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…

“People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is 'you're safe with me'- that's intimacy.” Taylor Jenkins Reid’s THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO tells the authentic story of legendary Hollywood actress Evelyn Hugo through an autobiographical medium, with ambitious “Vivant” journalist Monique Grant scribing her tale. Throughout the interview, Hugo reveals the behind-the-scenes secrets of her life acting in the film industry, detailing how she repressed her Cuban heritage to conform to the Hollywood scene, how she not only experienced but capitalized on the industry’s sexism and double standards, how she used her body and married famous men to get her to the top, how she found true friendship and forbidden love, and how she admits that she would do it all again if given a chance. As Hugo engrosses Grant and the readers with her story, the question of ‘why would a famous Hollywood actress want to speak with an up-and-coming journalist like Monique Grant, why her?’ lingers in the back of our minds, and soon, we learn the real reason why Hugo wanted Grant to write her autobiography. As a student enrolled in an Intermediate Fiction Writing course, I was particularly eager to review this novel after reading it for the first time last year. To say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it is an understatement. Taylor…

I knew this one was going to hurt. What a tragic story. That is at least what my chest tells me, my throat, and my puffy eyes. But is it really a tragedy, or life led by intentional decisions and leftover consequences? Evelyn Hugo, her name an “effect” and her presence, an “affect” you cannot escape. I do not see her as a victim or a survivor, but somewhere in between, and I sensed that almost immediately, especially when she insisted, she held no regrets (character development suggests otherwise), and that no sorrow be reserved for her. Riddled in a life of manipulation twisted in ambition, I felt an uneasy conflict growing as I read, watching her identity take form, while carrying the weight of what she endured. Something is lurking,g though, waiting to reveal itself. It’s your curiosity in the connection between the journalist Monique Grant (Journalist) and Evelyn Hugo. “When you are allowed to change your life, be ready to do whatever it takes to make it happen. The world doesn’t give things, you take things” (p.35). And here is an admiration, a pull that most definitely binds you to Evelyn, the lurking curiosity, and the reveal of secrets and sins. Scratch sins, I mean lies. “…you have to be willing to deny your heritage, to commodify your body, to lie to good people, to sacrifice who you love in the name of what people will think, and to choose the false version of yourself time and time again, until you forget who you started as or why you started doing it to begin…

“I spent half my time loving her and the other half hiding how much I loved her.” This is one of the best books I’ve ever had the privilege to read. It is probably in the top five for best books I’ve ever read in my entire life. I have been looking for a book like this my entire life, and no combination of words I’m about to type, and you’re about to read, is going to do this masterpiece justice. But I will say that Gabby, Joce, Amelie, and Elyse were all right, and I’m so happy I listened to them, because this book is worth every single ounce of hype. And when I say that this book is lifechanging, I truly mean it. This book is sold as a historical romance, where you learn about a fictional, famous, old Hollywood actress and all her marriages. What you get is a book that stars a bisexual, Cuban woman who was never allowed to talk about the love of her life; her wife. And when I say I cried during this book, I truly mean that I probably need to buy a new copy because I was the biggest mess you’ve ever seen. “And it will be the tragedy of my life that I cannot love you enough to make you mine. That you cannot be loved enough to be anyone’s.” On top of this being a powerful book about race, sexuality, misogyny, and having to conform to societies norms, the true meaning I took from this book is that life is short, so damn short, and we shouldn’t spend it pretending to be something we aren’t. And we shouldn’t spend it doing anything less than loving the people who are worthy…