Isn’t that the very definition of power? Watching people kill themselves over something that means nothing to you?
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo…do yourself a favor and learn to grab life by the balls, dear. Don’t be so tied up in trying to do the right thing when the smart thing is so painfully clear.
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
CBR17 Bingo: Favorite
Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of my favorite authors.
This book was one from my midyear used book haul. I’d been wanting to read it for ages and thought, “Yes! I will get the paper book and then savor it page-by-page while sitting on my balcony.”
I did savor it but it wasn’t the amazing book I’d convinced myself I would love no matter what. Based on the promised content of Hollywood glamour, forbidden romance, and scheming underdogs, I was primed to tear through it. But it fell flat for me. It felt like I read the same story again and again. And this didn’t just apply to Evelyn’s husbands. It applied to her career choices, her crashes, her triumphs, and her always returning to the love of her life. Maybe it’s because I grew to loathe that person and got tired of mumbling, “Here we go again,” as Evelyn went through the same thing roughly once per decade.
Evelyn Hugo comes out of self-imposed isolation to auction off her gown collection as a charity fundraiser. That is shocking enough as it is, but then she reaches out and requests her exclusive interview be conducted by Monique Grant, a young, magazine feature writer who cannot fathom why Evelyn Hugo wants her to write the exclusive. To write the exclusive, giving Monique the scoop of her life and propelling her the journalistic spotlight, Evelyn spends days on end in her apartment with Monique and tells her her life’s story. She tells her about growing up with a widowed father and few opportunities in Hell’s Kitchen. She explains how she finally made it to California and Hollywood, and the sacrifices and gambles she made to become a matinee idol, a star of French new wave cinema, and how she navigated a public life destined for the tabloids.
Evelyn’s story is juicy and I wanted to root for her. But by the end, I was done. I do have to say though that a couple of twists were very well placed, so there’s that. However, that did not make up for the rest of it. I rank it lower than Daisy Jones and Carrie Soto, and on the same level as Malibu Rising.