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4.45 AVERAGE
4.45 AVERAGE
Um livro se torna meu favorito quando eu o termino e fico pensando nele por dias. E com esse livro foi assim, terminei a três dias e penso nele toda hora.
O que mais gostei na Evelyn foi o fato de ser uma protagonista humana, que erra e acerta, manipula para atingir seus objetivos e não fica nenhum um pouco arrependida disso. Não tem aquele perfeitismo exagerado de muitas protagonistas por ai.
Terminei o livro com a sensação que Evelyn realmente existiu, que se eu procurasse pelos filmes dela no google iria encontrar.
Uma das coisas mais lindas desse livro sem duvida é a amizade do Harry com a Evelyn, o companheirismo deles e o amor que sentiam um pelo outro era muito lindo.
Gostei muito como ao longo do livro a Monique vai evoluindo através da história da Evelyn.
[CONTEM SPOILER]
Uma personagem que não me encantou muito foi a Celia, confesso que só senti um pouco de empatia por ela na ultima parte do livro. Em diversos momentos achei ela extremamente injusta e ate mesmo maldosa com a Evelyn, parecia que em todos os momentos que sempre que a Evelyn mostrava um defeito a Celia ia embora. Também não gostei muito do fato da Celia as vezes invalidar a sexualidade da Evelyn. Outro ponto que me chamou atenção também foi que a Celia nunca gostava dos planos da Evelyn de protege-las, mas quando isso foi conveniente para ela (no final do livro) ela mesma criou um plano para esconde-las da mídia.
Achei o final extremamente triste, Evelyn perdeu todos que amava.
O que mais gostei na Evelyn foi o fato de ser uma protagonista humana, que erra e acerta, manipula para atingir seus objetivos e não fica nenhum um pouco arrependida disso. Não tem aquele perfeitismo exagerado de muitas protagonistas por ai.
Terminei o livro com a sensação que Evelyn realmente existiu, que se eu procurasse pelos filmes dela no google iria encontrar.
Uma das coisas mais lindas desse livro sem duvida é a amizade do Harry com a Evelyn, o companheirismo deles e o amor que sentiam um pelo outro era muito lindo.
Gostei muito como ao longo do livro a Monique vai evoluindo através da história da Evelyn.
[CONTEM SPOILER]
Uma personagem que não me encantou muito foi a Celia, confesso que só senti um pouco de empatia por ela na ultima parte do livro. Em diversos momentos achei ela extremamente injusta e ate mesmo maldosa com a Evelyn, parecia que em todos os momentos que sempre que a Evelyn mostrava um defeito a Celia ia embora. Também não gostei muito do fato da Celia as vezes invalidar a sexualidade da Evelyn. Outro ponto que me chamou atenção também foi que a Celia nunca gostava dos planos da Evelyn de protege-las, mas quando isso foi conveniente para ela (no final do livro) ela mesma criou um plano para esconde-las da mídia.
Achei o final extremamente triste, Evelyn perdeu todos que amava.
i've never read a character who has felt more real to me than evelyn hugo. i think taylor jenkins reid did a phenomenal job bringing her to life, giving her flaws upon flaws, making her believable, and making me root for her till the end. every writer in the world should read this book and use evelyn's characterisation as the goal to reach
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
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:
Yes
honestly this was around a 3.5 to me. i flew through this and enjoyed the story as it played out in my head like a limited edition netflix series, but some writing choices were definitely…choices. all in all i would love to see an on screen adaptation of this someday.
fast-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
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
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
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
SPOILERS AHEAD
The thing I loved the most were the queer platonic relationships (even tho they didn't have this name), just in general the different ways you can love someone and still be just as valid as romantic love I really adored. I liked the twist at the end, how Monique tied together with the story, I didn't predict it and it was neat even tho it doesn't really let us have proper time with her to see her reaction I think. I liked that the whole point was where it all started with Evelyn having an awful dad and wanting to let Monique know hers loved her. I liked that little bit at the end about Monique's dad where it said it didn't matter his sexuality, maybe he wad gay or bisexual but what mattered is that he loved his wife and daughter. The other "twist" was a rather predictable and it didn't have the impact they hoped it would have. This is a very difficult book to judge because it wants to pass as someone's real memoir. I could say "Henry's death happened out of nowhere" and even tho it did someone could reply "that was just her life, things like this happen in real life" but since it's still a book written by an author I'm going to treat it as such.
I didn't really care for Monique up until the big reveal and it was late by then. I think her point in the story was to counter act points the reader could have about the story, especially the bisexuality bit. I'm queer myself but even I thought it was maybe too literal of an explanation? And this is just the first that comes to mind, there are many bits where we understand what the book is trying to say by the action of the characters alone, then either narrator-Evelyn or character-Evelyn spell it out for us. Ironically, she kept telling Monique how she hoped she'd capture the many shades of her characters, how she could be able to clearly make the points across. Many times I found myself wishing I was reading Monique's book instead of Evelyn's story.
