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

This was the first book I read to get myself back into reading. I’d been meaning to read it for the longest time because of the hype all over the internet from lesbians who love it. It sat in my room collecting dust but once I decided I wanted to get back into reading, it was the first of my neglected books I picked up. And I finished it in 24 hours.

I loved it. I loved the way the book was formatted, jumping between Monique and Evelyn’s perspective. Going back and forth from Monique’s personal life to Evelyn and Monique speaking to just flashing back to the point in Evelyn’s life she was speaking about.

I also really enjoyed how the book was cut into parts by each of the seven husbands, each husband representing a particular phase in Evelyn’s life. All those phases being so different and each marriage being for such different reasons.

Every single character had purpose and none of the characters felt flat to me. Everyone had a reason for being. Each character is also very complex, all flawed in their own ways (some a lot more than others), which I appreciated.

I did not expect the reason why Evelyn had specifically chosen Monique to be the author of her biography and I was genuinely surprised by the reveal and valued the true and tragic connection between them.

I also adore the title being “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” when the main love story was Evelyn and Celia, the greatest love in Evelyn’s life was a woman. Her wife. I think this book is a beautiful historical fiction sapphic love story and I finally understand the hype around it.

“I think once people know the truth, they will be much more interested in my wife.”

Content Warnings

particledamage's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

wackzo's review against another edition

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emotional informative tense slow-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

5.0

Content Warnings

marslotus's review against another edition

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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

4.25

While I will admit this was a page-turner of a book, the writing styles of Monique's perspective versus Eveyin's never felt harmonial to me. That is to say I found myself drawn in when reading about Evelyn and unintentionally annoyed at Monique's character (until the ending of course).

She's introduced as honest and forthcoming, but is often presumptuous when speaking to Evelyn. It almost feels like two different people wrote the book, as I felt talked down to when explained bisexuality and LGBTQ+ issues by Monique's perspective. I would expect this from a teen novel, not from this story.

But I can't deny my eyes watering at least twice near the end of the book. This is a good story, maybe my personal preference is just getting in the way of fuly enjoying that. I didn't feel it had a strong start, but I'm glad it got better the farther along I read.

Content Warnings

livvmarks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

Content Warnings

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