Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

407 reviews

cdoubet's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Grief, Homophobia, Body shaming, Classism, Cursing, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Lesbophobia, Addiction, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Drug use, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Outing, Gaslighting, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Hate crime, Body shaming, and Blood

Minor: Police brutality and Abortion

bookaddictlt's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Domestic abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Death, and Body shaming

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Racism, Infidelity, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Suicide

Minor: Chronic illness, Alcohol, Cancer, Car accident, and Alcoholism

marslotus's review

emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

While I will admit this was a page-turner of a book, the writing styles of Monique's perspective versus Eveyln's never felt comfortable to me. That is to say I found myself drawn in when reading about Evelyn and annoyed at Monique's character (until the ending of course). She's introduced as honest and forthcoming but is often presumptuous when talking to Evelyn. It almost feels like two different people wrote the book, as I felt talked down to when explained bisexuality and LGBTQ+ issues. I would expect this from a teen novel, not from this story. But I can't deny my eyes watering at least twice near the end of the book. This is a good story, maybe my personal preference is just getting in the way of fully enjoying that. I didn't feel it had a strong start and I'm glad it got better the farther along I read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Grief, Infidelity, Car accident, Cursing, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Terminal illness, Sexual content, Homophobia, Outing, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Suicide, Alcoholism, Cancer, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Terminal illness, Violence, Pregnancy, Sexism, Child abuse, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

izza617's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, and Xenophobia

seadeepy's review

challenging dark mysterious sad 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Infidelity, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual content, Classism, Biphobia, Sexual assault, Grief, Misogyny, Cursing, and Homophobia

Minor: Racism, Pedophilia, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, and Abortion

katiea714's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Alcoholism, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical content, Sexism, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Injury/injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, Grief, and Terminal illness

danimolloy7's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is ingenious, intriguing and captivating. I couldn't put the book down. We learn about the life of Hollywood Icon, Evelyn Hugo, while she is sharing her life story with a journalist named Monique Grant. Both the reader and Monique are fed drips and drabs and left wanting more. I found the chapters detailing the monotony of Monique's life to be tiresome as I was waiting to get back to learning about Evelyn. This works to the novels benefit as the reader sees how meeting Evelyn changes and complicates Moniques life. 

Personally, I didn't find Evelyn's grand reveal to Monique near at end of the novel all that interesting or necessary. It had been foreshadowed so heavily throughout the book that I was able to guess what the reveal would be. It did complicate the character of Evelyn for Monique, but didn't change my personal perspective on her.

Spoiler

I honestly would have preferred if Evelyn had no prior connection to Monique, as this would have made her choosing Monique to write her book more authentic. This way seems like she had an ulterior motive. I did like that she was planning to kill herself as this is aligned with her character.

Spoiler

Overall, an excellent 5/5 read. I loved learning about "old Hollywood", struggles for the LGBTQI+ community prior to my lifetime, and the differing forms of love that one experiences throughout a lifetime. Would recommend this book 1,000%.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Terminal illness, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Domestic abuse

Evelyn experiences sexual abuse and harassment by Hollywood executives. She is also in a toxic relationship where her husband abuses her physically. As Evelyn is famous in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, she experiences homophobia and sexism throughout her career. There is a suicide, a car crash due to drunk driving, and characters are mentioned to have died of terminal illnesses.

camiclarkbooks's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid tells the story of the titular Evelyn Hugo. 

Evelyn Hugo was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars from the 1960s to the 1980s and won international attention for her striking beauty. At age 79, Evelyn is ready to share all the details of her glamorous—and scandalous—life. 

She decides to give her story to Monique Grant, a virtually unknown reporter, to the surprise of everyone, including Monique. Recently separated from her husband and stuck in a dead end position at work, Monique seizes the opportunity to boost her writing career by agreeing to write Evelyn’s biography. Besides, if she didn’t agree to, Evelyn would have taken the sordid details of her life to her grave. 

As the two work together, going through the timeline of Evelyn’s struggle to break into Hollywood in the 1950s until her decision to retire from the business in the 1980s, Monique developed a connection to the icon. She rationalizes many of the cutthroat, calculated decisions Evelyn had to make along the way. Monique is also captivated on the reveal of Evelyn’s forbidden love, her greatest love out of all of her seven husbands. As the two women near the end of the interviews, Monique realizes that her life is irrevocably entwined with Evelyn’s in the most tragic ways. 

This was a book I’d been looking forward to reading for months and waited impatiently until I could check it out from my local library. Everyone in the bookish community has spoken so highly of “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” for years and after being blown away by the artistry of “Daisy Jones and the Six,” I had high expectations. But this book fell short. 

With the exception of Evelyn Hugo herself, the characters were bland. The b-plots were forgettable and even the overarching plot was largely predictable and uninspired. With that being said, the representation and diversity the characters and plot threads offered are excellent. Jenkins Reid did an excellent job balancing representing such a wide range of people for a modern audience in a way that was appropriate for the setting of the book. 

It is undeniable that Jenkins Reid has tremendous talent. Most authors steer away from overly explaining movements and describing items, but Jenkins Reid doesn’t and it works. Rather than inundating the reader with too much information, it creates a very specific image in the reader’s mind as they go through the book. 

Overall, “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” is an interesting tale of a fictitious version of Old Hollywood loosely inspired by several real people from the time period. It subverted expectations in many ways, but was also predictable in others. The characters weren’t as complex as other characters Jenkins Reid has written, but the writing style of the book is unique enough to partially make up for that. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Miscarriage, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Grief, Terminal illness, Cancer, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Biphobia, Death, Toxic friendship, Lesbophobia, and Toxic relationship

chiannedawes26's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

This book is truly a life changing book, when I tell you that I cried during this.. I sobbed. Multiple times. 

It is pretty harrowing at times but you come along on a beautiful yet tragic story of love, fame, manipulation, death and heartbreak. 

The twists along the way in this book keep coming and poor Evelyn, if I can call her that, doesn’t get a break.  5 stars!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, and Death

marianaribeiro's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Car accident, Infidelity, Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Grief, Sexual harassment, Chronic illness, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Terminal illness, Death, Physical abuse, and Cancer