The writing style could be kinda cheesy, so cheesy that sometimes even the narrator in the audiobook (yes i listened to the book) seemed cheesy spelling them out, I honestly think reading the book instead of listening to it might have knocked another star off. I really enjoyed listening to it on my daily walk, really eager to continue in fact! But it was that morbid curiosity of watching a train derail rather than pure enjoyment, still, it didn't bore me like many other books so there's that.
The main relationship didn't really do it for me, mainly because we really mostly see them at their worst up until the wedding right before one of them dies. This whole book is just a collection of Evelyn worst memories, we barely get a nice moment in all of this. When there is a nice time it usually gets talked like a period of time i think there's a part that literally goes (not literally) like this "for two months we lived in bliss doing this and that then i ruined it all" and it focusses on the bad episode and the fight. I get that it needs to skip over the juicy bits in order to get to let us see all these years but really give me a reason to see the main couple together other than "omg they are women and it's forbidden and they are hot and sexy and their sexualities align so they can screw each other" like yes it talks about how they grew close as friends but my brother in christ please show me one nice episode before you make them undress each other please.
I also think 7 husbands is a little much, I think you could have cut the french guy without much ripercussions. I think he was just there to validate Evelyn sexuality as a bisexual woman capable of loving men and that's ok, they just didn't really give us a reason for her to love him? Other than having a good professional chemistry? She literally falls out of love during their honeymoon... idk. I'm not invalidating her sexuality, she IS a bisexual woman. It just felt weird how the book really wanted to sell us on it? Like the book itself doesn't quite believe us and it realized that her great love was a woman and up until now she only really loved (romantically and sexually) just one fo her husbands, and she felt in love with him because, and I quote "he treated me like a person" which sounds to me like the rightful reaction of a young girl meeting the only men who doesn't sexualize her on sight. I think the book realized that and thought "oh shit we need to give her another man to love" and thus the french guy who was really quite useless when we talk about husbands. Or maybe they really liked how the number seven sounded idk.
Last thing about Evelyn bisexuality i swear.. she kept going on and on about how she was bisexual because she had loved men AND had find men sexually attractive even without love involved. Her attraction to men is both romantic and sexual. While she only ever loves women, in this case, Celia. She said she thought about trying with other women but they just weren't Celia. That's a totally fine bisexuality, what bothered me is how she seemed to need to love women to have sex with them while she could have meaningless but pleasurable sex with men. That's not a critique on her specific type of bisexuality as a critique on how the book treats men and women and lgbt people. All men are pigs and only want one thing from her unless they're gay, in that case they are handsome and nice. All women are mean and spiteful unless they're lesbians, or rather, unless they're Celia because we never see another lgbt woman, that would have honestly been nice, maybe even challenge Evelyn with another woman whom she was sexually compatible, even just someone to make her feel less alone in her struggle? But don't worry i get it, the struggle IS the point.
I also liked that Evelyn doesn't treat her struggles as something everyone should do. It would have been so easy for her to just "kids these day have it so easy" but no, she actively wants to make life better for those after her that's nice. Her daughter wasn't developed enough imo. She was so important to her but we barely know her, especially when she's doing better after her dad's death.
Idk it was an interesting trainwreck but a trainwreck nonetheless. It's a little late to use those terms, i apologize to everyone for the war flashbacks, but Evelyn felt a little mary-sueish at times? She's hot, she's bisexual but only for ONE woman, she's extremely talented, she's sexy and no man can resist her, if they do, they're gay. Yes i know i'm undermining the whole point of the book, that she was complex and made to believe her biggest talent was being hot because that's what society told her, and to not put her in a box, but she really felt to me like a straight woman's (i have no idea if the author is straight, if not, her target was surely straight women) daring forbitten romance fantasy.
