The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid Book Review
“Being wrapped up in digesting Evelyn’s story means I don’t have to exist in my own.”
(pg. 223)
About
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: New Adult Romance
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Synopsis
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.
Review
Spoilers Contained Below
To the greatest love of our life,
I’ve seen The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo floating around on the interweb or the internet as you will. And I’ve heard nothing but raving reviews and good things, so I wanted to pick up The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo to see what people have been talking about. After reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I have to say it was nothing at all what I expected based on the title and the book cover. I didn’t read the synopsis because sometimes I feel like book blurbs spoil the fun of figuring out what the book is about or the mystery in it. So most times I go into books blind because it’s funner that way. I highly recommend doing that with all books you read 👌🏼. But that’s just what I do.
I thought the book was about this woman who was famous and glamorous and who married all these men because DUH. I thought maybe the mystery was why she married seven men or that she needed to killing one, I don’t know 😂. When I said I went into this book knowing nothing, I meant it.
I really enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo with it’s drama, glamour, complexity, and love. It was such a gripping and interesting book and so different that I can’t really explain it unless you read it. It just had this quality of being devastatingly tragic, fierce, but also powerful. I loved the structure of the book and the writing. I never read a Taylor Jenkins Reid book before, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about Malibu Rising as well (which I want to read in the future). I liked the mood she created in this book because I got old Hollywood drama and glamour. I also got the 50s to 2017 vibes as we followed Evelyn through her life. I also liked how the story was told autobiographical with mystery because we got to see Evelyn’s life through her eyes and Monique’s.
I didn’t really connect to Monique because we didn’t learn or know that much about her besides she worked at Vivant as a journalist and she deserved much better. She got this opportunity of a life to interview Evelyn Hugo about dresses Evelyn was donating for a gala. But when Monique got there, she discovered that Evelyn wanted her to write her biography because Evelyn liked Monique’s succulent and heart-striking writing. But there was also the whole mystery of why Evelyn was adamant that Monique write her autobiography. I did think it was bizarre that Evelyn kept insisting for Monique or that Vivant wouldn’t get a piece from her if Evelyn didn’t speak to Monique. Then there were the moments throughout the book where Monique kept hinting how she would later hate Evelyn or want to kill her. I was like What?! Why would Monique say that? That made me think it had to be something absolutely awful for Monique to hate Evelyn that much. I thought maybe Monique was Evelyn’s secret child or someone related to someone she loved because that would make the most sense and be surprising. But then I didn’t think Monique was Evelyn’s daughter because for one that would be too obvious and second, I just didn’t get the vibe that that would be the reason Monique didn’t like Evelyn.
If a famous person came up to me and asked me to write her/his/their biography, I think I would do it, but I would be immensely intimidated and nervous because that’s a heck of a lot of responsibility!!!! To write someone else’s life and get the words just right? That’s terrifying because you don’t want to portray the person wrong or get the words wrong. I think Monique had every right to think about doing the biography even if Evelyn said Monique could keep the money and the fame Monique would get from selling the book. I mean, it’s not like Evelyn needed the money, but still.
When we meet Monique she was also very passive about her life. She was going through a fresh divorce with a guy named David who wanted Monique to move to where he found a new job but she didn’t want to give up her life or dreams just for his. I thought it was petty that David took her coffee table across the country. But whatever floated his boat, I guess. talk about Moniques marriage and how she learned David wasn’t the one based onall her husbandsBut Monique let people walk over her because she didn’t know how to stand up for herself or get what she wanted or deserved. She was just waiting to work her way up the ladder at work rather than asking for the position she deserved. I’m the same way though—-I don’t like sticking out of my box and into other people’s business—-and I would much rather just go with the flow or what people ask of me. But it was nice to see Monique grow and ask for what she wanted. Because if she didn’t ask, no one knew what she wanted; the worst others could say was no. I also liked that Evelyn taught Monique to be brave because Evelyn knew what it was like to grow up in a “man’s world” where she had to fight for where she was today.
And if there was anything Evelyn Hugo was it was a fighter.
Evelyn’s one of the most complex, dynamic, intriguing, straight-up, and fierce women I have read about in a while.
“No one is just a victim or a victor. Everyone is somewhere in between.”
