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A review by bookstolivewith
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
3.0
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Alright let’s rip the band-aid off right now: I did not love this book. I skimmed and sped-read through most of it, and although it held my interest, I didn’t feel the need to parse over every detail. However, it did teach me to read at least 100 pages before judging a book — there was definitely a twist I didn’t see coming and one that I really appreciated, as it was wildly unexpected and also made the book 10x more interesting! If you haven’t read it, I won’t spoil it but it definitely makes this a book worth reading, despite my other issues with it.
Evelyn Hugo is a pretty unlikeable character and I was slightly bored by the very circular reasoning of her private vs. public life that dominates the book, even though I understood and appreciated that the stakes were very high (although I wished there’d been slightly more allusions to the danger of McCarthyism, which are probably missed if you’re not already aware of that era of threats).
I think that may be my main problem with TJR’s books (or at least, the two I’ve read), that she writes unlikeable characters, especially women, and calls them complex. I’d just like to see a likeable character that is also complex at some point, because I totally get the concept of making the wrong choices for the right reasons but I get tired of being beat over the head with it.
I found the ending a bit predictable (pretty much the second I figured out — spoiler! — that Harry was gay) and wished we’d heard more from a complex Monique point-of-view throughout, even though she was clearly just a vehicle for Evelyn’s story. Honestly, I’d like a sequel where we learn about what happens to Monique once the tell-all is published, or even if it ever is published. (Spoiler!) I also found it interesting that TJR tried to relate Monique’s status as biracial to Evelyn’s bisexuality — anyone have any thoughts on that?
Alright let’s rip the band-aid off right now: I did not love this book. I skimmed and sped-read through most of it, and although it held my interest, I didn’t feel the need to parse over every detail. However, it did teach me to read at least 100 pages before judging a book — there was definitely a twist I didn’t see coming and one that I really appreciated, as it was wildly unexpected and also made the book 10x more interesting! If you haven’t read it, I won’t spoil it but it definitely makes this a book worth reading, despite my other issues with it.
Evelyn Hugo is a pretty unlikeable character and I was slightly bored by the very circular reasoning of her private vs. public life that dominates the book, even though I understood and appreciated that the stakes were very high (although I wished there’d been slightly more allusions to the danger of McCarthyism, which are probably missed if you’re not already aware of that era of threats).
I think that may be my main problem with TJR’s books (or at least, the two I’ve read), that she writes unlikeable characters, especially women, and calls them complex. I’d just like to see a likeable character that is also complex at some point, because I totally get the concept of making the wrong choices for the right reasons but I get tired of being beat over the head with it.
I found the ending a bit predictable (pretty much the second I figured out — spoiler! — that Harry was gay) and wished we’d heard more from a complex Monique point-of-view throughout, even though she was clearly just a vehicle for Evelyn’s story. Honestly, I’d like a sequel where we learn about what happens to Monique once the tell-all is published, or even if it ever is published. (Spoiler!) I also found it interesting that TJR tried to relate Monique’s status as biracial to Evelyn’s bisexuality — anyone have any thoughts on that?