I didn't like how it painted Celia, her whole romance (and evelyn bisexuality tbh) felt gimicky.. the whole build up to know who the love of her life is. It's almost like tha book wants to catch you by surprise like "AH! I bet you thought she was talking about a man didn't you?". At times i felt like she was too much leaning toward a lesbian stereotype? With her not wanting kids and objectifying Evelyn and essentially being entranced by her tits to the point they ended discussions at times. I didn't like that she was eager to fight for her freedom and she as kinda painted in the wrong for that? Evelyn was also in the wrong, they both were wrong and right at the same time even when it was about Evelyn fucking that guy and getting pregnant or Evelyn acting a sex scene and not telling Celia before it was too late, but for some reason instead of making the argument relatable it made them annoying? Maybe because we had very little time with these characters aside arguments and sex. Their whole conflicts stemmed from the insecurity that one of them liked men and the other didn't, and it really rubbed me the wrong way. This whole lesbian vs bisexual woman felt so unneccessary and not treated with the nuance the argument deserved. I really didn't liked that the conflict stemmed from not being "queer in the right way" or not being "open minded enough". They could have had the whole "you slept with another guy that gotten you pregnant" or "you partecipated in a very graphic sex scene with another person" without making it all about their sexuality. They could have just argued on the basis of each others boundaries but somehow this always ended up being about sexuality. Again, I get that's the whole point of the book, to explore Evelyn bisexuality, just saying it could have explored it without putting it against Celia's like it was a compare and contrast. Those parts felt.. almost designed to spark discourse online idk maybe it's just me. Maybe this book helped someone figure out their sexuality, maybe it made a straight woman who picked it up expecting a daring straight love story, to be amazed, to discover something that she would have never thought to be possible, and if that, good for her! But for me, navigating my queer identity for more than ten years, it felt like it barely scratched the surface of what being queer really is.
A lot of things of what I've said could be counter acted with "it's Evelyn who's narrating", "it's her pov", "it's Evelyn unfiltered thoughts", "of course all the men are pigs she saw them that way, of course Celia was in the wrong, she thought so at the time, ecc" then I bring back my previous point, that being: I would have rather have read Monique rendition, maybe then many points could have been clearer.
3 stars because I didn't hated it, it made me roll my eyes many times but i was really eager to know what came next and ultimately it left me a lot to think while i read it and when i finished it so, bravo.
I'd really like to hear a bisexual woman thoughts on this book, so I'll go and do that now.
The thing I loved the most were the queer platonic relationships (even tho they didn't have this name), just in general the different ways you can love someone and still be just as valid as romantic love I really adored. I liked the twist at the end, how Monique tied together with the story, I didn't predict it and it was neat even tho it doesn't really let us have proper time with her to see her reaction I think. I liked that the whole point was where it all started with Evelyn having an awful dad and wanting to let Monique know hers loved her. I liked that little bit at the end about Monique's dad where it said it didn't matter his sexuality, maybe he wad gay or bisexual but what mattered is that he loved his wife and daughter. The other "twist" was a rather predictable and it didn't have the impact they hoped it would have. This is a very difficult book to judge because it wants to pass as someone's real memoir. I could say "Henry's death happened out of nowhere" and even tho it did someone could reply "that was just her life, things like this happen in real life" but since it's still a book written by an author I'm going to treat it as such.
I didn't really care for Monique up until the big reveal and it was late by then. I think her point in the story was to counter act points the reader could have about the story, especially the bisexuality bit. I'm queer myself but even I thought it was maybe too literal of an explanation? And this is just the first that comes to mind, there are many bits where we understand what the book is trying to say by the action of the characters alone, then either narrator-Evelyn or character-Evelyn spell it out for us. Ironically, she kept telling Monique how she hoped she'd capture the many shades of her characters, how she could be able to clearly make the points across. Many times I found myself wishing I was reading Monique's book instead of Evelyn's story.
The writing style could be kinda cheesy, so cheesy that sometimes even the narrator in the audiobook (yes i listened to the book) seemed cheesy spelling them out, I honestly think reading the book instead of listening to it might have knocked another star off. I really enjoyed listening to it on my daily walk, really eager to continue in fact! But it was that morbid curiosity of watching a train derail rather than pure enjoyment, still, it didn't bore me like many other books so there's that.
The main relationship didn't really do it for me, mainly because we really mostly see them at their worst up until the wedding right before one of them dies. This whole book is just a collection of Evelyn worst memories, we barely get a nice moment in all of this. When there is a nice time it usually gets talked like a period of time i think there's a part that literally goes (not literally) like this "for two months we lived in bliss doing this and that then i ruined it all" and it focusses on the bad episode and the fight. I get that it needs to skip over the juicy bits in order to get to let us see all these years but really give me a reason to see the main couple together other than "omg they are women and it's forbidden and they are hot and sexy and their sexualities align so they can screw each other" like yes it talks about how they grew close as friends but my brother in christ please show me one nice episode before you make them undress each other please.
I also think 7 husbands is a little much, I think you could have cut the french guy without much ripercussions. I think he was just there to validate Evelyn sexuality as a bisexual woman capable of loving men and that's ok, they just didn't really give us a reason for her to love him? Other than having a good professional chemistry? She literally falls out of love during their honeymoon... idk. I'm not invalidating her sexuality, she IS a bisexual woman. It just felt weird how the book really wanted to sell us on it? Like the book itself doesn't quite believe us and it realized that her great love was a woman and up until now she only really loved (romantically and sexually) just one fo her husbands, and she felt in love with him because, and I quote "he treated me like a person" which sounds to me like the rightful reaction of a young girl meeting the only men who doesn't sexualize her on sight. I think the book realized that and thought "oh shit we need to give her another man to love" and thus the french guy who was really quite useless when we talk about husbands. Or maybe they really liked how the number seven sounded idk.
