The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo BY Taylor Jenkins Reid | BOOK REVIEW

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 )