The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo review

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, So this book follows two characters mainly one is Evelyn Hugo. who was a huge film star starting from the 1950s, she’s now in her she’s starting to auction off the classic Hollywood dresses that she wore throughout her career and she wants to give an interview with a journalist at a magazine and that leads us to our second character. that this book follows who is Monique she is a specific journalist the Evelyn requested at the magazine.

Because she’s a newer journalist that does have as much experience at the magazine. they tried to send one of the bigger writers. but Evelyn will only do the interview with Monique. so the book kind of tells both of their stories it’s told by at first person for both of them we will see conversations with Evelyn Pru MINIX eyes and then it will go back in time to Evelyn telling her story throughout her life.

And throughout the book we have experts of newspaper articles Evelyn’s scandalous Hollywood Life. I absolutely adored the storytelling within this book I thought it was so clever to go back and forth between these two characters they are completely different generations they live such different lives so seeing that contrast between them makes such exciting reading. I have never read a book by Taylor Jenkins read before so I didn’t know anything about her writing style or how she usually plots out her books. so going into this I really didn’t know much about the plot or anything so I was very surprised there is such wonderful diversity within this book Evelyn herself is Cuban Monique is biracial there’s just so many wonderfully thought-out characters within these pages I love the way the story deals with the seven husbands.

so you have a page like this to signify which husband is and to move you on to the next stage of Evelyn’s life. you just thought I was such a genius way to light this book out the husband’s as you can expect a very mixed bag of men considering the time period some of them are some of them are completely set up but the core of this book is Evelyn’s relationship with her fellow actress Celia st. James and she is the one constant throughout all these seven husbands so in terms of spoiler free things that’s all I really want to say. because I really just want to delve into what I loved about the story so if you haven’t read this book please exit the Blog to your left feel free to come back if and when you read this book it’s just gorgeous give it a try.

“I spent half my time loving her and the other half hiding how much I loved her.”

okay so for the spoiler people you guys have all read the book I hope you’re okay with me just jumping in and out of the things that I loved. where do I even start I’m not going to discuss each husband individually I will say I think her marriage to don adler was such an important part of the bach done is the one that physically abuses her, and he is a complete piece of but what i especially loved was when she works with him again later on in life and you can see that he’s trying to get his life back on track and apologize for the things that he did. but the book doesn’t let you feel sorry for him because evelyn doesn’t and she accepts that she can work with him if she has to but she is never going to forget what he did in the past.

A part of her also feels guilty that she allowed her fellow actress ruby to enter into a relationship with him and go through the same things. that she did and i think that was such an important part to point out because this book is never apologetic about the decisions evelyn makes that have a negative effect on the people around her, and that instance with ruby is one of those things instead of trying to brush past today the book directly deals for that. and Evelyn discusses her feelings on those matters. and so I just loved how brutally honest this book was one of my favorite chapters in this book is Evelyn’s one-night marriage to Mick Riva the storytelling within that chapter we go from having Evelyn talk about herself with the use of AI throughout the book.

But when you get to that chapter it’s hair telling you how to get a man to marry you in Vegas for the night and the way it refers to you the way it gives instruction is just so jarring compared to the rest of the book and you can just put yourself in that situation and it’s horrible but brilliance at the same time. I just think the way that chapter was told was such a powerful moment, and you want to get Evelyn out of there but you understand why she’s doing that and it’s horrible how she does everything for Celia but you know that Celia is going to be uncomfortable at some of these situations, and you know that everything’s going to go to and you can’t do anything you’re just gonna watch it unfold and that breaks me so stepping away from the husband’s for a second.

I have to talk about Celia I there’s just something so be in this book revolving around his seven husbands but actually it’s about hello phacelia. their story is so heartwarming and painful and it makes you angry that they weren’t able to be who they were and we know that this stuff used to happen and in some parts of the world it still does. it probably still does in Hollywood we have PR relationships all the time we don’t know what’s really going on behind closed doors and even though the industry is a little more safer for them to come out now you can’t predict what sort of challenges they’re going to face if they do come out. so reading this book knowing that there are people that have to go through that and it was so common back during this time it’s a sobering thought I think the way their relationship was told over the decades of their lives.

from when they met filming Little Women to when they moved to Spain together I like the fact that they took time apart from each other yes they had horrible fights and that we years where they didn’t talk. but I always found their way back to each other I just I loved everything about it the stark contrast between Evelyn’s relationship with some of the men in this book compared to her relationship with Celia was so well told.

especially when she has that night with Mick the difference between that and the time she spends with Celia breaks my heart. I loved how the Academy Awards played such a part in this as well because they used speeches to call out to each other and I just thought that was genius the tooth tipping scene was so adorable and then Celia making reference to that years later and that being the thing that makes Evelyn need to reach out to her again oh my god their relationship is iconic get you a woman.

