Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Los siete maridos de Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

49 reviews

ellaticonstellation's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense 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

5.0

Wow, just wow! Even though there are many disturbing things about this book (aka domestic abuse, lying, violence, tampering with the crime scene, etc.) I loved how well-crafted the characters were. Evelyn Hugo did what she had to do to get what she wanted and succeed in life; it was truly inspiring as a woman. She was super flawed, which made her compelling. Her story inspired Monique to take what she deserved and live a fuller life. I hope people who read this don't misinterpret the message. That fame was expensive, and it wasn't for everyone. Fame looked glamorous because of the money, but there were a lot of darkness and sacrifices involved to stay at the top. Her freedom had limits, and it made me sad. Evelyn wanted to express her true self, but she couldn't easily do it. It was the curse of her status in life. Overall, this book was excellent and a potential reread. Thank you so much, Taylor, for writing this book! People, love as long as you can; we never know our end.✨

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

ricardo_sb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Medical content, Car accident, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Minor: Cursing, Miscarriage, Racism, Abortion, and Death of parent

cutepatzie's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

5.0

I love strong character like Hugo. The story was amazing, its a lot of things that we can agree with Hugo, and many that we will not. But I enjoy this book. Love seeing stories where characters are not black or white, but more complex and in the gray zone. It was nice to see the old Hollywood that was big and crazy back in the day. And also I love showing that being a girl is hard and will always be the battel with the system. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

anewton's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

I did not realise I would love this book as much as I did. A complex, rich read that truly makes you reflect on who you are and your identity. An emotional book with a clever twists, that dives beautifully into the complex nature of relationships and sexuality, in context of it’s time period. Beautiful read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Suicide, Abortion, and Pregnancy

_azure76's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

kingsteph's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Grief, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

bookishfaye's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

I really don’t know how to rate this book. On one hand, I loved Evelyn’s narrative voice & I did find the story as a whole captivating. However, I knew about some rough representation going into this, & absolutely the Latinx, black/biracial, bisexual, & lesbian rep in this book all were deeply questionable, upsetting, & frustrating. Harry Cameron was the main redeeming quality of this book at times for me & the ending of his story tying into the plot twist in the end made me utterly sick to my stomach.  

Using the murder of a black queer man as the main gotcha moment in this book was so wildly upsetting & I’m really bothered by how swept under the rug that is.

While this book does bring up important talking points, there is just so must harmful ignorance in the writing of the book that I don’t think I could in good faith recommend it to another person.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

parasolcrafter's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-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

4.25

this book made me SAD

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, and Racism

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

kateyjay's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

This book was beautiful, strong, complicated characters drive the story that felt so real I thought I was reading a biography about a real woman in the golden age of Hollywood. 

The flaws in all the characters drove a story of love and heartbreak that kept the pages turning late into the night and I was honestly devastated when it was over. 

The Author encapsulated the characters so well that I felt every triumph and loss right along with Evelyn and the final twist (which wasn’t really a twist) broke my heart and had me in tears until 4 in the morning. 
Will recommend this to everyone

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Car accident

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Blood, Abortion, Death of parent, and Abandonment

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-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? Yes

  disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial 

Monique works at Vivant in New York City, when they get the call from Evelyn Hugo's assistant, Grace, that she would like to do an interview, but only if it is with Monique. Monique's boss is completely puzzled by this, because Monique is not a top editor or writer at Vivant and she wants to know if Monique has any connections to Evelyn Hugo, who was a renowned movie star from the 50s to the 80s. Monique denies it and even asks her mom if her late father knew Evelyn Hugo. Her late father did photography in Hollywood and her mom confirms that he never did. 

So Monique goes to Evelyn and asks the question that everyone wants to know - out of her seven husbands, who was her great love of her life? Evelyn begins sharing her life story with Monique, which begins in her teenage years as she finds a way out of poverty in New York. It becomes immediately clear that Evelyn had to be an actress off-screen more times than anyone could ever imagine. 

Evelyn shares the story behind each of her 7 husbands so glibly because as she puts it, all of the people she loves are now dead so there's no one left to lie for or protect. We meet Poor Ernie Diaz, Goddamn Don Adler, Gullible Mick Rivera, Clever Rex North, Brilliant, Kindhearted, Tortured Harry Cameron, Disappointing Max Girard, and Agreeable Robert Jamison. 

Even though Evelyn recognizes she has no "sins to confess" and she has no regrets, she knows her actions have hurt others. She also had to fight tooth and nail to achieve all she did. She was also so self-aware and knew what it took to make it in a man's world - when she says "Men were almost never with me for my personality. I'm not suggesting that charming girls should take pity on pretty ones. I'm just saying it's not so great being loved for something you didn't do." Oooof.  

I also really appreciated the messaging of never having enough. Evelyn recognizes that even though this was what she wanted her whole life, she kept wanting more. Nothing was ever good enough or held the key to her happiness. I am meditating on THAT! We all should. 

The faux tabloid articles were fun and realistic, and it made me think even though this is SO obvious, to not believe everything I read or assume about celebrities. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Abortion