction, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Car accident, Sexual assault, Death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Bullying, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Physical abuse, Outing, Death of parent, Mental illness, Abortion, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

bookedandbusy's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? No

5.0

This book was truly phenomenal. From the start I knew I was in for an incredible story, and it was delivered! This was a devastating but hopeful story, and I was so immersed in the story and characters and relationships that when I closed the book, I felt like I left a small part of myself behind. The last 50 or so pages had me sobbing and wishing the best for the characters. I loved this book.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Biphobia, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Blood and Miscarriage

evelynnnn33333's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Cancer, Grief, and Death of parent