Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Fiction
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
400 pp. Atria Books $22.49
This is my second Taylor Jenkins Reid book, and I’m adding her to my favorite author list.
In The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo the eponymous Evelyn, a former A-list Hollywood actress, gives her life story to a young aspiring writer, Monique Grant.
Monique is excited about the opportunity, but can’t help wondering why this story wasn’t given to a more well-known writer. Someone who specializes in celebrity biographies.
Told in flashbacks with the occasional celebrity tabloid thrown in, Evelyn tells her story from how she came to Los Angeles, her rise in Hollywood, her seven husbands, and reveals the love of her life. We learn of secrets and scandals and what it takes to make sure you come out on top no matter what. In the end, we understand why Monique was chosen, and we’re left wondering if we would have made the same choices they do.
This book was a great book club pick. I love books where characters make tough choices, and we can debate if we would have done the same thing. That’s one of the things I think Jenkins Reid did well in both this book and in Daisy Jones. She develops the characters well and puts them in compromising situations. She definitely doesn’t go easy on her characters, but it’s still done in a realistic way. In one sense they are larger than life, but in another, they feel fully human.
I listened to the audiobook and highly recommend this.