It would appear that author Taylor Jenkins Reid knows the exact combination to make me go from casually enjoying a book one minute to sobbing for an hour the next. I cried while listening to the audiobook to Daisy Jones & the Six and I cried again over The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
It wasn’t even an expected crying session—it was just like Bam. I hope you didn’t need that heart because I just ripped it outta your chest.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is about a retired fictional Hollywood superstar who tells her story to a young reporter, wanting to get the truth about her life out there upon the event of her death. Hugo is loosely based on Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner, both married several times during their legendary careers. The book deals with finding love (and then losing it), making it as a celebrity, the studio system of Old Hollywood, but it is mostly about hiding big parts of yourself to please others.
Like Daisy Jones, Evelyn is told from multiple points of view but in a unique way. Narrative-wise, the two books are very similar in that someone is compiling a story on behalf of the person the story is actually about, although the journalist who gets to write Evelyn’s Hollywood story gets more of a plotline. I found a lot of her stuff a little superfluous and unnecessary—it tied back to the plot, I just didn’t think some things didn’t need to be included.
The character of Evelyn Hugo is fantastic. She is ruthless and glamorous and ambitious. She is definitely one of the most interesting characters I’ve had the good fortune to read about in a while.
This book is great. If old-timey glamour and scandal are in your wheelhouse—and if you can handle some heartbreak—definitely give The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo a read.
RATING: 4.5/5 stars
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