A review by c3rem0nials
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

this book was hyped so much as like the pinnacle of lgbt fiction. and listen, the writing was fast paced enough and exciting for me to keep reading. like a vacation book, no thoughts, just my innately human desire to watch relationships in front of me fail. but my god... the "queer" aspect was probably one of the worst things in this book. u cant convince me a lesbian woman in the 60s would actually be mad at someone trying to keep them safe. the biphobia was PAINFUL, and lesbian being used only in negative contexts was genuinely so irritating regardless of the contextual use?? this feels like a cishet woman saw queer characters and thought - " i could do that." just overall tacky representation that i cant even accept as messy representation. race was also handled so poorly. i refuse to believe for a second that evelyn could easily have just dyed her hair and was suddenly white passing?? her cuban heritage means absolutely nothing to her which begs the question of why write a cuban woman when it could have just been a marilyn monroe or elizabeth taylor situation. i could not bring myself to care about celia st james. monique is supposed to be our narrator, but does not function like a character of any sorts because of the fact that evelyn's voice is the thing that dominates this book. just so much irritating tokenism, and blah blah. not worth the hype.