(pg. 366)
Evelyn was definitely in the realm of in-between.
“I hate Evelyn, but I think I like her very much.”
(pg. 375)
When Monique said this at the end, I quite agreed. Maybe not so much on the hate part, but I felt visceral for her. After reading about Evelyn’s life, I couldn’t help but admire and respect all she had been through to be where she was today. I also couldn’t help but feel pained at the lengths and battles she had to go through just to be here today. She did some pretty sticky and wrong things, but I could understand why she did them because they protected herself and those she loved. Sometimes we do things like that out of love and I can’t really fault her that. It doesn’t mean Evelyn was right for the things she did, but I understood it. I also liked how Evelyn owned up this entire time to knowing she wasn’t a good person or at least a saint. She never tried to lie or hide who she was to Monique because her autobiography was her truth.
The whole story was recounting Evelyn Hugo’s life from her first husband to her seventh. It was also about answering the question of who was Evelyn Hugo’s greatest love because if she had seven husbands, you would think she would have loved at least one of them.
So it was surprising when yes, Evelyn Hugo did marry seven times, but it was never about her seven husbands. It was about hiding how she really loved Celia St. James, her secret wife.
“I said, ‘Doesn’t that bother you? That your husbands have become such a headline story, so often mentioned, that they have nearly eclipsed your work and yourself? That all anyone talks about when they talk about you are the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo?’
And her answer was quintessential Evelyn.
‘No,’ she told me. ‘Because they are just husbands. I am Evelyn Hugo. And anyway, I think once people know the truth, they will be much more interested in my wife.'”
(pg. 385)
She really clapped back with that 👏🏼.
But I loved how the story was about Evelyn being a bisexual woman in the 50s and on, and navigating what her sexuality meant to her and trying to be with the person she really loved when the world didn’t accept that yet. It was such a surprise in the story because I thought the title was about her husbands, but it was actually about how she did everything in marrying all these husbands so people would never question her sexuality or it would distract people from the truth.
It’s so weird because I’m a Get Z and I grew up where the LGBTQIA+ community was just the LGBTQ community back then. People would talk about the LGBTQ community when I was younger and it was an acknowledged community because people knew they were others out there who loved differently. No one really talked about it back in the early 2000s because I think people still were trying to understand what was comfortable to talk about. That or I was too young to understand what was going on in the world yet—-I was just a baby. As I grew older and went to middle and high school, more people around me were comfortable talking about their sexuality and identity and it was widely accepted in my schools that it was okay to love who you love and be who you wanted to be. No one had to come out or say who they were, but they could do it in subtle ways like saying, “Oh, isn’t he cute,” or “I think she looks hot,” or something and we would just know that that was them trusting us to come out. No one bullied or teased anyone, fortunately, and we accepted everyone as they were. Even in college, people were accepting and we had conversations about the LGBTQIA+ community in classes. Especially in my Women’s Studies class, we talked about the changing landscape of understanding sexuality and identity and what it means to different people and cultures. It’s so weird to me because I grew up around a culture that accepted and had more conversations about the LGBTQIA+ community that it never felt like it wasn’t normal. And I think the fact that we live in a time where the LGBTQIA+ community and living your truth is not as frowned upon or taboo, is immense progress compared to when Evelyn and Celia and Harry and John lived. It’s weird and wild because I can’t think of a time like that and it feels wrong and it breaks my heart that people like Evelyn and Harry and sooo many more people grew up having to hide who they were and who they loved because the world didn’t understand them or make them feel comfortable to live their truth. I can’t even imagine the other layer of Evelyn and Celia and Harry and John all having this spotlight on them and feeling like if anyone found out, they would ridicule or shun them or something because they were famous. Other people who didn’t have that stoplight could be who they were (maybe in secret), but at least they didn’t have to go through all these loops and measures to hide it from the public and others. That’s hard. It breaks my heart knowing that people went through that.
AnAnd I’m not saying the world is perfect today because there are still people who frown upon or lambast those in the LGBTQIA+ community and that sucks and makes me angry. But it’s nice to know that we are more comfortable and inclusive in this society to allow people to live their truth or discover who they are. I think that’s such a beautiful and powerful thing that I never fully appreciated until reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo; I think I took for granted that I live in a semi-accepting society where I never think much about how it wasn’t always that way for others. But I am happy with the progress we have made and hopefully the progress we will continue to make as a society to be inclusive and accepting of who people are—-to let people live their truth.
I don’t know what it’s like to not live my truth but when I think of those who feel like they have to hide who they are because of the fear they will get if they come out, shatters my heart. People should be able to be who they are every day of their life because I can only imagine that it must not feel like they are being the version of themselves they want to be if they can’t freely love who they love or be who they want to be. Hiding yourself or your truth can be extremely hard mentally and emotionally and physically because you might not feel like you, and it makes me sad that Evelyn and other people today might not feel like the you they want to be because of the people who still make it hard for them to be. And it just makes me sad because everyone deserves to be themselves and to love who they love.
So reading about how Evelyn always had to hide that, was devastating. She deserved to live her life loving the greatest love of her life.
Instead she married seven ratty a**es who couldn’t be with Celia the way she wanted to (except Harry and Robert, they were decent) 😂.
Let’s talk about her seven husbands shall we.
Husband One: Ernie Diaz
Married out of convenience
Evelyn’s upbringing was rough and sad. I don’t know how else to describe it.
Her dad seemed like trash and her mom seemed like a gem. Her mom probably instilled Evelyn with all this strength and determination to be the fighter that she was. It just BROKE MY HEART and made me feel utterly disgusted for Evelyn that all these men would look at her little girl body and take advantage of her!!!! I mean, they were all old enough to know what they were doing with a minor and it just freaking discussed me 😣. I just freaking detest people who look at someone’s body and only sees them as something they can derive pleasure from. I don’t know. It feels sleazy and disgusting and gross. And it just made me feel sleazy for Evelyn—-not that I’m calling Evelyn a sleaze, but the people who took advantage of her. And the AUDACITY of these freaking nasty a** men to make it seem like it was her fault because her body was so tempting that they couldn’t help themselves was a load OF BULL!!!!! Typical men blaming women for nothing. I freaking detest. Period.
Evelyn wanted to leave this sucky life she had in New York and so she married Ernie as an escape to Hollywood so she could create the life she and her mom always dreamed of. She was just a baby when she got married!!!!! Was it illegal to marry a minor that young at the time because it seems illegal to me 😅????!!??!!? I mean, Ernie knew she was young, right. But gosh it just made me sad that she felt that marrying this guy was her way out and she didn’t really love him. I guess you got to do what you got to do and I don’t blame her or judge her for it, but it’s just sucky that she felt that was the only way.
It also made me feel disgusted for her that she felt like she had to sleep with that producer at that agency because she wanted a part so badly she knew that producer guy, Ari, would sleep with her and she would get somewhere. And there’s a lot to be said about how people probably still sleep around to get what they want or they do what they feel like they need to do to get where they were, but Evelyn was so young. It just rubbed me the wrong way for her and it made me want to hurl that Ari would take advantage of her like that, knowing she was young. I mean, guys really don’t have a moral code when it comes to their sex hormones I guess, especially back then. I don’t even know, it was just hard to read that knowing her age.
She was starting to achieve all she wanted with getting roles and being discovered. She even reinvented herself from Evelyn Herrera, a strong Cuban woman, to a more westernized Evelyn Hugo. Evelyn’s whole reinvention made me think about the lengths people go through in the industry to be where they are. It’s not unheard of that people had to redefine themselves to make it back then or even today. It also made me uncomfortable the way they sexualized Evelyn.
“I was designed to be two opposing things, a complicated image that was hard to dissect but easy to grab onto. I was supposed to be both naive and erotic. It was as if I was too wholesome to understand the unwholesome thoughts you were having about me. . . Sometimes I think the difference between an actress and a star is that the star feels comfortable being the very thing the world wants her to be. And I felt comfortable appearing both innocent and suggestive.”
(pg. 51)
Women have been sexualized in the media for a long time. It’s the fantasy that people like to think of women being these stunning people you want to be or want to have, but not giving people too much because then they wouldn’t want to know more. I feel like it’s a game in the media—a fine line they try to balance to make people stars or to keep people hungry for more. Also, people always like to fantasize about someone they think they can be with or they think they can be if they look long and hard enough. But when I think of old Hollywood, I think about how women were portrayed as innocent but also desirable people and that’s the appeal that made people keep coming back or watching. I don’t think much has changed with how some stars or people are portrayed, maybe a change in being more vulnerable and authentic, but sometimes people are told to balance these fantasies to be the ultimate fantasy or star.
Husband Two: Don Adler
Married out of fame
Don Adler was a piece of shiz 😂.
He was just a star studded guy who knew how to sweet talk his way to get Evelyn to marry him. Honestly, one thing I wondered all throughout the book was why she was so quick to marry these guys when she barely even went on a date with them. I mean, she did go on a few dates but then after a month or a few weeks they would tie the knot, which was bonkers to me considering I know people who wait like eight or ten years to marry someone because they’re still getting to know each other. I think it was because of the times that people got married younger and didn’t want to spend all this time dating, but gosh, it’s so weird to wrap my head around her marrying all these men so quickly.
Don was the only person Evelyn actually kind of loved as a husband because he never made sex feel like an obligation or a dirty thing. They made love to each other and that was precious to her—they both wanted it. I found it a bit sketch their big age gap, but not because I’m against that huge of an age gap. But a sis was 19 or something and he was like 25 or 26. When a person is nineteen, I feel like they’re still navigating being a teenager and young adult and 25 and 26 you’re more acquainted with being a young adult. So I thought their dynamic would be weird because of how they would be at different places. But I don’t know.
It didn’t surprise me that Don abused her. Not surprised, horrified and disgusted, yes. Not surprised because he seemed like too much of a sweet-talker and a nice person that there had to be something underneath that wasn’t good. He was a usual guy who let his pride and ego get in the way because if he wasn’t successful or he was jealous that someone else, especially a woman, was doing better than him in his career, it made him angry and jealous. And ugly. Jealousy can bring out some pretty ugly qualities in a person and Don was really disgusting in the way he treated Evelyn like a servant and a punching bag. It broke my heart that she would cover up her bruises or her mistreatment because she didn’t know what to say or didn’t want people to talk. There was also the fact that Don would abuse her and then he would apologize, acting all sweet and nice. But sis, if he hit you once and apologized, I just knew he would do something again because an apology means nothing. I could understand how difficult it was for her to not know how to escape this cycle of abuse because she did love him in the beginning and she wanted to believe in Don’s better qualities. But also sometimes we forgive people we love because we overlook their faults, thinking it’s not a big deal when it was. It also broke my heart with how Evelyn was scared to be around Don sometimes because she knew he would hit her if she did something or said this or that. That’s not something she should ever have to feel with someone she loves—-on edge. I wanted her to leave him sooner. He didn’t deserve her forgiveness time and time again, and again, it wasn’t Evelyn’s fault. That’s so hard.
I liked it thought that she had Celia St. James as a new friend during all this. Evelyn had been curating a plan for her career. I liked when Harry and Evelyn had that talk about building her image and her movie curation because I never really thought about how sometimes actresses and actors plan out what roles or movies they take to build up their skill or interest with the public. I agreed with Harry that Evelyn should do the smaller roles to dip her toes into the acting world and then once people were invested in her, she should do Little Woman because it would be a different side to her that people would want to see. Talking about building her image made me think about Zendaya because I love Zendaya. I don’t think for a second that Zendaya is at all like Evelyn, but Zendaya came to mind because she started on Disney Channel in two original shows before she went on to do big name movies and dynamic and interesting shows. She built her career and chose different parts that challenged her as an actress and pushed her talents. I grew up watching Zendaya from Shake it Up all the way to Spiderman: No Way Home, and it’s crazy how far she has come. But I followed her work growing up because I love who she is, her personality, kindness, fashion sense, and compassion, but I also have grown invested in her as a viewer to see what she does next—-she constantly surprises people with what she can do. So in this way, she sort of reminds me of Evelyn’s career path. I don’t know if Zendaya’s career path was planned the same way, but she surely built a name for herself in a humble, dedicated, and poised way.
Evelyn was intimidated by Celia because she was a new upcoming actress who Evelyn knew was better than her. I liked how when we first met Celia, Evelyn and her didn’t get along because Evelyn could tell Celia just wanted to be seen with Evelyn for clout. I mean, sometimes I think it’s like that in Hollywood where people care much more about being seen with you than being with you. But what I liked was how upfront Evelyn was with Celia about not wanting to be used and in return Celia and her struck a deal to kind of be friends where Celia would help Evelyn with her acting and Evelyn would be seen with her. I just loved two powerful women wanting to be friends because they both wanted to make it in this industry. I also. liked how we felt the romantic tension between them over time. I could tell by the way Evelyn looked at Celia when Celia took off her shirt when she needed to change. I was like, “Oh, okay, Evelyn. I feel that 😉.” I’m here for it. I got more romantic tension between Celia and Evelyn than I did between Don and Evelyn.
Also, Celia wasn’t an abusive vile pig 🙃.
When they kissed in the laundry room? Magic. I knew it. Evelyn liked Celia, thus beginning their long winding road of navigating what loving each other meant.
Evelyn knew she didn’t want to be with Don anymore because she didn’t love him and he abused her. It was about freaking time she should have left him. But there was also the worry that if she left him she would lose everything she built for herself because the news would make her look bad. You know what? I FREAKING DETESTED how most of the news articles always painted Evelyn as the “villain” and never her husband. It made me soooooo mad because I bet she was villainized because she was a woman. That boils my water 👏🏼!!! I mean, the media always paints women in a negative light against a guy and it makes me want to start a riot. I just didn’t understand for one, why it was anyone’s business if Evelyn and Don started a family. I mean, how dare they make it seem like it was Evelyn’s fault that she didn’t want a family. That’s no one’s business and frankly it’s not her freaking fault and I hated that they made the story feel like Evelyn’s problem and not Don’s. And two, I didn’t understand how the media made Evelyn the bad guy after they did get a divorce.
Freaking Don was a petty son of a pig for taking everything from Evelyn except the house and a couple of million. Yea, sure, because a house and a few millions makes up for the way he abused her and blackballed her in Hollywood–he got her taken off Sunset productions. What a trash pig. If he was a real man he would have let Evelyn stay at the company and let his talent speak for itself rather than being a petty loser for nothing. And so what if she wanted to leave him? She had every right and reason to. And it wasn’t like he was a saint either, cheating it up with multiple women. LOSER 👏🏼!!!!! How petty was it of him to also leave her first when she went back to the house after the night of the party and he didn’t even show up. She married a child.
Husband Three: Mick Rivera
Married out of distraction
Mick was a piece of work too. He was a grade-A loser as well 🤪.
I don’t know. He was irrelevant to me. He was just there as a way to get people to stop looking at Celia and Evelyn, so she planned to elope with Mick in Las Vegas as some elaborate plan to get people to stop talking about her true love. And then Evelyn would turn the situation around on Mick and get an annulment by placing blame that they were both too drunk and weren’t thinking straight.
Honestly, her plan was pretty darn spot on and strategic. I think she did an excellent job in suckering this loser up to marry him because what a typical guy to have all this horny energy and to be so suggestive. Evelyn really had him eating out of her lap with all these suggestions she was making. She really had a plan for everything. I freaking kind of laughed with how the night after they “slept” together, she acted like a drag because she didn’t want Mick to get the idea that he wanted more of her. Mick thought he was getting the last laugh, but it was really Evelyn. I just thought it was kind of funny how they both used each other in some sort of way without really knowing it. I liked how Evelyn threw the phone at his head because she really wanted to sell the point that she was angry at Mick when really she wasn’t. She was an actress indeed.
It broke my heart why Evelyn felt the need to sleep with Mick to get people off her and Celia’s case.
“It wasn’t safe to do that. I wasn’t safe. We weren’t safe.”
(pg. 166)
In a rush of excitement, Evelyn held Celia’s hand at one of Mick’s concerts and someone saw it. Evelyn saw how that person looked at her, and it made her feel unsafe to be seen with Celia, so she made a big fuss over Mick who was already obsessed with Evelyn after her debut in a new French film. After getting kicked off sunset, Harry helped Evelyn find work internationally to which she did that teasing scene with her boobs and the lake with the French director Max. I thought that was pretty smart to go international because it would expand her name. Also, it gave her the allure she needed for people to notice her and to continue to build her name. Don couldn’t break Evelyn if he tried.
But the fact that someone saw Celia and Evelyn being vulnerable together was a big risk back then because they were famous and being openly gay wasn’t accepted. It just made me sad because they were having a good time and this happy moment and Evelyn couldn’t even feel safe being herself or fully enjoy this moment because of how other people looked at them.
“It’s not wrong,” Celia said. “It shouldn’t be wrong to love you. How can it be wrong?”
(pg. 172)
When Celia said that, my heart cracked open more because she was right. It’s not wrong to love someone you love. So how could it ever be wrong? Why do we make people feel wrong or bad or ashamed for who they love?
How is honest and pure love wrong?
So Evelyn decided to protect both of their reputations and career by sleeping with Mick as a distraction. After Evelyn did sleep with Mick, Celia was upset about it and they had a huge fight because Celia didn’t like that Evelyn actually slept with Mick. I understood why Celia felt hurt and betrayed because Celia liked women where else Evelyn liked men and women, so Celia was afraid that Evelyn would never love her as much because she couldn’t give her what she needed or amount to a man. But Evelyn was choosing Celia and that’s what should have mattered. But I again understood why Celia was mad. I would have been upset and hurt too.
So Celia left Evelyn because she didn’t like being hurt by Evelyn and she didn’t want to not live up to what Evelyn wanted or needed. Also, Celia said some pretty mean things to Evelyn during their argument, telling her she slept to be where she was today, which I mean, she wasn’t wrong. But still, that wasn’t a nice thing to say to someone just because you feel hurt.
I liked when Evelyn talked about sex and sexuality with Monique because that was an interesting conversation.
Evelyn said sexuality was who you loved and sex was just an act. For her, sex was something she did to get where she wanted to be or for pleasure. But sexuality was who she wanted to be with. So her sexuality was that she loved Celia, but yes, she would have sex with a man or woman but it didn’t mean that got pleasure from sex with men the same way she did with Celia. Her ideas were from a different perspective I’ve never heard before, so it was interesting to understand and see how her reasoning made sense to what she was going through and feeling.
I also liked when Evelyn said:
“The fact that I wanted to be around Celia all the time, the fact that I cared about her enough that I valued her happiness over my own, the fact that I liked to think about that moment when she stood in front of me without her shirt on—now, you put those pieces together, and you say, one plus one equals I’m in love with a woman. But back then, at least for me, I didn’t have that equation. And if you don’t even realize that there’s a formula to be working with, how the [heck] are you supposed to find the answer.”
(pg. 124-5)
This quote stuck with me for a while after I read the book and when I thought about Evelyn and Celia’s situation. This quote goes back to what I talked about earlier in how they lived in a different time when being openly in the LGBQIA+ community wasn’t accepted and it wasn’t really a thing. I liked the math analogy of how if we looked at Evelyn and Celia’s situation, it was obvious that they loved each other—that one plus one equals two. But I agreed that back then they probably didn’t have that simple math because it wasn’t accepted or it wasn’t a universally accepted equation. It must have been hard for her to understand or navigate her sexuality when she didn’t have the environment or space to talk about it—–to explore it as much as people can now. And that sucks.
Husband Four: Rex North
Married out of equal rise to fame
Rex North wasn’t a piece of shiz and he wasn’t a terrible dude 😂. He was pretty darn decent and a respectable man.
I quite liked him.
Evelyn liked him as a person and not a husband.
But they both were starring in the same movie and a marriage would help keep their names afloat. They would be married but they could do whatever they wanted to in secret. They also didn’t need to live together, but show up in pictures and act like they were married in public. She had a nice arrangement with Rex and it was cool that he was on board.
Also, the fake marriage was Evelyn’s way of distracting herself from Celia whom she really loved.
I thought it was kind of funny and cute that she would stalk Celia through the newspaper to see what she was doing. They hadn’t spoken in years after their big fight, not really knowing what to say. But I liked how they both cared. I loved how Harry was there for Evelyn after everything. Gosh, I never talked about Harry yet! Don’t worry, I’ll talk about him more later. But he was a stellar constant in Evelyn’s life and I appreciated it.
