By: Sophia Elmstrom
*Warning: This review contains spoilers.
‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’, written by Taylor Jenkins Reid, is a book that was written in 2017 but became very popular in 2022 from social media. It became so popular that it is being made into a movie for Netflix. The book became heavily known from the app TikTok and has been super popular since 2022.
When I first heard of the book I thought that it would be very overrated and kind of boring. I was proved very wrong within the first few chapters and got hooked instantly. The way that the book is organized and formatted makes you want to never put it down. There are exactly 400 pages in ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ and not one of them makes you want to stop reading it. The hype on social media was definitely deserved and I believe that Taylor Jenkins Reid is a very talented author with many other bestselling books like ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ and ‘Malibu Rising’.
‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ is about a woman named Evelyn Hugo who requests that her final “interview” is with an unknown magazine reporter named Monique Grant. Evelyn Hugo tells this magazine that it is an interview about her dresses that are for auction but when she is with Monqiue she requests that she write a biography about her life. Monique accepts the offer and spends weeks with Evelyn writing this story and bringing it to life. Evelyn’s story takes place in the 1950s when gay relationships and marriage were not yet legalized or normalized.
The first husband that this book focuses on is Ernie Diaz, Evelyn’s first husband. She talks about how Ernie was her escape from her abusive father at only 14 years old and a way to get to Hollywood. Evelyn eventually meets someone in Hollywood and divorces Ernie at 17 for better publicity when entering the acting world.
Don Adler is Evelyn’s second husband and a fellow actor whom she was set up with by a producer in her studio. Don and her fall in love and shortly after their marriage he starts showing the abusive side of himself and starts hitting her. During this marriage Evelyn becomes very close with a costar named Celia St. James who during a party, she is told that Celia is a Lesbian. Evelyn confronts her about this later and they share a kiss which leads to Don divorcing Evelyn for being unfaithful.
Evelyn and Celia start dating outside of the media and in secret and Evelyn goes to Las Vegas with Mick Riva to distract the press. Celia finds out about Mick and Evelyn and Celia leaves Evelyn for five years which leads to Evelyn divorcing Mick Riva.
Evelyn is in a new movie where she meets her costar Rex North who she falls in love with and while they are married Rex cheats on Evelyn. Evelyn makes up a story that she had an affair with her close friend and producer Harry Cameron in order to keep Rex’s good name. While she is telling people this lie she finds out that Harry Cameron is secretly dating a football quarterback, John Bravernam, who is married to her old girlfriend Celia. Evelyn and Celia find their way back to each other and start dating again in secret.
This lie about the affair eventually turns into the marriage of Harry and Evelyn where they then move to Manhattan and live with Celia and John. They do this so they can each have their partners in secret so the press doesn’t suspect anything. Evelyn and Harry have a child after rumors about the couples start spreading, in order to prevent these affairs from getting out. Evelyn starts working on a movie with her and Celia’s ex husband Don Adler, and Celia gets very worked up about this and ends up leaving Evelyn for years.
Her second to last husband is Max Gerard who she stays married to for six years before reuniting with Celia. She soon learns that Celia has a condition which causes her to have less than ten years to live. Evelyn divorces Max and goes to Celia’s estate to live with her.
While Evelyn is living with Celia, Harry, her ex-husband and father of her baby, dies from a car crash leaving Evelyn and her child to grieve alone. Harry was with a man he was dating when he died and there was a letter written to Harry that Evelyn had yet to open. Celia suggests that Evelyn marry her younger brother Robert to draw away suspicion and all three of them live together until Robert dies three years later. Evelyn and Celia live together until Celia dies.
The book shifts back to Monique’s perspective where Evelyn is telling her that the person in the car with Harry was Monique’s father. This is why Evelyn had requested Monique to write this biography for her. Evelyn gives Monique the letter and tells Monique that the book can be published after she dies of breast cancer. Evelyn told Monique all of this because she had planned to take her life herself instead of letting breast cancer kill her. Evelyn is found dead and her death is reported as an overdose. Monique publishes the book where the main idea is that Evelyn’s true love was Celia St. James.
This book is very well written and organized well and the story is very interesting and page turning. This is one of my favorite books but I wouldn’t recommend this for every age. I would recommend this for 13 and up because there is a lot of mature talk and scenes. I give this book a 10/10.
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