“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.”

who will publicly call you out at the Academy Awards for chipping your tooth on the television the end of Celia’s life is as beautiful as it is heartbreaking because they do finally get to spend those years together acting like a married couple would that whole wedding that they have on but oh my god I love having my heart torn to pieces and I like that see Leah’s death was because of an illness it was a natural cause because I think with a book like this it’s Hollywood they’re in the public eye.

everything is about the drama you expect some sort of horrific death but it’s very subtly done and it shows that even though they were these Hollywood icons constantly in the public eye they were still completely human they had to face the end like everyone else did there was nothing glamorous or dramatic Oh anything like that about their ending. it just was and although it’s heartbreaking that they couldn’t come out during that time together while they were both alive is devastating boy.

I’m glad that we got to see them have some sort of normal life in the end as well they got the chance to have that even if it meant Evelyn marrying Celia’s brother they deserved those final few years together can I also just say that I love the mature way in which they dealt with getting back together when they were older because when they were younger it was more dramatic arguments and Evelyn running Celia’s hotel banging on her door who as when they start connecting again as all the women they’re writing each of the letters they sit down to dinner and they talk about it and that just shows the growth in their characters they’ve been with other people Evelyn tried to find love again with the director of her movies.

They both don’t have the energy to keep up fighting anymore they don’t have the energy to stop themselves from wanting to be together and I just think that’s so beautiful. and so the other major thing that I wanted to talk about is Harry Cameron oh my god did that break me Evelyn Harry’s relationship was so pure I absolutely adored their friendship and I think the way they entered into a marriage in order to double date Celia and her husband John was just a part of their lives.

That gave them so much happiness and allowed them to not have to be so secretive. and I think there were probably a lot of marriages like that in old Hollywood other Neverland and Celia I think that’s the most important relationship in the book even though they weren’t in love romantically they loved each other very much and they were a complete team they have a daughter together even though their marriage was never going to be like that they still have a love that’s completely unbreakable one of the more standout scenes to me in this book was the four of them after the Stonewall Riots where they have a discussion about what they can do to best help and it’s just so painful.

“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.”

because they want to be able to help and fight alongside people like them but they know that their best move is to stay quiet and help from where they are to secretly donate money to the causes that help. John has a heart attack and dies fairly young and Harry has left broken from that his final conversation with Evelyn is just so heartbreaking they’re trying to move on with their lives and Harry’s got somebody new he loves and they’re trying to make it work again it just doesn’t happen like that. that car accident and those scenes afterwards where Evelyn is trying to figure out what to do in a complete panic oh my god.

storytelling on those pages Jesus Christ. that of course leads me to the ending of this book that plot twist oh my god. going into the book I knew that Evelyn had some sort of connection to Monique that’s fairly obvious from the very start so I did try to predict what it was early on and in those first few chapters I was convinced that Monique was going to be related to either Evelyn or Celia in some way I thought maybe somebody had had a secret baby that that baby had been secretly adopted but part of me knew that that was also completely cliche and that’s exactly what you’d expect.

so I’m very glad that it didn’t go down that road I didn’t expect it to be where it actually was Monique’s father being the man that Harry was in love with the man that died in the passenger seat of that car oh my god it was so clever but also so painful. and again this is another instance of where the book does not try to hide Evelyn’s flaws it does not brush past some of the terrible things that she did. because even though she was acting out of love to her best friend to her partner in life she was trying her best to keep up his reputation to not let his name be tarnished but in doing that she also ruined a family’s life.

she allowed them to live a lie for so long because Monique thought that her father was drunk driving and caused his own death that letter that he’d written to Harry to explain the even though he was in love with Harry in a way he’d never been in love with his wife there was no way that he could leave his wife and his daughter.

I cried over Harry dying I cried over Celia dying and then I cried over that letter. this book was brutal on me I’m just everything about that ending was perfect because Monique doesn’t forgive Evelyn obviously she’s furious with her but part of her knows that she will be able to move on at some point just wow this book is how yeah I think it’s safe to say I absolutely loved everything about Evelyn her good side and her bad sides I just love how realistic she felt and I know that she’s a combination of a lot of real-life Hollywood actresses from that time period mixed together to make this sort of character but she’s also completely unique in her own way.

and she’s just yeah she’s up there she she’s got to be up there on my list of favorite characters. I loved her attitude to her own sexuality how she knew that her body was something that she could use to get the things that she wanted out of life and she wasn’t ashamed of that and she was poor of but she still made the absolute best of it and I respect real life women like that so I was going to love her character alloys I know there is so much that I’ve forgotten to talk about I feel like I’ve lived a whole life for reading this book you know it’s not that big it covers so much you live this book you experience it if there is anything about this book that you wish to discuss further please leave your thoughts and feelings down in the comments tell me everything thank you guys so much for Reading please let me know what you’re reading at the moment, I will see you again next time.