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

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

3.25

My thoughts on Evelyn Hugo are conflicted, so I wanted to start on the technical aspects of Reid's writing. She is a good writer, great even. From descriptions to dialogue, there's not much I can complain about. Her descriptions are vivid but not flowery and the dialogue feels as real as it can, each character has enough of a personality and unique voice that I could probably tell you who said what without tags.

I like her additions of the articles, both old and new as it adds to the believability of this being a biography of an Old Hollywood movie star. 

The pacing is good, slow enough to digest everything that Ms. Hugo is telling us, but not slow enough to feel like a drag when trying to read through each marriage. All in all, her technical skills are the reason I rated this book higher than I wanted to.

My issues lie within the representation within the book. And while yes, I understand this is historical fiction, there's a way to write bigotry without incorporating homophobic and biphobic tropes in a way that almost seems positive. She incorporates Harry as The Gay Best Friend and Celia as The Bitchy Lesbian both of which are not enjoyable in the slightest. She incorporates the downright biphobic trope - The Cheating Bisexual - twice. Once with Evelyn Hugo herself and possibly again with
Monique's father at the end of the book, and I say possibly because Reid does not confirm his sexuality
. I, after listening to POC talk about this book, realize the racial representation is not the best either. While barely incorporating how Evelyn's race effected her career and social status in an era that was incredibly racist to having the only other two Latine characters being a maid and abusive father, the descriptions of "how Evelyn's blonde hair doesn't match her bronze skin" and Monique's fixations on being mixed race, it comes off as ignorant/insensitive at best and bigoted at worst.

It definitely feels as though Reid did not have any sensitivity readers or did any sort of research on marginalized groups or even listen to marginalized voices, which has soured the book for me and why I feel I can only give it a 3.25.

In the end, it's a solid book and the characters and their complexities and flaws are what make the book as good as it is with moments that made my eyes water. But, Reid is in desperate need of making sure her biases/ignorance don't bleed into her writing.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings