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reading_to_write's reviews
176 reviews
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
3.0
Author has a readable writing style, tho it sometimes struck me as overly simplistic- especially since I felt the voice of her main character was the same as the voice of Evelyn, which was disconcerting. It may have been on purpose- ie, the main character wrote the story we are presented as Evelyn’s first-person voice, although it would have been nice to have stronger clues. I liked the “casting” of characters, who were women-of-color, but then the characters were so lightly written- that is there was not much depth to them, really - that it had the effect of “white-washing” the women. Evelyn never struggled with giving up her heritage (I’ve never met a Cuban who was not proud of being so....) and Monique barely touched on her Black heritage and the loss of her father, and therefore that part of her self. So it came across as just.... casting. Not true to life characters. Book seemed to drag on a bit, which was more my reaction to the author’s voice and her characters- a surface treatment, as it were. “Seven Husbands” wins high marks for stepping outside the box in choice of characters and having a main character (Evelyn) who isn’t a very good person but who you like anyhow. It would make a good beach read, a good recasting of a Hollywood story, but it is vapid.