The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel

I don’t even know how to fully explain the experience of reading this book. It felt like sitting in a dimly lit room, listening to the secret stories of Old Hollywood unfold one confession at a time. There is glamour, scandal, heartbreak, ambition, betrayal, love, and so many twists that I could not stop turning the pages. Evelyn Hugo is the kind of character who feels larger than life, yet painfully human. Her story is messy, complicated, glamorous, and devastating in all the best ways. Every husband, every secret, every decision pulls you deeper into her world until you feel like you are not just reading about her life, but witnessing it. This book has the magic of a classic Hollywood memoir, the drama of a scandalous tell all, and the emotional weight of a story that stays with you long after you finish it. I absolutely loved it. Truly, completely loved it. A stunning, addictive, unforgettable read.

Starting at the young age of fourteen and ending when she’s seventy-nine (when we first meet Evelyn), Evelyn Hugo has gone from bombshell, to sexpot, to Oscar winner, to civil rights supporter. Evelyn knew what she wanted from an early age—to get out of Hell’s Kitchen and away from her abusive father, and to be the biggest star anyone has ever heard of. And she accomplished that! Partially because of her talent, partially because she knows her worth and is unafraid to get dirty in order to achieve her goals, and partially because there is no one better at using the press and scandals to serve their own interests. Evelyn is both a force to be reckoned with, but also a deeply flawed and lonely. Shown through the perspective of Evelyn as she dictates her memoir to Monique, the reader is taken back to the early days of Hollywood to watch Evelyn’s rise, and her stumbles, to and through stardom. For a story about a Hollywood starlet, this book is LAYERED, and I don’t think I was expecting the level of depth it had, even though many reviews warned me to expect the unexpected with this story. In order to become Evelyn Hugo, Hollywood’s biggest star, Evelyn had to let go of who she was; erasing her identity to be what Hollywood wanted her to be. She knew and accepted this, always, but it does break your heart a little to watch her identity get stripped away so that she could be the blonde bombshell the screen so loved. The things Evelyn hid or changed, often denying the realest…