Book Catalogue Card #2: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Author:	Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre(s):	➡️ Romance ➡️ Historical Fiction ➡️ LGBTQIA+
Series?	❎ No
Goodreads Rating:	⭐ 4.45 (2.2M+ ratings; 214k+ reviews)
Personal Rating:	⭐ 5 / 5 Overall

🛑 Spoiler Warning 🛑

I’ll be recounting events, characters, and themes so IT WILL BE FULL OF SPOILERS.

If you’d like to read a spoiler-free book review, kindly head to my Goodreads post. You don’t need an account to read it. 🙂

Description (Spoiler-Free)

Evelyn Hugo was a huge star in the 60s famous for her roles and her beauty. Even now in her 70s, she’s still a symbol of glamour. However, attached to that name is the mystery behind her love life. She married seven times in her lifetime and even though the media loved theorizing and spreading the news about this before, no one really knows the entire truth; at least not enough to be confirmed in public.

One day, a small magazine reporter, Monique Grant, gets a shocking chance of a lifetime: Evelyn Hugo personally picked her to get her story out to the public. Why her? And after all these decades of silence, why now? All curious questions that Monique intends to find out as she grabs the opportunity no other journalist can have. Evelyn did say that her life story goes to her or her grave; why waste it? So she goes and sits in Evelyn’s office every day, writing as Evelyn recounts her rise from poverty to one of the most known actresses in the world. However, as the story draws closer to the present, Monique might not like the reason she was picked after all.

Character-Building

Definitely 5 out of 5! The characters felt so real and raw with emotions. Every one of them was so distinct and had so much depth that you can clearly see how they are in Evelyn’s eyes and their impact on her.

Where best to start other than the main character herself – Evelyn Hugo? It’s usually difficult to build up a very big character. You can’t just say she’s beautiful, have everybody fall head over heels, and call it a day. Evelyn felt real. Because of her beauty, she was a target of abuse, a target of jealousy, and a target of lust. You can feel that from the characters around her. You can feel that from the journals that are being published about her too. The articles were such an excellent element to utilize for that. But more than that, Evelyn was tenacious. She knew what she wanted and she kept going for it. She was calculated and it showed in every path she took. She felt more real when she stayed that way despite her downfall. She was bruised but the fire remained. She felt like a real person when she miscalculated the man she married; when she pushed other people’s boundaries and she had to suffer the consequences; when she shed her old friends to new ones who thought and navigated life the same way as her. The really amazing part too is her confidence and unapologetic yet classy personality radiated through until the end. We hear her aging throughout the book and her problems are age-appropriate to her. She went through so much transformation but her core – her drive – remained. Even as I finished the book I still don’t know if I like her. She was flawed, she was gray, but hell I have such high respect for her. It was HER book.

“Oh, I know the whole world prefers a woman who doesn’t know her power, but I’m sick of all that.”
Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Next is Monique Grant. She occupies little in the story but I actually think that she was essential because we were supposed to be her. We’re supposed to see Evelyn Hugo through her lenses. The plot twist about her involvement was a really cool mystery even though I would’ve kept reading without that. I realized later on that it was necessary because she had to leave that conversation the same way we do – confused and awed. Evenlyn’s life story was interesting enough as it is but having Monique Grant’s POV allowed us to see Evelyn’s hidden life and the media portrayal during those times and that was crucial. She also felt like a real person. Her brief conversations with her mom, her boss, and her husband all felt like real problems. She was a struggling writer and I felt her desperation. I felt Evelyn Hugo’s pull on her as her character developed. Again, one of the testaments Evelyn’s personality felt so real – she actually influenced Monique to be bolder because that’s what she exudes.

Lastly, the husbands. Chapter 5 is split up into 7 parts, equivalent to the seven husbands Evelyn married throughout her lifetime. They were all so distinct from the used first husband, Ernie Diaz, to the convenient marriage to Robert Jamison. Honestly, naming the parts and having their own dedicated sections were clever! They were all so amazingly written.

Ernie Diaz was your average guy who found a technical job in Hollywood, took the chance, and uprooted his life to go there. He was taken by Evelyn’s beauty, and like any ‘young’ romance it was so surface-level that Evelyn was able to get away with what she was doing at that time. He was heartbroken of course when she left him.
Don Adler was one of Evelyn’s real relationships. She fell for him, truly, and just like in a real relationship he only showed his worst after they got serious. He had an inflated ego and it made sense that he and Evelyn gravitated towards each other. However, this was also the trigger for his anger and physical abuse issues. It made sense; he wanted to be one of the brightest stars in the public so his insecurity ran deep.

“I had quickly learned that Don was only kind when he was happy, and he was only happy when he was winning.”
Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Mick Riva is your typical happy-go-lucky, young, immature, rock star. His presence was as fleeting as their marriage but even then it seemed real enough that his archetype would react the same way he did.
Rex North is an aspiring actor who was as practical as Evelyn, although a bit more romantic since he was initially attracted to her. The arrangement of their marriage felt very ‘Hollywood’ indeed and he played his part well.
Max Girard is the French director who was working on Evelyn’s greatest hits. It really did seem like he was attracted to her but he was one of those people who was just constantly there but not significant enough, you know? So I was in the same boat as Evelyn when she thought, hey this can be really good. And boy, when he dropped that line about being seen with Evelyn by the public, I audibly said ‘Oh no’ and felt as dreaded as Evelyn.
Robert Jamison, the last husband, didn’t have much part. I’d like to think that he was the nice ribbon to clean it all up. But it was fine. By this point, I already witnessed a lot of struggles in Evelyn’s love life enough that I just want it all to calm down too.
I saved the last entry for the best husband of them all – Harry Cameron. From the way he was introduced, I thought their romance was going to be a friends-to-lovers kind of trope. Boy, was I happy to be wrong?! True to his character who’s hiding his sexuality, he initially appeared only when he’s needed. All these times he did feel like he had his walls up. And then, he and Evelyn became the best of friends. When I say that this is the type of friendship I want, I freaking mean it. The way I broke for him when the love of his life died and still tried to be a good father? I just… I felt so damn much.

