Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

17 reviews

pershie13's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

AN INSTANT FIVE STARS!! This was one of the best books I've read in a long time and truly had me captivated from start to finish. When Monique Grant is handpicked by film star Evelyn Hugo to write a piece for a magazine, she has no idea why she would be wanted for a piece like this or why this celebrity that she doesn't know would pick her rather than a more seasoned writer. Then she finds out that Evelyn wants her to write her biography. Evelyn was famously married to seven different husbands, and it is a common question for people to wonder which one she loved the most. This book uncovers the answer to that question while revealing a different Evelyn than anyone had ever known. This book dove head-on into the themes of identity, love, truth, and authenticity, and hearing about how Evelyn grew and changed through each of her marriages was enlightening while showing her complexity as a person. The constant revelations throughout her life as an actress helped build her character well, and the plot twist at the end was one of the most shocking that I have ever read in a book. I found myself falling in love with some of the characters while despising others, and I found this book to deeply affect me emotionally, especially toward the end. This was wonderfully written and an incredible introduction to Taylor Jenkins Reid. I will be raving about this book for a long time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Biphobia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Gore, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Cancer, Child abuse, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Grief, Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Rape

Minor: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Abortion, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, Drug use, and Miscarriage

kk_gotit_goinon's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious slow-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

3.0

Sweet and entertaining with one heck of twist at the end. Slow paced but I didn't mind. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Homophobia, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Lesbophobia, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, and Gore

jillysmith's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

2.5

Maybe I'm finally burning out on Taylor Jenkins-Reid as this is the third of hers I've read this year. Her stories are well crafted hugs and I get the sense she loves all her characters, and always finds redeeming qualities in them, even the ones you want to hate. Evelyn Hugo is a film star of old with seven husbands under her belt. She's a little bit Marilyn Monroe, a little bit Liz Taylor, and the narrative consistently tells us how edgy and difficult she is, while we see her be a warm hearted and intelligent protagonist. Her great love is fellow actress Celia, and the seven husbands are various ways for her to get close to and away from her great love as she tries to hide her sexuality in Hollywood. The book keeps alluding to a dark secret and much like other Jenkins-Reid novels wants you to believe peril is around every corner, even though the characters are all much too loved and too lovely to get what's coming to them. 

A strange exception to this is Celia, who does not come across well, and the book's modern day protagonist, the journalist writing about Evelyn's life. Neither character is very compelling and instead I found myself very much missing the daughter's point of view throughout.

Complex sexual relationships are navigated with an exploration of consent and trade. But this one didn't land right for me. It didn't sparkle like the previous Jenkins-Reid books I've read

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Gore, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Child death, Homophobia, Death, and Rape

maybeimali's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

Jaw dropping 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Lesbophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Cancer, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

sonias's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

Why sad? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Lesbophobia

Minor: Blood and Gore

cosmicwillow's review against another edition

emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.75

took .25 off only because i can't quite tell if the internalized anti-blackness of the mc wanting it to be known that she is half white so desperately is part of her character or something the author thinks is a totally normal way to feel about yourself but it didn't sit right with me. otherwise, this book was fucking everything.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Biphobia, and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Car accident, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Death

Minor: Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Gore

_rae6021's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

Overall very good, really slow and doesn’t pick up any pace throughout. Also left without a real ending 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Suicide, Biphobia, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Child death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Pregnancy, Child death, Alcohol, Cursing, Gore, Sexual content, Addiction, Car accident, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Outing, Classism, Domestic abuse, Deportation, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Infidelity

const_elle_ations's review

emotional inspiring reflective slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Car accident, and Gore

Moderate: Biphobia, Cancer, Sexual assault, Suicide, Alcoholism, and Homophobia

rebeccaxpaige's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Outing, Abortion, Biphobia, Cancer, Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief, Gore, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Suicide, Cursing, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

thecurly1's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad fast-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 loved this book so so very much. The writing felt so personal and the book as a whole was a emotional roller coaster, I cried and teared up more than once. As for the characters I found a deep connection to Evelyn and Harry. The different concepts to the many relationships

Especially with her and Harry (definitely by far my favourite character) and some of the upsetting reality with domestic abuse :(

I was absolutely engrossed in and adored it. Probably one of my favourite part was the relationships and exploring them. As for the other very present and important theme I felt provoked so much feelings where of the idea of women’s body image and societies image on young women at that time and how we are still faced with that problem. It just was so heart breaking

The reality of how judgmental society can be towards women and the LGBTQIA+ community especially in the public eye in the era of time and how that got in the way of people being true and happy.

Beautiful, heart wrenching book I am obsessed and definitely recommend to others <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Blood, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Car accident

Moderate: Biphobia, Car accident, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Suicide