Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Very much enjoyed this book and had to remind myself at times that this was a FICTIONAL book. The author very much brings the characters to life and I had moments where I wish I could see the movies these characters were in!

The story switches between current day (2017) and flashbacks of Evelyn Hugo's rise to fame in Hollywood. The transitions were seamless and the story telling had smooth fluidity to it while still capturing you in the emotions of the events.

It covers a wide range of themes from race, gender politics, LGBT+ with such grace.

It opens your eyes to the reality of being in the limelight and how everything might not always be as it seems.

Spoiler

At first I was upset with Henry's storyline and felt that she had given that character a throw away ending but when you get to the ending you realize that the author is so smart and sneaky. </spoiler

Content Warnings

kingcrookback's review against another edition

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emotional 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

...I wish I liked this the way I've seen other people like it. I don't hate it, by any means, but this really didn't live up to the hype for me. I'm all for diving into the nitty-gritty of fame and the panopticon of celebrity. I even found it engaging to tick off the references to real famous people and Old Hollywood stars - Evelyn as an amalgam of Rita Hayworth, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, and Joan Didion, Harry's car accident analogous to Montgomery Clift's and his being closeted similar to Cary Grant's - and I appreciated that Reid didn't strain credulity by shoehorning or name-dropping actual celebrities. But the only part of this book's treatment of fame that truly engaged me was

Spoiler

the transactional exchange between Evelyn and her driver after Harry's car accident

because it stood out as one of the only times I could viscerally feel how grimy the business of fame could be.

Little else about the book truly grabbed me. Evelyn was handled in this blandly girlboss-y feminist way and had a jarringly modern understanding of queerness for the 1950s-70s. The amount of time we got to spend with Celia wasn't really conducive to building an actual attachment to her character, ditto Monique. The memoir narrative felt unmoored in time, despite the descriptions of clothing that were supposed to help in that respect. Like, I don't care what people were wearing, tell me about what attitudes were like in that decade, that year. If you want to talk about the fashion so badly, why not make some connection to how clothing can signify in microcosm what was going on in society at large? Once again, I honestly just wish I saw what other people see in this book.

Content Warnings