The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Genre: Women’s fiction. Stars from Goodreads: 4.25. Stars from me: 4.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is indeed a very entertaining read. There’s really no place in a book where you’d want to take a break and do something else instead of reading. You just want to read the whole book in one sitting even though it’s too long for that.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a story about an ageing Hollywood actress who’s finally revealing her secrets.

Evelyn herself is absolutely amazing. She’s so charming. She makes you smile. She makes you like her. Even though she’s a character, she acts and sounds alive and real. Her dresses are always gorgeous. If there’s ever a movie adaptation I will watch it just to see all this beauty again on the screen.

There are a few moments I didn’t like though. It feels awkward to be criticising something I actually enjoyed but I can’t pretend those moments didn’t happen. So here they are.

The strongest side of Evelyn Hugo

Evelyn has so much potential. She’s witty, wise and talented. Nevertheless, according to the book her main assets are her boobs.  I almost feel offended on her behalf.

Communication glitches of Evelyn Hugo

Some interactions between characters are plainly implausible. I don’t mean impossible. The are unrealistic. Here’s an example to illustrate what I mean. A couple is discussing their possible divorce while watching their beloved daughter play. They mention the implications a divorce would have on their work, their public image, other practicalities. Not once do they mention how it will affect their beloved daughter (who’s playing in front of them!) How is this possible? Either the daughter is a piece of furniture (which the book insists is not the case) or something doesn’t work with the storytelling. In fact, if you remove the adored daughter from the book completely, nothing at all will change in the plot.

Timeframes in the book

The time frames are simply announced by a character every time. There’s no feeling of the time passing by. You just read about a few scenes and then you are informed that actually 15 years passed while you were reading them.

Terminology

It’s a minor thing, but it was repeated several times so it is noticeable that a character calls her grief “the devastating luxury of panic”. To me it doesn’t sound like an extravagant or sophisticated choice of words but rather like the character doesn’t know proper words for her feelings.

On a positive note

I did love the end of the book! I was preparing myself for something way more simple than that. There was a great twist and an awesome finale as a result. 

I’m giving the book four stars and I will be recommending it to people because it’s beautiful and fast-paced, and it entertains really well.