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

I feel like I need to start this review with my state of mind coming into reading this book. I was so excited to hop on the Hugo train. It seemed to have it all: old Hollywood, glam with an air of mystery, and a young woman coming into her own career. It sounded truly up my ally and all of the reviews were remarkable! Maybe I’m just not really part the intended audience or, what feels more likely, maybe this was a book to read with other people and not alone. It’s been difficult for me to decide if my dislike of the book comes from dislike of the characters or of the structure overall.

I really didn’t enjoy the long, uninterrupted chapters of Evelyn relaying her story. One of the benefits of having Monique working as as a journalist would have been to use her ask some clarifying questions on behalf of the audience. Reid rarely uses the opportunity. Instead Evelyn, whom we come to know as a morally gray unreliable narrator that knows that what she ultimately wants is control, tells swathes of her story without break. Monique basically doesn’t do her job within the story or within the structure of the novel, missing nearly every opportunity to provide the reader with a chance to come up for air and weigh Evelyn’s actions through their own sense of morality. After reading this alone and then describing it to other people I realized the key thing I felt like I was missing was the option to discuss what other choices Evelyn could have made and how I felt about them. If you’re not reading with other people and Monique’s character isn’t being used as a tool to open up those questions I feel like you miss out on a huge part of the experience of the book.

My favorite parts of the book explored Evelyn and Harry’s relationship, especially in the last third. Utilizing the real historical context of Stonewall as a pivotal point was especially moving and felt like the only time I got to know the softer side of Evelyn or was able to feel any empathy towards her. I didn’t see the twist at the end coming and it served to highlight the ongoing conversations we’re having about sexuality at all ages. I don’t believe, though, that it was integral to the plot to keep some those broader cultural conversations tamped down at the start of the book. While it felt accurate to the time to not discuss sexuality at all I think I would have felt more empathy and leaned into the grey of Evelyn’s character more if we had heard more about the conversations she was/wasn’t having with herself at the time.

So much of this book felt like a missed opportunity to go deeper to me. Evelyn’s character is nuanced and interesting but you have to work hard to feel that way. Monique is under-utilized as a character and seems to be around exclusively as a device for the last few chapters of the book. I could have had so much more of a connection to this book if the audience was just invited in more by the structure.

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ka_ke's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

It gives very hetero woman writes sapphic tragedy energy. While historically accurate and sensitive, Taylor Jenkins Reid does not provide insight to the beauty of an LGBTQIA relationship. The whole book is just kind of one note.

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cutepatzie's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

I love strong character like Hugo. The story was amazing, its a lot of things that we can agree with Hugo, and many that we will not. But I enjoy this book. Love seeing stories where characters are not black or white, but more complex and in the gray zone. It was nice to see the old Hollywood that was big and crazy back in the day. And also I love showing that being a girl is hard and will always be the battel with the system.

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scarlettoliver's review against another edition

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emotional 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

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abbyj_04's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

I almost cried in front of my whole family while reading it.

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jselliot's review against another edition

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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

5.0

This was probably one of my favorite books this year, honestly. Evelyn Hugo may be a star-studded icon, but also a person. And by the time the book takes place, people have forgotten about the personhood behind the legacy. The goal? An expose on herself.

Craft wise, this book handled the past- and present-tense shifts well. Past-tense, the majority of the book, applied to Evelyn's dish on her own past. The few present-tense chapters were centered around Monique in the contemporary aspect of the setting. And mercifully, it did not butcher common past-tense sayings in those moments. (A chief complaint of mine with the rash of first-person present-tense books that have come out lately. It's jarring.)

Without giving too many spoilers, I'd say that perhaps the most refreshing thing about Seven Husbands is that the narrative itself treats Evelyn like most books do male characters. Now, within the context of the period, she is absolutely treated as a woman of color and one who made her fame in the 60s through the 80s. Those times were not kind to women, nor LBGT people. But the way the narrative treated her like typical male characters is that it allowed her to make morally and legally wrong choices, and still be a complex individual without being vilified for it. She made mistakes and owns them. She's not perfect and is no longer interested in maintaining her carefully curated image. But she does have a story to tell, and what a compelling story it is.

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