The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. No Advance Reader Copy was included, and no affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
The paperback edition cover of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid against a white background.
What I love about the bookish corner of the internet is that different books appeal to different people. Yet I feel like I should be handing back my book reviewer and bisexual credentials or something (lol) before saying this: I didn't enjoy The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
I shouldn't be overly surprised since I DNFed the other TJR books I tried (Daisy Jones & The Six and Malibu Rising). The number of people still recommending I read Evelyn Hugo made me want to give TJR another shot. While I made it to the end of this one, it was not the book for me.
The novel is a sweeping epic covering Evelyn's Hollywood career and later life, but sections of the story managed to drag on for me while the ending felt rushed (there was way too much trying to wrap up every little thing). Most of the characters felt underdeveloped to me. Some of this is because it's from Evelyn's point of view, but Celia St. James didn't feel like a fully-rounded character. I wasn't invested in their relationship, and since it is the central relationship, you can see why I struggled to enjoy the book.
The framing of the novel is that Evelyn sits down with a journalist to share her life story, so I understand Monique Grant's role. But she was also really underdeveloped, so the subplot about the breakdown of her own marriage felt like we were going off on an unnecessary tangent. As a result, I couldn't buy the impact interviewing Evelyn had on Monique's ability to believe in and stand up for herself in work and personal relationship situations because I had no deep sense of Monique as a person before Evelyn came into her life.
I wonder whether the fact that I went through a phase of reading non-fiction and watching documentaries about Hollywood actresses from this time affected my reading of Evelyn Hugo. The elements based on Elizabeth Taylor are obvious, down to Evelyn being known for her eyebrows instead of Taylor's eyelashes! TJR has also stated that the initial framing device is based on Ava Gardner's interview with Peter Evans. There is nothing wrong with any of this; it's just that for me, TJR didn't build on these elements in a way that worked as a complete novel.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid is published by Simon & Schuster and is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
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