Last thing about Evelyn bisexuality i swear.. she kept going on and on about how she was bisexual because she had loved men AND had find men sexually attractive even without love involved. Her attraction to men is both romantic and sexual. While she only ever loves women, in this case, Celia. She said she thought about trying with other women but they just weren't Celia. That's a totally fine bisexuality, what bothered me is how she seemed to need to love women to have sex with them while she could have meaningless but pleasurable sex with men. That's not a critique on her specific type of bisexuality as a critique on how the book treats men and women and lgbt people. All men are pigs and only want one thing from her unless they're gay, in that case they are handsome and nice. All women are mean and spiteful unless they're lesbians, or rather, unless they're Celia because we never see another lgbt woman, that would have honestly been nice, maybe even challenge Evelyn with another woman whom she was sexually compatible, even just someone to make her feel less alone in her struggle? But don't worry i get it, the struggle IS the point.
I also liked that Evelyn doesn't treat her struggles as something everyone should do. It would have been so easy for her to just "kids these day have it so easy" but no, she actively wants to make life better for those after her that's nice. Her daughter wasn't developed enough imo. She was so important to her but we barely know her, especially when she's doing better after her dad's death.
Idk it was an interesting trainwreck but a trainwreck nonetheless. It's a little late to use those terms, i apologize to everyone for the war flashbacks, but Evelyn felt a little mary-sueish at times? She's hot, she's bisexual but only for ONE woman, she's extremely talented, she's sexy and no man can resist her, if they do, they're gay. Yes i know i'm undermining the whole point of the book, that she was complex and made to believe her biggest talent was being hot because that's what society told her, and to not put her in a box, but she really felt to me like a straight woman's (i have no idea if the author is straight, if not, her target was surely straight women) daring forbitten romance fantasy.
I didn't like how it painted Celia, her whole romance (and evelyn bisexuality tbh) felt gimicky.. the whole build up to know who the love of her life is. It's almost like tha book wants to catch you by surprise like "AH! I bet you thought she was talking about a man didn't you?". At times i felt like she was too much leaning toward a lesbian stereotype? With her not wanting kids and objectifying Evelyn and essentially being entranced by her tits to the point they ended discussions at times. I didn't like that she was eager to fight for her freedom and she as kinda painted in the wrong for that? Evelyn was also in the wrong, they both were wrong and right at the same time even when it was about Evelyn fucking that guy and getting pregnant or Evelyn acting a sex scene and not telling Celia before it was too late, but for some reason instead of making the argument relatable it made them annoying? Maybe because we had very little time with these characters aside arguments and sex. Their whole conflicts stemmed from the insecurity that one of them liked men and the other didn't, and it really rubbed me the wrong way. This whole lesbian vs bisexual woman felt so unneccessary and not treated with the nuance the argument deserved. I really didn't liked that the conflict stemmed from not being "queer in the right way" or not being "open minded enough". They could have had the whole "you slept with another guy that gotten you pregnant" or "you partecipated in a very graphic sex scene with another person" without making it all about their sexuality. They could have just argued on the basis of each others boundaries but somehow this always ended up being about sexuality. Again, I get that's the whole point of the book, to explore Evelyn bisexuality, just saying it could have explored it without putting it against Celia's like it was a compare and contrast. Those parts felt.. almost designed to spark discourse online idk maybe it's just me. Maybe this book helped someone figure out their sexuality, maybe it made a straight woman who picked it up expecting a daring straight love story, to be amazed, to discover something that she would have never thought to be possible, and if that, good for her! But for me, navigating my queer identity for more than ten years, it felt like it barely scratched the surface of what being queer really is.
A lot of things of what I've said could be counter acted with "it's Evelyn who's narrating", "it's her pov", "it's Evelyn unfiltered thoughts", "of course all the men are pigs she saw them that way, of course Celia was in the wrong, she thought so at the time, ecc" then I bring back my previous point, that being: I would have rather have read Monique rendition, maybe then many points could have been clearer.
3 stars because I didn't hated it, it made me roll my eyes many times but i was really eager to know what came next and ultimately it left me a lot to think while i read it and when i finished it so, bravo.
I'd really like to hear a bisexual woman thoughts on this book, so I'll go and do that now.
میتونم به جرئت بگم این کتاب یکی از قشنگ ترین کتابایی بود که به عمرم خوندم
emotional
reflective
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:
Yes