The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Published: 2024
Genre: Fiction
My Rating: 11/5
When I Read It: October 2025
When you're given an opportunity to change your life, be ready to do whatever it takes to make it happen. The world doesn't give things, you take things. If you learn one thing from me, it should probably be that.
My Review
This was one of the greatest books I have ever read, and I already know I'm going to come back to it — I am already looking forward to coming back to it. I cannot tell you the last time a book made me cry, if ever. Not only is this author so wonderfully talented in her writing, from vocabulary to imagery to character development, to leaving space for mystery and revelations to come out throughout the book, above all, she does a wonderful job of letting women be flawed and beautiful at the same time. She allows them to be greedy, driven, and pretentious.
Just like My Train Leaves at 3, this book is a permission slip to women to show up as disastrous as they care to. I think I read 80% of this book in one sitting. It got to a point that my mom got nervous and wanted to come check on me in my room because I was too quiet. It felt like I did when I was a kid, when I just couldn't stop. I stayed up until 3am because I just had to know how things ended and I was far from disappointed in the ending.
This book left me feeling satiated and grateful, for it was a literary feast. Now I'm afraid that I'll be looking for pieces of this book in everything that I read moving forward. I'm so excited to read more by this author, and I cannot wait for the Netflix movie.
Plot Summary
A legendary film actress reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine.
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.
Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ’80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.