Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

464 reviews

kits_den's review

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emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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? Yes

5.0


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maritimebibliophile's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad

4.0


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ellianderjoy's review

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challenging emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.5


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rhamnoides's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-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? Yes

4.5


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big_nerd's review

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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rllbth's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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


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cornland's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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jcinf's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

What I liked:
1. Evelyn is so complex. Selfish and arrogant and misguided. But in other ways fiercely loyal. She’s a very three-dimensional character. Never at any point flat or under-developed. A pleasure to read — even when she frustrated me.

2. Depicting Evelyn as selfish also reinforces how women have to be selfish if that want to get anywhere in life — particularly during the 40s-60s. So that feels important, as well. 

3. The bisexual representation. It made me feel so seen.

4. The variety of the husbands. The differences in their stories were, for the most part, enough to keep me engaged. There were times where I thought “this again?”, but they never lasted long.

5. The ending. I wouldn’t call it a happy ending. I wouldn’t call it an unhappy ending. It’s nuanced. Just like every other aspect of Evelyn. That’s why I think the ending was perfect. 

What I didn’t like:
1. Monique was a little annoying at times. She asked stupid questions at times and was insensitive about heavy topics as well. I agree with another reviewer that said it seemed like Monique was set up to ask stupid questions just so Evelyn could say something profound.

2. The story did drag a bit, in certain parts. I found myself wishing she had less husbands at one point LOL. But I ended up deciding the story wouldn’t have made its overall point without it. Though, with that said, I think the author could’ve cut out a little bit of redundancy.

Depictions of bisexuality:
I read some reviews making two complaints about the depiction of bisexuality:
1. It’s problematic and aligns with the “bisexual sl*t” stereotype.
2. Why was Evelyn only in love with one woman if she was bisexual?

My response are as follows:
1. Evelyn makes it very clear what her motivations are for marrying and remarrying. Sexual pleasure has little to do with it. That makes this complaint irrelevant, in my opinion

2. My second quote (spoiler warning) explains why there was only one woman for her. Not only that, but if Evelyn hadn’t addressed that, being with one woman wouldn’t make Evelyn any less bisexual!! Attraction varies. Which gender you gravitate toward is fluid. So, to humanize the MC, Evelyn doesn’t owe anyone multiple relationships/flings with women to prove she is bisexual.

Being bisexual myself, I saw nothing wrong with how they depicted the MC. I really enjoyed the way the author explored the profound connection between women. I loved the different depiction of intimacy in hetero-presenting relationships and gay-presenting relationships.

Quotes:
There were lots of good quotes, but these are two of my favorites. One is without spoilers and one is a little spoiler-y:

Page 251: “It’s always fascinating to Mr how things can be simultaneously true and false, how people can be good and bad all in one, how someone can love you in a way that is beautifully selfless while serving  themselves ruthlessly.”

Page 312:
Spoiler “Every other woman I considered striking up a conversation with might as well have had “not Celia” stamped on her forehead. If I was going to risk my career and everything I loved for a woman, it was going to be her.“


Overall: 
As a whole, I don’t think I’ll be forgetting about it any time soon. The flaws were minor to me and didn’t affect my overall love for the book. 

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cyndi1966's review

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adventurous emotional 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

4.0


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idontread's review

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emotional funny reflective sad medium-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

4.25

to anyone who saw me crying alone in the airport lounge while reading this no u didn’t

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