Non-Spoiler Book Review | “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” by Taylor Jenkins Reid

• Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

“Show me the real you, then. And I’ll make sure the world understands.”

I don’t even know what to say. How to even preface this book before I start reviewing it? It wasn’t a bad story, but I feel like it was missing something. But the three stars is not a bad review, it’s just that normally this is not the genre I read and it felt a little flat for me. Also, Tiktok recommended this book to me, just fyi.

In this book, we get the life of Hollywood star Evelyn Hugo narrated by the journalist Monique who works for a prestigious magazine. Evelyn Hugo never gave an exclusive interview to anyone throughout her career, so Monique has no choice but to accept because this could be huge for her career. Evelyn and she sit down and talk about Evelyn’s life as Monique takes notes and listens. But little did she know that meeting Evelyn would change her life forever. You see, it wasn’t a mere coincidence that Evelyn chooses Monique to write her autobiography, but I guess if you want to find out, you have to read the book.

Now, I want to mention that the way this story was written is beautiful. The author has a unique way of bringing you into the story in ways no other author has made me. The story is captivating and unique. It exposes the true world of Hollywood as it really is. It makes you wonder if your favorite celebrities and their marriages are similar to Evelyn in a sense, even though these are different times. 

I’m sure you’ve seen spoilers by now that this is an f/f romance and I think is detrimental to the history of the book, but I’m not sure I would want to explain it because it feels like I would be giving the book away. So, instead, I won’t mention anything about it even though that’s the biggest part of the story. If you read the book, you’ll find out why I choose not to mention the topic. 

What I will mention though is the way this story is written. I cannot get over how good this story executed. It honestly made me believe that Evelyn Hugo was a real actress and that she was writing her autobiography and not a fictional story. Taylor Jenkins makes you hurt for Evelyn, makes you hate her, makes you question her motives at all turns but all in all, she makes you understand Evelyn. I don’t think that the author’s purpose was to make us love or hate actress Evelyn Hugo, I think she wanted us to understand her. But it’s impossible not to feel sympathetic over Evelyn’s trials and attributions, regardless of what Evelyn mentions in her book. 

I completely understand why people love this book so much, if my mind wasn’t so filled with impossible ideas of love, I know I would’ve enjoyed this story ten times more. It’s a wonderful story full of surprises and turns and everything else you’re not expecting. I know what most of you that will read it, will enjoy it. I highly recommend it if you need a heartfelt story about a woman in Hollywood. This book is meant for adults but sixteen-year-olds and older can read it too with no problem. I once again thank you for reading my post, I truly appreciate it. Until the next one.