The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Rating: ★★★★☆
This…is a really great book.
I’m a little bit late to this party, mostly because I tried once before to read it, and made it to the end of the second chapter before I put it down. I think sometimes it’s just a case of wrong book, wrong time. I’m never going to enjoy a book if there are others I’d rather be reading.
However, I’m immensely glad I finally woke up to how good Seven Husbands is. So, why the 4 stars?
Perhaps a little unfairly, the book lost a star through no fault of its own. Unfortunately, being late to a book party often means that spoilers are very hard to avoid and have kind of entered social discourse (i.e. book twitter) with no spoiler warning. And rightly so; comparatively speaking this book is old. Especially in the world of blogging and book reviews. This meant that I went into the book knowing what was going to happen, there was almost no mystery, and therefore lacked suspense – absolutely not the book’s fault, but nevertheless had an impact on my enjoyment. I’m a murder mystery lover, suspense often means a lot for me.
Having said all of that, I absolutely loved almost everything else.
The pacing, the characters, the story, the writing, even the format of the book – I loved it all. The book being split into parts pertaining to each husband worked really really well for the story, the pacing was amazing – it sometimes took a little while to get a grip on where exactly we were in Evelyn’s life but it didn’t detract from the book. Evelyn’s character is just superbly written. Complex, caustic, yet so completely human – you get a sense of feeling how those around Evelyn must have felt had she been real. She has flaws – major ones sometimes – but as the reader you fall completely for her and are rooting for her from the first page, regardless of how she acts. She’s brilliantly written.
I have to say that I felt very little for Monique, I know the book isn’t technically about her, I felt like a little bit more of her character could have been explored – there was comparatively little and not enough for me to really connect.
Spoilers commence from here———————————-
Celia and Evelyn’s relationship was heart wrenching, with the husbands as secondary yet no less real characters I felt that the over all way the book was handled was masterful. The ending – ouch. Gosh it hurt me, yet felt completely right in a way, and it was something I did see coming from about halfway in.
For me, this is a really refreshing approach to a book and is unlike most other things I’ve read…I love that it makes me feel that way as sometimes I see too many books whose plots are basically just a copy and paste. Not for Evelyn Hugo though – she only gets the best treatment.
This is a book I would highly recommend to pretty much anyone who enjoys the ‘old Hollywood’ vibe, mystery, intrigue, romance and beautifully written characters – it won’t disappoint you.
Yes, going into The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo I knew what to expect – I was not, however, prepared for how it would make me feel. Sometimes, that’s the best part.
