The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

I somehow managed to avoid any spoilers for such a popular book and I'm so glad. It wasn't anything like I expected — I thought it might be overhyped but I really enjoyed it. Not someone who is normally a fan of first person perspective it really worked for this.

Evelyn Hugo isn't a character you love or hate — in the end I think she is what she wanted to be. The story of her life isn't black and white and you can both think she's selfish at times while also understanding why she does what she does.

Definitely one I'd recommend and read again!

I almost didn't read this book because the topics of celebrity and fame don't interest me. Luckily, BookTube convinced me to check it out and I'm so glad I did. It wrecked me in the best way. The characters are so well-crafted and I was completely invested in them. I kept looking forward to reading it. So if you're feeling lukewarm about it, I'd say it's worth your while.

“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.”


Almost 400 pages book - read in one sitting. I can't even begin to describe the intensity and beauty of this book. It shocked me, it made me cry and it made me laugh, it made me want to throw it across the room and it made me want to hug it. That's Taylor Jenkins Reid for you. This author is a magician with an incredible talent, their writing style is absolutely amazing. I couldn't put the book down. And I, as a huge fantasy lover (that's what I read 90% of the time), wasn't expecting to fall so hard for this book. For Evelyn Hugo.

This book is exactly what the title says: the story of the beautiful actress Evelyn Hugo and her seven husbands. It follows Evelyn since she was a child, before she became Evelyn Hugo. Evelyn tells her story in such a beautiful way and I absolutely loved her. I loved the fact that she wasn't ashamed of what she'd done in order to get famous. She wasn't ashamed of the fact that she knew she was a bomb of a woman and she used that to climb the mountain of celebrity. She struggled, she fell, she got back up again. She never stopped.

Evelyn Hugo is a force of nature , I think that's the best way to describe her. Her story will make you weep and it will make you realize (if you didn't already know) how unfair the world is. There are a lot of touching subjects throughout the book: the struggle of being a black or LGBTQ+ (or both) person back in the day, in the 50's or 60's. Or even later, because things don't get better. They're not better now, in 2021, so we can only imagine how hard it was for people then.

I won't say anything more, I just want you to discover Evelyn's story yourselves. Trust me, you won't regret it. The hype is real for this book and it did not disappoint.

I approach this book with some skepticism; not knowing exactly what I would find in it, more than a sort of a queer love story, but if was more, much, much more!
I'd loved this book, the characters are so likable. The story seems so real, knowing the lives of many queer Hollywood stars who had to hide their sexuality, their love ones, their true selves; because it was taboo and, in a very real sense, forbidden. Also the existence this people had to go in order to protect their identity. If it was hard for the rich and famous, I can only imagine how much worse had it been for regular people.
Highly recommended!!

This book has been such a phenomenon in the last year but strangely it has been mostly on the shores of the USA, in the UK I've heard fewer people talking about it and as a result as much as I waited and waited for my local library to get a copy it still remains elusive on the shelves. Finally, I decided I couldn't wait any longer and decided to go ebook on this one and I am so glad I did. It's one of those wonderful times when a books hype totally lives up to and exceeds your expectations.

Taylor Jenkins Reid gives us a sizzling tale of old Hollywood glamour as we follow ageing Hollywood movie star Evelyn Hugo as she approaches the age of 80, finally ready to share all on her life and seven marriages she asks for a young and unknown journalist to come and interview her in a tell-all exclusive. Through their time together Evelyn lifts the lid on her journey from Hell's Kitchen to Los Angeles and the things she did to climb the ladder of success in the movie business. From the days of the old studios who ruled the world to the modern world of movie making.

The character writing by Taylor Jenkins Reid in this book is exceptional. Her lead character of Evelyn Hugo itself is a complex one as she paints her as a woman happy to do whatever is needed to reach the top, even sleeping her way there but yet she is also a character for whom we feel immense compassion and respect and by the end of the novel it takes a while to remember that she is only a character in a book and not go running off to Wiki her online. The different marriages we are taken through in her own voice are each complex and fascinating to read about but it is the things that we don't expect about this book and that I won't disclose her for spoiler reasons that make it something truly magnificent.

I have been reading all fantasy all the time for some months now and this was a badly needed break and I devoured it. I flew through it because I simply could not put it down. We know that Evelyn's story is wrapped up in that of Monique her interviewer but we aren't sure how and we are teased throughout about how and why she asked the unknown Monique to write her story. It's a twist that when it comes is surprising and yet Taylor Jenkins Reid handles it beautifully and with compassion.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It was a beautiful, evocative and atmospheric story and didn't just make me understand why everyone else loved it but could very well be a book that stays with me for some time to come. A strong and early 2019 read that could very well be a top read of this year.

This book got raving reviews from my friends so I decided to pick it up without reading the synopsis. Although it was not what I expected I loved it anyways. It's both a brilliant love story and a powerful story about a queer Cuban woman succeeding in a male dominated world. Surprisingly somewhat feminist and I love it. ✊

4.5/5 for me!

Fun, with just the right amount of melodrama and some surprising twists in the story. I found Monique much less compelling of a character than Evelyn (or Harry or Celia, for that matter), but luckily the book focused a lot more on Evelyn. It's also fun to play spot-the-influence with Evelyn - I'm far from an expert on Old Hollywood, but there's Rita Hayworth and Elizabeth Taylor all over, along with some others who would probably be spoilers to note. If you like [b:Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema 20821197 Scandals of Classic Hollywood Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema Anne Helen Petersen https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398028966s/20821197.jpg 40167073] (the book or the topic), you'll probably enjoy this.

This was beautiful. I cried straight through the last how many chapters, but it was a good cry. And I like a good cry every now and then.

This book kept me enthralled from the start. Evelyn Hugo, of course draws you in, everything about her is interesting. I loved the storyline, loved the exploration of famous LGBTQ relationships from the 60s to today, and loved the way it the story was told. I also loved the inclusion of those magazine articles.

This will definitely be a reread for me at some point, and it's going to be a strong contender for my favorite book of the year.

Well, this most certainly wasn't a typical read for me, but quite entertaining nonetheless. While the initial part story seems to only want to flaunt opulence and promiscuity, that deceit and manipulation are the fastest ways to success, the latter part of the book dives into the moral dilemma of the ‘why' behind those choices. This was a case study in the complexity of being a good person while simultaneously being a bad person - it's about perspective. Plus how bad can you feel for an extremely successful Hollywood persona?

Going in it seemed like I was just reading an episode of Entertainment Tonight mixed with Sex and the City but at the end it provides a satisfying character examination and the societal pressures through love and loss.

This book got raving reviews from my friends so I decided to pick it up without reading the synopsis. Although it was not what I expected I loved it anyways. It's both a brilliant love story and a powerful story about a queer Cuban woman succeeding in a male dominated world. Surprisingly somewhat feminist and I love it. ✊

4.5/5 for me!

6.30.2021 update:Okay so the way this book has sat with me and how much I keep thinking about it is unreal. Border-line impossible tbh. I upped the rating. This book is fucking fantastic. 6.05.2021 original review:This book 100% deserves all the hype it gets. I just felt like there was something missing. So yeah, 3 stars. There was so, so much depth with Evelyn's character, but absolutely none with Monique's and I think that's where I'm struggling. I know this wasn't about Monique, but she was still a character. I think I would like to see more with her.Idk. I might change the rating to 4 stars. We'll see.

This is not my kind of book but it was picked in the book club so I gave it a try.
I was not ready to be unable to put it down. The story of Evelyn Hugo was haunting me when I was not reading and I couldn't wait to know the full story of her life.
This was amazing. The character felt so real and will for sure stay with me.