Reviews with content warning for Child death - Los siete maridos de Evelyn Hugo

Emotional, passionate and surprising, this book always had me wanting to read more. Reid has a talent of leading you into the story without becoming repetitive with all the chapter cliff hangers - I was genuinely stunned by some of them, left gawking at how abrupt yet emotional the reveals were. I’m so deeply impressed by the level of detail put into the world building of a fictional Hollywood, I truly started to believe Evelyn, Harry and Celia were all real. The distinct style of when Evelyn was telling her story made it so easy to imagine what kind of woman she is, tactful, direct, but still deeply caring and sentimental about parts of her life. I loved reading this book, even though my heart broke getting through. A lovely read and a beautiful queer story.

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ammah's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is not about her seven husbands at all. It is a really heartbreaking story, and I would have absolutely picked it up sooner if I knew what it was truly about. But that being said, the surprise was so much better, so I also recommend going into this as blind as I did.

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lisa07xie's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

At First I was Like this book is good but so overhyped. But at the end I couldn't put it down and I was so surprised like I did not expect that to be the reason why she choose Monique but I loved it! I Love the Character dynamics and it explored so many important topics Like love and grief or friendship I really loved it

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annahill888's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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earth_to_mars's review against another edition

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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.

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jenniferbowman's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad 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

4.75

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