Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

5 reviews

bookedfortheweekend25's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Car accident

Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Cancer, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Ableism, Misogyny, Suicide, and Death of parent

madzie's review

emotional medium-paced

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

3.25

Reid concocts a spell-binding tale about fictional celebrity Evelyn Hugo’s life dealing with fame, media, femininity, and sexuality. Through the use of soapy drama, you can’t help but read through this legend’s life in just the same way media often sells us the life of celebrities. Characters demonstrate an important theme of how complicated humans and human relationships are. However, unlike what a biography of a real celebrity may feel like, Reid never seems to cement her main character in the reality of humanity, leaving it hard for me to really feel, see, and connect with Evelyn throughout the story.

Further, although the main themes are highly important topics that are likely to make any novel worth a read, Reid’s chunky and heavy-handed writing and unnecessary plot points make it feel like Reid bit off a little bit more than she could chew. Some of her themes, such as her exploration of fame and womanhood, are spot on and make me wish she had focused more on a few themes rather than stretched out and only briefly mentioned them all. At various points throughout the novel, ideas feel shoehorned into the story without real exploration, as if Reid did not fully consider the implications of what she was saying and including. For example, she jumps from conflicting ideas about sexuality and sexual orientation, denying the overall understanding of the queer experience, and, despite the main character being bisexual, tells a queer story from a very allonormative and heteronormative position, which feels very strange. 

Important plot points or history seem mentioned in passing, but not important, and whole characters and Evelyn’s relationship with them are passed over without any type of feeling created for or around them, leaving a rather hollow ring to it as if it was just moments to get through. I enjoy that Reid attempted to tackle poignant ideas in her novel, but I wish she had changed aspects of how she approached some topics so she could create a fully-immersive story that really considered big ideas about who is erased from society, what humans do with the desires they have, and relationships humans have to each other.
Despite this, Reid's bold writing is commendable. In the end, Reid experiments with writing, themes, and characters in reflective and admirable ways, and despite aiming so hard for the bullseye, she never hits it dead-on in truly groundbreaking or reflective ways. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Car accident, Biphobia, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Acephobia/Arophobia, Body shaming, Cancer, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Abortion, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Child abuse, and Fatphobia

chronicacademia's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

Because I picked this book unaware, and I worry others might too, I think it’s so important to put this out into the world: this book grossly glorifies suicide.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Ableism, Car accident, Death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Mental illness, Blood, Cancer, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Suicide

Moderate: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Abortion, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Sexism

msradiosilence's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

0.5

TLDR; 1.5 rating, I hate this book and everything it stands for. I get a little rant-y. Sue me.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

I gave this 1 star on GR because it’s a hellsite, but it gets .5 stars because I did in fact read this in only a few days. I’ll say this about TJR, her books aren’t badly written. She just sucks as a person.

First off, TJR is a white woman. I have very strong opinions about staying in your lane as a white woman, and TJR swerved all over the goddamn highway. Not only is the main character a Black woman, but the other main character is a Latina woman. Does TJR belong to either of those communities? No. And to yadda yadda their communities, TJR

kills Monique’s father in a horrific way so she doesn’t have that connection to her heritage

and has Evelyn repress everything about her Latina roots. When this book came out, there was huge backlash from the Latine community about a white woman taking up space in the publishing industry that could have been made for a Latine author to write in (do not get me started on racism in publishing, we’d be here all day) and she apologized and said she wouldn’t do it again, she’d lift up own-voices authors, etc. And then she didn’t do that and instead wrote Carrie Soto is Back, which had a whole thing about the title in Spanish that — shocking! — once again TJR didn’t understand the complexity and nuance of and insulted an entire community of people. The Black and Latine perspectives are just some that white authors cannot ever have, considering their whiteness, and therefore should not be writing in the perspective of Black and Latine characters. No one is saying white authors CAN’T have diverse casts, because white authors should, but rather that they shouldn’t try to write from a perspective they can’t conceivably share. I don’t care how much research they do, it is not enough when compared to lived experience. 

(sources: google is free, but https://www.feministbookclub.com/taylor-jenkins-reid-is-back-with-her-bs/, https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8dJ54Fp/, https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8dJPbaD/, https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8dekrA8/, and https://shelit.com/2022/10/04/carrie-soto-is-back-and-the-problem-of-white-authors-creating-main-characters-of-color/#:~:text=Book%20influencers%20expressed%20concern%20about,character%20against%20an%20Asian%20character.)

Secondly, I’m bi. To this day, there are still biphobic members of the LGBTQ+ community that say we’re either not gay enough, or that we need to pick a side, or that we’re lying, etc (few and far between, but always a take I see in online spaces around Pride Month). And to have that thrown back in my face while I’m reading a book by a straight author? What the fuck? Celia is constantly being biphobic, and it doesn’t help that Evelyn is lesbophobic in the beginning. TJR wouldn’t know this, being that (again) she’s not a part of the community, but a lot of people use the term ‘gay’ as an umbrella term. Just like the pride flag encompasses the whole community, gay can be a term to mean any sexuality within the LGBTQ+ spectrum. But Evelyn reacts with such immediate vitriol to being called gay, it just leaves such a horrible taste in my mouth, especially when there is such animosity between certain corners of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s just not something a straight author gets to comment on, especially when they don’t understand the nuance surrounding that conversation.

Also the ending?

Not only are you writing perspectives that aren’t yours, you had Monique forgive the woman that killer her father???

What the FUCK. Eat the rich, even the fictional ones. 

Anyway. Considering both of my major points cover basically the entire book, fuck TJR and no, I don’t care if Daisy Jones is a good show, or if Malibu Rising is a good book. I will not read anything else by this woman, and I’ll be getting rid of Evelyn Hugo as soon as I’m able.

Rating: 0.5
Would I recommend? Abso-fucking-lutely not. 

Content warnings: Blood, Cancer, Death of parent, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Ableism, Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Car accident, Classism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Outing, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Racism, Sexual content, Death, Gaslighting, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Pregnancy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Biphobia, Body shaming, Cancer, Homophobia, Blood, Car accident, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual harassment, Classism, Death of parent, Grief, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Outing, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Terminal illness

ribbonroad's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Racism