You do not know how fast you have been running, how hard you have been working, how truly exhausted you are, until someone stands behind you and says, “It’s OK, you can fall down now. I’ll catch you.”
Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Lastly, Celia. Initially, I felt off about her instant attraction to Evelyn. She was supposed to be this gorgeous actress too and Evelyn didn’t particularly nice to her. But as I got to know her, it kind of made sense. She was also ambitious but she was younger than Evelyn and wanted to be more ‘free.’ She also acted more impulsive because her acting skills combined with her looks probably made her spotlight easier to attain; that was a nice contrast between their personalities. They clicked because they dropped any pretenses early on. Their mutual ambition made them realize they actually enjoyed each other’s company and then the attraction felt natural. The evolution of their love felt very real too. Evelyn was still driven by her ambition and Celia was driven by her own ways that they both said and did mean things to each other that normal couples do. Their fights didn’t seem trivial and baseless. I can’t say this enough – they felt so damn real.

🌟 Review (5/5)

What can I say? I am overwhelmed… in a lot of positive ways for the book but a lot more complicated ways about Evelyn Hugo. When I picked this up I didn’t really have high hopes. I knew that it was about a fictional celebrity’s journey in Hollywood and that alone didn’t pique my interest. However, so many people had put this at the top of their pride reading challenge that I wanted to see what the hype was about. If she was gay and was hiding a relationship it wouldn’t be the first book of its kind, so surely there has to be something else that’s causing all this buzz?

Oh my god, I found myself devouring this book in a matter of hours! All the characters were so well-defined and had so much depth. There was so much to love about them and so much to hate. They were so clearly shaped by their childhood, their desires, and the constant wrestling with the public about their jobs and sexuality.

It touched on so many great topics:

the dark route to fame
physical and mental abuse
bad childhood leading to extreme pragmatic response
public hypocrisy and bias
conflicts between straight and queer community

“It really makes you think, doesn’t it? That people were so eager to believe we were swapping spouses but would have been scandalized to know we were monogamous and queer?”
Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

conflicts within queer community about labels and life decisions
different types of love
family dynamics
boundaries and communication in relationships
falling in love vs falling in the idea of love
AIDS

“People don’t understand AIDS,” I said. “They understand it just fine,” Celia said. “They just think that he deserves it because of how he got it.”
Evelyn Hugo and Celia St. James, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

and so much more without being too overwhelming. It’s just thought-provoking enough to make me think, but it never fails to reel me back to remind me that this is Evelyn’s story. By the end of it, I had the same feeling the journalist had about her – I wanted to dislike her for all the bad decisions she made but damn I can’t fully hate her. A part of me respected and admired her.

Ugh, anyway, a 5-star read for sure. I have so many highlights and notes that I want to end this post with one of my favorite ones that really hit me; because it reminded me that even the people in the same community, even the person you love, have their own baggage that would prevent them from seeing you as you are no matter how transparent you try to be. And it’s something that they’re not doing intentionally, it just takes time to get through it because of personal bias that we get through our own unique experiences. I hope that if we find the person we love, we don’t give up on them as long as they don’t give up trying to see and accept us fully as we are.

Favorite Quote(s)

“The combination of such a powerful woman and such a small and humble gesture is enchanting, to be sure.”
— Monique Grant, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“Charisma is a ‘charm that inspires devotion.”
— Monique Grant, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“Be wary of men with something to prove.”
— Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“This is the fastest way to ruin a woman’s reputation, after all – to imply that she has not adequately threaded the needle that is being sexually satisfying without ever appearing to desire sexual satisfaction.”
— Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“If you don’t even realize that there’s a formula to be working with, how the hell are you supposed to find the answer?”
— Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“Heartbreak is loss. Divorce is a piece of paper.”
— Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“…That’s a luxury. You can decide that wealth and renown are worthess when you have them.”
— Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“Forgiveness is different from absolution.”
— Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“It costs so much, caring. I didn’t have any currency to spend on it.”
— Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“No one is just a victim or a victor. Everyone is somewhere in between. People who go around casting themselves as one or the other are not only kidding themselves, but they’re also painfully unoriginal.”
— Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“When you dig just the tiniest bit beneath the surface, everyone’s love life is original and interesting and nuanced and defies any easy definition.”
— Monique Grant, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“I hated being called a lesbian. Not because I thought there was anything wrong with loving a woman, mind you. No, I’d come to terms with that a long time ago. But Celia only saw things in black and white. She liked women and only women. And I liked her. And so she often denied the rest of me.

She liked to ignore the fact that I had truly loved Don Adler once. She liked to ignore the fact that I had made love to men and enjoyed it. She liked to ignore it until they very moment she decided to be threatened by it. That seemed to be her pattern. I was a lesbian when she loved me and a straight woman when she hated me.

People were just starting to talk about the idea of bisexuality, but I’m not sure I even understood that the word referred to me then. I wasn’t interested in finding a label for what I already knew. I loved men. I loved Celia. I was OK with that.”
— Evelyn Hugo, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Stray Reader