The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Happy New Year fellow explorers! I wanna start the year off by wishing you lots of health, happiness, and a big pile of books to read! We are starting off with an incredible book, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Thank you to all who voted on Instagram because this book was sooo good, I read it in 4 days. It was so unexpectedly great that I have to give it 4 stars.

Reid published the novel in 2017 and it accumulated some nominations like the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction. It was also a New York Times Bestseller and the novel gained more fame and attention as it grew popular on TikTok during the pandemic. You may also know the author from her other famous novels like Daisy Jones and the Six and Malibu Rising. Once again, this story is going to be turned into a movie. Netflix announced it in March of 2022 and People’s Magazine summarized that fans want Ana De Armas or Jessica Chastain as part of the main cast. No release date has been announced yet, but I am keeping an eye out and I’ll be ready.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a story about the romantic and overall life of the movie star mentioned in the title. She recruits a magazine journalist, Monique Grant, to write her biography and the complete truth behind her scandalous life.

While representation matters, it doesn’t have to be obnoxious or forced.

Like I said, this book was really great! I think its biggest appeal is the promise of the truth behind the gossip. While it can seem more interesting to women, I think everyone has this innate curiosity to find the truth. Some might be ready to go to all in, others prefer to sit back and let the truth come to them. And this is what this book is doing. Evelyn’s unfiltered life is displayed before us. All we have to do is read on. Here lies Reid’s real talent. She is able to get us hooked on Evelyn from a few 1-2 page tabloids. This persists throughout the novel as Monique first presents the “tabloid” view of the situation and then Evelyn’s reality. Now, I want to highlight the author’s smooth integration of the LGBTQ community into the story. I promise no spoilers, so don’t worry. I often find that as we talk more and more about the community’s rights and visibility in society, a lot of works of art are exaggerating. Books movies, and TV shows in particular tend to add some characters identifying themselves as part of the LGBTQ community just to say they did their part on inclusivity. The first cliché that just popped in your head: yeah, the gay best friend. And I find this is doing a disservice to the community. While representation matters, it doesn’t have to be obnoxious or forced. This is why I applaud the author for integrating some characters that are part of this community. She gives us a few hints and leads us to the conclusion about their sexuality. And all this without making them into stereotypes. Reid really found that perfect balance that makes their sexuality just part of who they are. They are not defined by it, but it’s also an existing part of them. I wanna talk about Evelyn’s character. Wow! She is so fierce, strong, commanding, confident, and resourceful. While she is an empowering role model who has the possibility to inspire readers, I admire her for being realistic. There is a particular scene that I have in mind when Ms. Hugo is arguing with one of her lovers and she tells them she will not give up her career and risk it unnecessarily for love. I know this can seem cold, and you think maybe it proves she doesn’t love them, but that’s not how I see it. If Evelyn were to give up her career for what her lover is asking, it would be in vain because nothing would happen. She would be stuck in the same place, but with a damaged career and very little hope to revive it again. I know this might not make sense to you if you haven’t read the book, but I promised you no spoilers. So when you go read it—because you will read it, it’s that good—just think back on what I said and it will all become clear. I know her celebrity status and scandalous life is unachievable for normal people. Yet I had some moments when I related to her or at the least felt some sympathy. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman and her struggles resonate more. Or maybe it’s because we get a behind-the-scenes reveal with this memoir. The way her character is built makes all the difference. She had to struggle and sacrifice a lot to become an actor. And this sits right with us because hard and smart work in out head = better life. Evelyn rightfully deserves her fame, unlike some real life celebrities or nepo babies. That is a whole other debate I am not getting into today, but I think Evelyn’s attitude contrasts highly with what is going on with social media in our lives right now. We are reminded some celebrities are worthy of the fame.

Of course, I cannot forget to mention that this book has enough action and plot twists to satisfy you. The reason why Evelyn chose Monique, the journalist, to write her memoir seems realistic enough as do many other events. Which is a good thing because we’ve all experienced the situation where a fictional story felt really pulled by the hair and that’s just annoying. It feels like a cheap escape. And we deserve more than that.

I want to end this segment by mentioning the blurred reality I appreciated in some scenes. This story is set in the 1950’s so you can imagine women were facing domestic abuse. And Evelyn was no exception. This is not really a spoiler, so don’t get mad at me if you see it this way. It’s a sad truth. While there is little evidence to confidently say women were getting abused more in the 1950s than today, they were sure to have less laws and regulations in place to protect those women. And what I wanted to mention was how resilient she was. Abuse victims deal with their trauma in their own way. There is no right or wrong way to deal with this. I admire Evelyn for retaining her power, for not letting it steal her shine. On this note, I feel like we often see celebrity marriages or relationships as either a pure match made in heaven or that there’s something fishy and wrong going on. Evelyn’s marriage to Rex North shows these opposites at play and how they mesh well together to give a “successful” marriage. “Loving” might not be the right word choice for that relationship, but a successful marriage is an appropriate term. And I feel like it could have had more darkness and wrong had it not been for Evelyn’s strong personality.

I admire Evelyn for retaining her power, for not letting it steal her shine.

Ok downsides, here we go. Monique works as a journalist and has written one excellent story. While she does work for a nice magazine, she’s not getting good content and mostly just covers basic stories. Evelyn’s attitude of “if you want it, go get it” is quite inspiring and can send you in a momentary motivational spin. And that’s what happened to Monique. A little context: Evelyn specifically requested Monique as the writer of her memoir and we feel there is a more personal connexion that the fact that Monique wrote a great piece once. Because exactly, she only wrote one great piece. Evelyn tells Monique her story is for her alone, not the magazine Monique works at. She either publishes Evelyn’s story on her own or she doesn’t get the story. Of couse this is a conflict of interest with Vivant, the magazine Monique works at. Long story short, Monique manages to convince Vivant to let her publish the story independently even though she was promoted because she landed an exclusive with Evelyn. So there you have it. Do you think this is unrealistic? Because I really do. No way some little writer at a somewhat famous magazine manages to know only get a chance to publish a legendary and secretive actress’ memoir INDEPENDANTLY, but she also manages to keep her job AND get PROMOTED??? No way. No way at all. And lastly, yes it was expected that Evelyn’s messy romantic life would inspire Monique to get her romantic life in order and find some clarity. Ummmm yeah seems unnecessary and a bit too much. Like just giving Monique the story was enough to help her out. But I will admit the reason Monique gives for her divorce is beautiful and original. I never saw it in that light, but when she talks about it at the end of the novel, it makes perfect sense.

Just like any good story our episode also has to end. Thank you for starting the New Year with me and for getting on the path to reading more. I feel blessed, and so should you, for having this incredible ability to understand words on a page and transform them into fantastic stories. If you’ve still got a little more time off, go pick up The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid at your favourite bookstore or library, it’s worth your while. And if you don’t have a little more time off for the holidays, that’s ok. You can still pick up a copy and read it during lunch or your commute? Maybe listen to an audiobook? Whatever works for you. I’ll see you in February. Check out @the.exploring.reader.podcast on Instagram for an Easter egg on the upcoming episode.

Until then, keep exploring those pages!