Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

15 reviews

jillysmith's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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

2.5

Maybe I'm finally burning out on Taylor Jenkins-Reid as this is the third of hers I've read this year. Her stories are well crafted hugs and I get the sense she loves all her characters, and always finds redeeming qualities in them, even the ones you want to hate. Evelyn Hugo is a film star of old with seven husbands under her belt. She's a little bit Marilyn Monroe, a little bit Liz Taylor, and the narrative consistently tells us how edgy and difficult she is, while we see her be a warm hearted and intelligent protagonist. Her great love is fellow actress Celia, and the seven husbands are various ways for her to get close to and away from her great love as she tries to hide her sexuality in Hollywood. The book keeps alluding to a dark secret and much like other Jenkins-Reid novels wants you to believe peril is around every corner, even though the characters are all much too loved and too lovely to get what's coming to them. 

A strange exception to this is Celia, who does not come across well, and the book's modern day protagonist, the journalist writing about Evelyn's life. Neither character is very compelling and instead I found myself very much missing the daughter's point of view throughout.

Complex sexual relationships are navigated with an exploration of consent and trade. But this one didn't land right for me. It didn't sparkle like the previous Jenkins-Reid books I've read

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Gore, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Child death, Homophobia, Death, and Rape

maybeimali's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Jaw dropping 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Lesbophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Cancer, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence

sonias's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Why sad? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Lesbophobia

Minor: Blood and Gore

cosmicwillow's review against another edition

emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

took .25 off only because i can't quite tell if the internalized anti-blackness of the mc wanting it to be known that she is half white so desperately is part of her character or something the author thinks is a totally normal way to feel about yourself but it didn't sit right with me. otherwise, this book was fucking everything.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Biphobia, and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Car accident, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Death

Minor: Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Gore

_rae6021's review against another edition

emotional informative mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.0

Overall very good, really slow and doesn’t pick up any pace throughout. Also left without a real ending 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Suicide, Biphobia, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Child death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Pregnancy, Child death, Alcohol, Cursing, Gore, Sexual content, Addiction, Car accident, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Outing, Classism, Domestic abuse, Deportation, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Infidelity

const_elle_ations's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Car accident, and Gore

Moderate: Biphobia, Cancer, Sexual assault, Suicide, Alcoholism, and Homophobia

rebeccaxpaige's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Outing, Abortion, Biphobia, Cancer, Cultural appropriation, Drug abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief, Gore, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Suicide, Cursing, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Self harm, and Suicide attempt

thecurly1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective 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

I loved this book so so very much. The writing felt so personal and the book as a whole was a emotional roller coaster, I cried and teared up more than once. As for the characters I found a deep connection to Evelyn and Harry. The different concepts to the many relationships

Spoiler

Especially with her and Harry (definitely by far my favourite character) and some of the upsetting reality with domestic abuse :(

I was absolutely engrossed in and adored it. Probably one of my favourite part was the relationships and exploring them. As for the other very present and important theme I felt provoked so much feelings where of the idea of women’s body image and societies image on young women at that time and how we are still faced with that problem. It just was so heart breaking

Spoiler

The reality of how judgmental society can be towards women and the LGBTQIA+ community especially in the public eye in the era of time and how that got in the way of people being true and happy.

Beautiful, heart wrenching book I am obsessed and definitely recommend to others <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Blood, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Car accident

Moderate: Biphobia, Car accident, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Suicide

recycled_personalities's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.5

It’s a very well written book and I do genuinely recommend it with all my heart. However, it is not void of flaws. I strongly recommend seeking out some opinions from POC (especially Latinx and Black POC) about this book and how it talks about race before reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

ilovegraphs's review against another edition

inspiring reflective fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Car accident, Child abuse, Abortion, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence