Full Book Review - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Spoilers below:

Everyone, and their mothers, have read 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and loved it. Everyone, besides me. 

Just kidding (for the most part!).

Overall, the book was definitely a page turner. But I am not going to lie to you and say that every page was so fascinating. 

My biggest issue with the book is the dullness in the middle. After a little, the book plot feels repetitive: Evelyn is continuously taking on movies and taking advantage of others to stay relevant in the industry while not being authentic to her own desires and personal relationships. Her career itself was initially interesting, but otherwise boring to continue following. I do think that this parallels how draining the Hollywood industry can be, so this writing might be intentional to show us how Evelyn truly feels. It definitely felt like we were living Evelyn’s unfulfilling career along with her. It was just something I felt over-immersed in. 

Whenever the plot deviated from the above repetition, the book redeemed itself. For one, in my last blog, I shared my predictions about the last 30% of the book. I mentioned a car accident that would kill the father, and that the death would be Evelyn’s fault, which is partly true. Aside from that, however, the rest of my predictions were wrong. I feel like overall, I wasn’t able to guess the ending, and I loved the fast paced dramatic events that happened at the end, even though Evelyn’s death did devastate me.

What I particularly liked about the ending was learning more about Monique. I know, I know. The main focus of the book was supposed to be about Evelyn. I just feel like Monique has so many characteristics left unexplored. My favorite part of the book was actually tuning into Monique’s life, not Evelyn. I think that we could have benefited from more scenes with Monqiue. 

Overall, I loved the book’s exploration of complexities, whether that be ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, death, and even romances with partners committing domestic abuse. I can see how so many people are able to relate to Evelyn within this book. 

Even more, the highlight of the insatiable want for more is so relatable to Americans as a whole. People immigrate to America, wanting to make more money. Just like how Evelyn wanted to advance her career and make more and more and more movies, it is the American dream to want more and more and more. We see how unhappy and lonely Evelyn had become. When should we be satisfied? That is something for you to think about.