Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated. Regardless of why Evelyn has chosen her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
Summoned to Evelyn’s Upper East Side apartment, Monique listens as Evelyn unfurls her story: from making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the late 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. As Evelyn’s life unfolds through the decades—revealing a ruthless ambition, an unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love—Monique begins to feel a very a real connection to the actress. But as Evelyn’s story catches up with the present, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.
Review: I'll be honest, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is not the kind of book I would normally pick up, but it was at my library and hype is a thing so I read it. There were a lot of complex feelings when I read this book. First off, let's talk characters. I really disliked Evelyn Hugo. It wasn't even that she was a fun character to dislike. I just genuinely thought she was an awful person. I'm never going to be one of those people who believes the awful things you go through gives you the right to be horrid to others. Monique was meant to be an interesting character, but I felt like she didn't have very much page time. Her life didn't feel as fleshed out which made her seem less important. Those were honestly the only two characters. Any other characters felt like they were only around to push Evelyn's story forward, but they weren't that interesting.
Where the characters fell flat, the story flourished. I can see why people got hooked on the drama of Evelyn's life. Each husband had their own part, and the way they bled into each other was well constructed. That being said, there were some aspects that never really got addressed. Namely, there was a time where Evelyn pretended to have a miscarriage. This was the moment that made me hate Evelyn deeply. I understand why it was done, but faking a miscarriage is horrific and no one called her out on it. This made me uncomfortable and I haven't had a miscarriage. I can't imagine how awful that must have been to anyone who has experienced that particular hardship. There was another moment where a fellow actress married one of Evelyn's ex-husbands, and she ended up getting abused the same way Evelyn was. That also showed how little Evelyn cared about others. I know I already said it, but gosh I hated Evelyn very much.
Now that I'm done talking about what I disliked, let's move onto what I enjoyed. There were so many great opportunities for discussion throughout this book. There's a scene between Monique and Evelyn that felt particularly poignant. Evelyn mentions that she was in love with a woman and Monique immediately labels Evelyn as a lesbian. Evelyn gets mad and chastises Monique for trying to erase her bisexual identity. That allowed Monique to reflect on her own erasure being a bi-racial woman. That was a moment that stood out. I also liked seeing Evelyn tackle the erasure of her Cuban identity because that was self-erasure and I don't know any other book to actually bring that up.
On the note of sexuality, I loved the way sex and sexuality were dissected through this novel. Especially since the main character was a beautiful, young actress. We can really see the expectations people had of her throughout her career. There were also great scenes where Evelyn got to experience the difference between why women are supposed to have sex versus why men are supposed to have sex. There were some moments that were hard to read for me because of Evelyn's attitude towards her own beauty and sex, but I still think this is a great way to start being more open about these topics and expectations.
Finally, there are the bits about the media. As the story goes along, we get clips from newspapers that supplement Evelyn's story. We get to see how Evelyn and her friends are able to manipulate the media. I do wish things hadn't gone quite as smoothly for them because I wanted to see how they handled things differently. On that note, if anyone is in the media field, they might be uncomfortable of how the media is depicted as pawns in this story. I thought it was interesting, but sad. That being said, it seemed like these newspapers were meant to resemble tabloids and not papers like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.
I'm leaving this unrated because, like I said, I had complicated feelings. Overall, the characters were underwhelming, but the story was engaging and there are a ton of great talking points.
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