Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

122 reviews

gomhearts's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-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

this book might as well be given a 5-star review. wow. like really wow.
i found myself not being able to put the book down and honestly think i read through it a little to fast.
if not for the ending, it would be almost at a 5. honestly the ending was good. but the major plot twist i really found anticlimactic to be completely honest... but the rest of the book? gripping. phenomenal. worth the hype.
i didn't read this book last year because it was all over booktok and i was just so annoyed seeing it everywhere... but i GET it. i get the praise it's received.
i love the whole idea of a hollywood tell-all. i love generational books where we get to see her life progress so quickly but through the decades THROUGH the husbands she's married.
the biggest plot twist in the book speaking on

queerness

was not expected for me at all, which MADE the book so amazing. and I EVEN THOUGHT it was amazing before the big plot twist in the first place!
this book made me so excited to just keep reading (i texted my boyfriend a few times telling him that i don't want it to end) and then... just kept reading.

as for characters, i liked monique. i think she was a brave, daring individual. i think it's really cool that her story was eclipsed by the inner character, evelyn, and this book was basically monique's book in the book, no? monique wasn't the main character at all to me, but she made me feel like i was her? she was me? and MONIQUE'S DECISION AT THE END? brilliant. tragic. but brilliant. especially after evelyn was noted to be buried

next to harry and celia and john

i'm so... WOW. i'm very pleased by this book. :) excited for the re-read!

Content Warnings

readingizbiz's review against another edition

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challenging emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

The writing was easy to follow and almost read like fanfictions to me (not in a bad way. nothing has made me cry like some fanfics have). The beginning I was like “ugh why was this recommended I’m done with booktok” but toward the second half I liked more. It is an interesting way to talk about old Hollywood. The switch from current to Evelyn in the past was a bit annoying to follow at times on my ebook version unsure about physical copies. It wasn’t bad. Wasn’t the best thing ever. I enjoyed myself. That’s all that matters.

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kaylynnlock's review against another edition

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emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

2.75

I thought that the overall story line was enjoyable and interesting. The pacing is well done and the writing is interesting and engaging. However, I did not think that the bipoc characters were written in a manner that was authentic or compassionate, which was my main grievance with the book. The main character's own Cuban heritage seemed like a tacked on afterthought or a shallow attempt at diversifying the cast rather than an actually aspect of her identity. And the inclusion if LGBTQ+ characters almost seemed to be used as a driving factor for trauma and hardship rather than a commentary on the complexities of social expectations and love, which the author seemed to be trying to convey. It was not a poorly written book and the story line was intriguing, however, I felt that the execution and portrayal of certain groups of people was poorly done.

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breaklikeafish's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-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

3.0

It’s always been fascinating to me how things can be simultaneously true and false, how people can be good and bad all in one, how someone can love you in a way that is beautifully selfless while serving themselves ruthlessly.

This quote from the great Evelyn Hugo herself sums up how I feel about this novel. There were a lot of things I loved. However, every one of my praises seems to come with a but attached. On the other hand, every criticism I have about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is cushioned by all the good. My mediocre rating is less because I find this to be a mediocre book and more because I think it is a good book and aweful book at the same time.

From a perspective of enjoyment, I can confidently say that I hated the first half and loved the second. Evelyn is not meant to be likable, but I must at least relate to the main characters if I do not like them. Otherwise, I will not care about their lives. I did not connect with Evelyn Hugo. At all. Surprisingly, this is not due to me not being famous, ruthlessly ambitious, or bi. The reason I could not relate to her is almost entirely because she focuses so much of her life on her body and sex. Evelyn, especially early in her career, uses her body to her advantage all the time, and that is awesome for her and, like, all the power to her, but that did not make me want to read about her.

Even some of her most meaningful relationships are so intertwined with sex and desire that I found it hard to root for them. On the other hand, there are some profound non-romantic/non-sexual relationships and relationships that defy definition in the second half of the novel that I really liked. The message of those specific plot elements seems to very clearly be that romantic love does not stand above every other kind. The love of her life is not automatically the most important person; the relationship is not automatically without faults just because they love each other enough. A family is what you decide a family is and not how society defines it.

She liked women and only women. And I liked her. And so she often denied the rest of me. [...] I was a lesbian when she loved me and a straight woman when she hated me.

Though I have seen criticisms of it, I personally really liked how the topic of bisexuality was handled. It is not exactly pleasant to read about biphobia and bi-erasure. Yet it is never narratively excused, and Evelyn, at least in the present-day parts of the novel, is very firm in her demand to be represented correctly. I think the way Evelyn has to fight tooth and nail for part of her identity not to be erased is a good representation of the problems the LGBTQIA+ community still faces today. However, I do take issue with the fact that the only character explicitly labeled as bisexual cheats. While it fits the story, it also perpetuates a harmful stereotype.

One other big problem I had was the way race was handled. I suggest you check out some explanations by POC reviewers if you are interested since I do not want to claim any authority on that. My personal experience basically boils down to it making me feel icky. Again, since this book cannot just be black-and-white in literally any aspect, I want to point out that I think it is great that there were characters of color; I do not like how especially the experience of a Cuban-American woman in Hollywood was handled.

The narrative style flip-flopped between not my cup of tea and me highlighting quotes because I loved them so much, so I do not know what to tell you about that. I guess the clickbait-y nature of the writing (You would not believe what happened the week after!) can be interpreted as a stylistic choice given that the narrator is a journalist who, if I remember correctly, used to write gossip columns. However, some plot points would have hit harder if their meaningfulness was not textually overexplained. Also, I dislike multiple POVs in first-person on the best day.

In conclusion, I hated almost every character, including both narrators, almost DNF-ed the book every few chapters in the first half, rolled my eyes through too many sex scenes, and still somehow fell in love with the book in the end. Do not ask me if I recommend it. I do not know. At the very least The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo succeeded in giving me lots of conflicting feelings, which I suppose is how Monique feels about Evelyn in the end.

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madalina0_0's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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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consistentlyinconsistent's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

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dbscott1's review against another edition

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slow-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

3.0

I wanted so badly to love this book. I heard so many good things about it. But I just couldn’t get into it. It wasn’t anything in particular about it. I just couldn’t connect. I kept finding myself just wanting more out of it and not in a good way. Left me feeling very underwhelmed.

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