A review by breaklikeafish
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-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

3.0

It’s always been fascinating to me how things can be simultaneously true and false, how people can be good and bad all in one, how someone can love you in a way that is beautifully selfless while serving themselves ruthlessly.
This quote from the great Evelyn Hugo herself sums up how I feel about this novel. There were a lot of things I loved. However, every one of my praises seems to come with a but attached. On the other hand, every criticism I have about The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is cushioned by all the good. My mediocre rating is less because I find this to be a mediocre book and more because I think it is a good book and aweful book at the same time.

From a perspective of enjoyment, I can confidently say that I hated the first half and loved the second. Evelyn is not meant to be likable, but I must at least relate to the main characters if I do not like them. Otherwise, I will not care about their lives. I did not connect with Evelyn Hugo. At all. Surprisingly, this is not due to me not being famous, ruthlessly ambitious, or bi. The reason I could not relate to her is almost entirely because she focuses so much of her life on her body and sex. Evelyn, especially early in her career, uses her body to her advantage all the time, and that is awesome for her and, like, all the power to her, but that did not make me want to read about her.

Even some of her most meaningful relationships are so intertwined with sex and desire that I found it hard to root for them. On the other hand, there are some profound non-romantic/non-sexual relationships and relationships that defy definition in the second half of the novel that I really liked. The message of those specific plot elements seems to very clearly be that romantic love does not stand above every other kind. The love of her life is not automatically the most important person; the relationship is not automatically without faults just because they love each other enough. A family is what you decide a family is and not how society defines it.

She liked women and only women. And I liked her. And so she often denied the rest of me. [...] I was a lesbian when she loved me and a straight woman when she hated me.
Though I have seen criticisms of it, I personally really liked how the topic of bisexuality was handled. It is not exactly pleasant to read about biphobia and bi-erasure. Yet it is never narratively excused, and Evelyn, at least in the present-day parts of the novel, is very firm in her demand to be represented correctly. I think the way Evelyn has to fight tooth and nail for part of her identity not to be erased is a good representation of the problems the LGBTQIA+ community still faces today. However, I do take issue with the fact that the only character explicitly labeled as bisexual cheats. While it fits the story, it also perpetuates a harmful stereotype.

One other big problem I had was the way race was handled. I suggest you check out some explanations by POC reviewers if you are interested since I do not want to claim any authority on that. My personal experience basically boils down to it making me feel icky. Again, since this book cannot just be black-and-white in literally any aspect, I want to point out that I think it is great that there were characters of color; I do not like how especially the experience of a Cuban-American woman in Hollywood was handled.

The narrative style flip-flopped between not my cup of tea and me highlighting quotes because I loved them so much, so I do not know what to tell you about that. I guess the clickbait-y nature of the writing (You would not believe what happened the week after!) can be interpreted as a stylistic choice given that the narrator is a journalist who, if I remember correctly, used to write gossip columns. However, some plot points would have hit harder if their meaningfulness was not textually overexplained. Also, I dislike multiple POVs in first-person on the best day.

In conclusion, I hated almost every character, including both narrators, almost DNF-ed the book every few chapters in the first half, rolled my eyes through too many sex scenes, and still somehow fell in love with the book in the end. Do not ask me if I recommend it. I do not know. At the very least The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo succeeded in giving me lots of conflicting feelings, which I suppose is how Monique feels about Evelyn in the end.
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