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

challenging reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This is a good story, but I don't feel it lives up to its hype. It's not as mysterious or scandalous as it feels like it's trying to be. The frame narrative is glaringly transparent, to the point of it being pretty boring to me. Also, I hate HATE when novels give you 30 minutes worth of dialogue and then say it took 4+ hours for the character to say all that. Like, I know it's 30 minutes worth because this is an audiobook... so what was going on for the other 3.5 hours hmmmm???? This book is guilty of that in spades.

I enjoyed the story of Evelyn's life, though, and I appreciate how different kinds of love are shown as just as valuable as romantic love throughout the novel. 

In the TJR literary universe, I'd put this lower than Malibu Rising and higher than Daisy Jones, which I'm clarifying because my rating of Daisy Jones is higher... but I'm positive I did not like it enough to qualify it for 4 stars in my current rating system. It's been too long since I've read her earlier writing for me to judge it against any of those.
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