 PUBLICATION YEAR:
2017
GENRE: Romance/
LGBT/Historical Fiction
FORMAT: eBook
AVAILABLE ONLINE
: amazon
|
A couple
of things were going against this book while I was trying to pick it up for
reading. First and foremost, it belongs to a genre that I don’t necessarily enjoy.
Secondly, it was an eBook format which I find a little difficult to consume. An
eBook /kindle gives me mild headaches
and strains my eyes if I read for longer
hours which is why I prefer physical copies . And the third and final issue was
that lately I have been going through a reading slump and I blame my last two
books which turned out to be pretty average for me.
I half-heartedly
picked this up to read and I am so glad I did because I absolutely loved it. In
fact, while planning my review for this book, I couldn’t find a single flaw. So this review is going to be me gushing on
and on about how much I adored this story.
The story
chronicles the life of a Superstar actress Evelyn Hugo who as the title
suggests got married an astounding seven times in her lifetime. After leading a
spectacular and extraordinary life , she finally decided to give a tell- all book
of her spectacular life to a specific journalist called Monique . This biography was
going to cover all her seven marriages and her inspiring rags to riches story.
Evelyn
Hugo as a character was truly amazing. She was ambitious and would go to
despicable lengths to get what she desires. This trait may not be liked by
everyone but I personally loved how unapologetic and unabashed she was. Also,
she never tried to prove herself. She accepted her mistakes and never ever tried
to justify her so called sinful deeds. She is flawed, complex and still
realistic. Her extraordinary story could
make you feel really small. LOL .. !! 😄 I mean this woman practically
accomplished everything she aimed and much more. She also faced hardships with
grace and panache. Abusive relationships, unrequited love, media scandals,
doubts about her sexuality , fear of losing the stardom, loss of loved ones-
you name it, she has faced them all.
Monique
is the journalist who has been personally asked by Evelyn Hugo to write her
biography. She had her share of personal problems as well. Her character was
quite relatable in the sense that her issues were the “normal people (non celebrity)
issues” like dealing with divorce, struggling at your
job etc. Although she was relatable, I felt she was completely overshadowed by
the magnificent life of Evelyn Hugo. Hence,
I was not keen on reading her perspective . Nevertheless, she added the
extra dimension to the story through the mystery behind why Evelyn Hugo chose
her specifically to write the tell all. She even made her presence felt towards
the end where we see how Evelyn’s life changed her as a person.
Other
significant characters include another actress Celia who played a major
catalyst to the story. I can’t reveal much about her as I don’t want to give
too much away . But I can say this much that I had conflicting emotions about
her throughout the story. Of all the husbands, I liked Harry the most . He was a confidant and
a true friend to Evelyn.
The
story is told in two perspectives- Evelyn and Monique. Evelyn’s perspective was
more autobiographical in nature as she was narrating her story to Monique. Book
was divided into seven different sections covering each of the seven husbands .
I loved how each section starts with the name of the husband
along with a tag. For instance, “ Poor Ernie Diaz”, “ Goddamn Don Adler”, “
Gullible Mick Riva” etc. This kind of
sets the tone for the section that follows.
All
the human emotions are very aptly depicted . You could feel the pain as the
characters are going through the unfortunate circumstances. Similarly the highs will bring a smile to your face. It
tackles some hard hitting issues such as – abuse and homophobia. I also learnt how tabloids and
media frenzy affects the lives of the popular celebrity in ways you cannot even
imagine. I also liked the bisexual
representation in the book which was new to me as I don’t remember reading
about it before.
The
few plot twists made this book even more
enjoyable to read. I could not put this book down. I was so enthralled by it
that soon after finishing the book , I went online to see if this is going to
be turned into a movie, or if this book is based on a true story , or if Evelyn
Hugo is for real. I personally think it
has all the markings of a great soap opera.
RATING
– 🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑 ( 5/5 )
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