The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 



ReidTaylor Jenkins Reid's The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a glittering and complex novel exploring stars, identity stories, love, and sacrifice through the fictional life of Hollywood star Evelyn Hugo. Taking place during 1950s-1980s Hollywood, the story spins that ambitious fictional narrative infused with machinations, scandal, secrets, and profoundly human emotion.


The story is framed through the perspective of Monique Grant, a little-known magazine writer, who learns that the aged and still-glamorous Evelyn Hugo has single-handedly requested that Monique—only Monique — write her tell-all biography. As Evelyn moves Monique throughout the stories of each of her seven husbands, we read the raw and compelling confession of a woman who made herself amidst the expectations of a world that sought to confine her.


Evelyn herself is what makes the novel so strong. She is an incredibly rich character—ambitious, scheming, imperfect, and yet sympathizable. Evelyn will manipulate the media, let relationships dissolve, and live in disguise, all in the name of protecting her career and the true love of her life. Reid also unpacks how women, especially queer women and women of color, have often been forced to navigate a myriad of obstacles built upon silencing and exclusion in relationship with industries and disciplines dominated by men in order to experience visibility and power.


Reid addresses many larger themes, including sexuality, race, misogyny, and the price of authenticity over a fabricated existence. Evelyn's bisexuality is a central component to the story, and her companionship with fellow actor Celia St. James is written with tenderness, pain, and realism. 

More than a love story, Reid's narrative indicates that the desire to hide who you are affects people's actions with each other. Taylor Jenkins Reid's writing is elegant, brisk, and thought-provoking. Jenkins Reid builds glamour and heartbreak with such detail that it is like readers are reading a memoir of Hollywood's past. 


The supporting cast, husbands among them, each hold a different chapter in Evelyn’s life and personality: some chapters bear love, others survival, strategy, or regret. The twist at the end, revealing Monique's relationship to Evelyn's past, adds a complexity to the reader's exploration of forgiveness, legacy, and the decisions we can live with.


 In summation, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is not simply a story of love and fame but a story of identity, sacrifice, truth, and the price of truly living. The novel leaves readers pondering how far they will go to protect the people they love and to live the life they want to live.



.... ✒️ PRAGATI SHARMA 

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