Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

130 reviews

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

dark emotional lighthearted mysterious sad 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

This is my third book by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and a book I have had on my physical TBR for years. I finally got the push to pick it up because it is BookswithCholoe's Patreon book club pick for the month of June, and all I have to say is: why did it take me so long to pick up this book?!?
"The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" follows Monique, a young woman who is trying to make a name for herself in the journalism world. Evelyn Hugo is arguably the biggest Hollywood star of her time, and now, in her elderly years she is ready to share her life story, but only if Monique is willing to write it. Now, Monique is tasked with writing the most sought-after story: who was Evelyn Hugo and who was the greatest love of her life?
This novel was impeccably written and paced perfectly. We got all of Evelyn's life story, but it was never too much or too little. Evelyn's story is entirely intoxicating while still being devastating. Evelyn had a very tough life, but she always seemed to push through and make herself and her image better from the experience. What I found most interesting was how Evelyn used marriage as a means to propel herself forward in Hollywood. Although not all of her marriages were purely strategy, it was amazing how she used each marriage and subsequent separation to form her narrative and propel her further into the spot life. I do not doubt that this is something that happens in Hollywood, it was a bit of a jarring plot point for someone who believes in a purer marriage ideal. 
Another aspect of this book that I really enjoyed seeing was the LGBTQ+ representation. Being out, especially in Hollywood, during the early to mid 1900's was like a death sentence to your career. It is a heartbreaking, but unfortunate truth of our world's history. Seeing Evelyn and those around her navigate this was infuriating, because it should not be this way! But I also felt it was a very realistic portrayal. 
This is by far new favorite Taylor Jenkins Reid book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

noahwoah's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Car accident

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Cancer, Child death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Outing

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexism, Suicide, Abortion, and Toxic friendship

dtierra's review against another edition

emotional sad tense 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

4.75

Wow…this book. Definitely one of my favorites I’ve read in a long time. Evelyn is an incredibly complex character. The book makes that clear and wow, do they deliver on that claim. At the beginning of the book, I struggled to understand the narrator and her importance but was absolutely sold by the end. This book is beautiful and heartbreaking and wonderful. I don’t know if calling it a romance encapsulates the book. It’s absolutely a sapphic story but it’s about love, grief, loss, pride, and pain as well. Would highly recommend , lives up to the hype! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Abortion, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Infertility, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, and Pregnancy

readwithria's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a book that will stay with me for years to come.

*spoilers ahead, read with caution*

This book sets you up to believe that it’s a book about the men Evelyn Hugo married. This book couldn’t be any less about men. This book isn’t even really about romantic love. This book is about choosing your family, and what you’ll do for them. This book is about a woman who used every resource at her disposal and then some to get what she wants. This book is about deep friendship and how love can sometimes be a choice. You can choose to love someone even when it gets hard, even when they make it hard to love them, even when the circumstances are wild. You can choose how to express your love. You can choose to love quietly, or loudly, or publicly, or privately, or passionately, or unconditionally.

Love is a force to be reckoned with. Evelyn Hugo does a lot of reckoning. 5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Car accident, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Drug use, Infidelity, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Suicide, Terminal illness, Abortion, and Pregnancy

prism_'s review against another edition

reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia and Homophobia

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Sexism, and Suicide

jessicax941's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Police brutality, Abortion, and Toxic friendship

namzuru's review against another edition

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

5.0

oh my god. i don’t know what to say about this book. i’m writing this almost 2 weeks after reading this book bc i just needed a breather. this book was so fucking good. the writing. the pacing. the RELATIONSHIPS. THE FUCKING ENDING.

i just have to talk about evelyn and celia

FUCKING SAPPHICS WLW GAY im in love with them and their relationship. you don’t understand how much joy it gave me to read about their relationship. even though parts of it was a little rough, i was so obsessed with how happy they ultimately were together. with celia being biphobic to evelyn at several parts throughout the book but then at the end apologizing for the harm of her saying that 🥺🥺. just them enjoying each others company  throughout the book was just so heart warming 🥺🥺.

evelyn and harry were literally the best.

they were the family for each other since the beginning. though their relationship was not romantic, it was so deep and they truly cared for each other. platonic relationships are my absolute favourite in books and this one really was so well written. when harry died i just couldn’t believe it. i felt the guilt evelyn was feeling. how awful the whole situation was. they cared for each other and their daughter until they very end.

Ending:

wow all i can say was i didn’t expect that at all. wow. when evelyn told said her father was the one she left to die in that car. just wow. i had to put my book down. i couldn’t believe what i just read. how heartbreaking this was for monique. but i really enjoyed the letter that was written to harry from her father. it really gave insight to a seemingly not important character that was mentioned everyone and end. how he was willing to give up his true love for his family who he no doubt loved. wow this book was just written soooo well. every little detail was thought out. and finally the end of the book where monique suspects evelyn is going to kill herself. and how she lets it happen. and honestly i might’ve done the same thing. evelyn had lost everyone in her life. it was just her. she had done so much in her life. and she just wanted to see everyone she loved again.

I love that evelyn was written as a character who showed all her true colours. she did what she did to protect herself and those she loved. though sometimes maybe it wasn’t the best choice, she truly did it with the best intentions. and i love that about her.


my favourite moment:

THE FUKCING OSCAR SCENE HER AT HOME WATCHING AND THEN SHE WINS AND SHE FUCKING KISSES THE TV AND CHIPS HER TOOTH SHES SO GAY I LOVE IT AND WHAT MADE THIS MOMENT EVEN BETTER WAS WHEN LATER WHEN THEY DIDNT TALK TO EACHOTHER FOR LIKE 5 YEARS AND CELIA WINS ANOTHER OSCAR AND IN HER FUCKING SPEECH SHE SAYS TRY NOT TO CHIP YOUR TOOTH ON THE TV THIS TIME SKDHJSJFKDKSKS YOU CANT DO THAT TO ME

favourite quotes:

“And just as she was about to leave the mircophone, she said 'And to anyone tempted to kiss the TV tonight, please don't chip your tooth.” - 🥰🥺🥰❤️🥺❤️ :’)

“I spent half my time loving her and the other half hiding how much i loved her”

“She liked to ignore the fact that I had made love to men and enjoyed it. She liked to ignore it until the very moment she decided to be threatened by it. That seemed to be her pattern. I was a lesbian when she loved me and a straight woman when she hated me.”

“No … because they are just husbands. I am Evelyn Hugo. And anyways, I think once people know the truth, they will be much more interested in my wife.”

“It occurs to me that it is the very thing that made her that will be the thing to finally take her down”

taylor swift songs that embody this book:

- the lucky one - obviously 🙄 
- dress
- dancing with our hands tied 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Body shaming, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Grief, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Racism, Blood, Car accident, and Classism

xriekex's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad 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

4.25

Did not like Evelyn at first, which is never nice for a main character. Did like her at the end either, but understood why, so it was fine. Insanely good writing, the change of perspectives was really nice! The ending was a bit foreseeable near the last third of the book, but I think that is fine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Homophobia, Racism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Car accident, Abortion, and Death of parent

ginadapooh'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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

ceciliafurzi's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol