Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

While I really enjoyed reading this book, I was not as blown away as I was expecting to be (especially considering that there’s so much hype around it). Below is my book review based on plot, setting, characters, writing style and overall opinion:

Plot

Without giving anything away, the novel is about the life, loves, and marriages of famous Hollywood star, Evelyn Hugo. Towards the end of her life, Evelyn reaches out to Monique who is a writer at Vivant magazine. She wants Monique to write her biography. We find out the reason as to why the Hollywood icon chooses a relatively junior, obscure writer to complete this million-dollar book towards the end of the novel. While I enjoyed the story and the unexpected twists, I felt it was a bit rushed. Some of the chapters were barely a page. I feel the book is on the shorter side considering the readers are taken through Evelyn’s life from early teen years up until her late seventies. (0.5 star)

Setting

The setting jumps between modern day New York and 1950s Hollywood. I feel I was able to imagine Hollywood back in the day with the gorgeous clothes and vibrant atmosphere from reading the novel. (1 star)

Characters

While we really got to know Evelyn and delved into her character, I feel a lot of the secondary characters were skimmed over. For instance, we only really got to know Don and Harry out of the seven husbands, the rest only got a few pages. Again (as with the plot), I feel it would have benefited from being longer so that the other characters could have been brought to life a bit more. (0.5 star)

Writing Style

I enjoyed the straightforward forward, easy to read writing style. I particularly liked the magazine cut out pieces throughout the novel. (1 star)

Overall Opinion

I really enjoyed the book, I just wish there was more of it. I love how Reid tackles complex, difficult topics in such a powerful way. She touches on issues surrounding identity, values and how important it is to lead an authentic life. I found the overall messages to be deeply moving and important. The main reason I didn’t give it a full star here is because I think Reid could have pushed even further and gone into more depth with some of the characters and issues raised rather than mention and gloss over them. (0.5 star)

Rating: 3.5/5 stars