I also really liked that when Rex found love with someone, Evelyn was okay with calling off their marriage because she didn’t want to hold Rex back from love and his new baby on the way. I found it funny, but fitting how Evelyn was going to marry Harry because he was her long-term friend and frankly, he would be the easiest person for her to marry because he knew Evelyn’s truth and wouldn’t expect anything.
You know, for someone who had been married four times, she knew how to create a scandal 😂! I loved how she and Harry faked this whole make-out session like a couple of teenagers on a mountain and then Rex apparently cheated on her too with Joy, his actual love. It created this whole double cheating thing that blew up and made people more invested in their movie, which I would be interested in if I heard that a couple cheated on each other. I would think it was bizarre and kind of uncouth, but I would be invested because their lives were far more interesting.
But honestly, Harry was my favorite male marriage of Evelyn’s.
Husband Five: Harry
Married out of honesty
I never talked about Harry yet, but he was Evelyn’s best friend. I liked their relationship because he was one of the only constant’s in her life and who understood her better than most.
It was easier to marry Harry because she had known Harry since the beginning of her career and they were close friends. They trusted each other with their true selves and that is what made their relationship so strong. They didn’t hide who they loved and they accepted each other even more for it—-they looked out for each other too. By marrying Harry, Evelyn got to be with Celia who was fake married to Harry’s actual lover at the time, John. John was a famous football player.
They had a really cool system going because Evelyn could live happily with Celia like they were actually married and Harry could be with the one he loved. I liked how Taylor Jenkins Reid included the Stonewall Riots because that was a significant event in history that I didn’t even know about until I took an AP class in high school and we all had to research different events in history. The Stone Wall Riots created a legacy for LGBT+ activism where people in the LGBT+ community stood up against police raids and brutality at gay bars and clubs.
“This was our people.
And here they were, revolting against the police, in the name of their right to be themselves. While I was sitting in a golden prison of my own making.”
(pg. 235)
I liked seeing how Evelyn, Celia, Harry, and John felt because they wanted to fight the cause with the LGBT+ community—-to do something because they were just like them. But it was difficult for the four of them to riot with everyone because it might create speculation that the four of them were in the LGBT+ community and for their careers, it probably wasn’t the best publicity at the time. I liked how they talked about how they wanted to fight the fight with the LGBT+ community because they recognized that they were part of that community and wanted to be the change. But I also understood their point that if they went down and supported those in the riots, they might have also drawn attention away from the cause that really mattered if people made the riot about them. I really liked how they made an impact in whatever ways they could because they wanted to help. I loved how they continued to support throughout the years.
Harry was the longest marriage Evelyn had because it was the most comfortable and had the least expectations. But I thought it was nice how Harry and her were on the same page in wanting to start a family. I also loved how Celia and John were both okay with Evelyn and Harry wanting a baby because they both loved their partners and wanted them to do what they wanted. If anyone was having a baby with Evelyn, I was glad it was Harry because he was a good guy and she trusted him.
Because Evelyn was a new mother to her daughter, Connor, there was this conversation about her being a mother altered how people would view her. I thought this was such an interesting conversation because I see this shift in the media when a woman does become a mother.
“My career was going to take a hit. There was no avoiding it. I’d go from being a woman to being a mother—and somehow those things appeared mutually exclusive in Hollywood. My body would change. I’d have months where I couldn’t work.”
(pg. 243)
The first part of what Evelyn said was true—-that when a woman becomes a mother, it does affect her career. Devastatingly, unlike other countries, women don’t have paid maternity leave in the U.S. which is absolutely ridiculous and goes to show how little the U.S. (I’m an American 🙈). So I know how little the U.S. respects women. It’s absolutely bonkers to me that women don’t get paid leave after giving birth because if more people actually knew or let alone felt the pain that childbirth is, they would be giving women time to recover and money to take care of themselves and their growing family. But no, mostly men are in government and don’t know what it’s like to carry a baby around for nine months and the emotional and physical changes that can be and they don’t know what it’s like to push a human being out of their body but yet they get to dictate and say that women don’t need paid maternity leave at all. Wonderful *she said sarcastically*. They don’t know and they are inconsiderate pigs who don’t have a piece of respect and common human decency to give women paid maternity leave after giving birth. Sorry, I went on a rant there, but it makes me heated. Anyway, a woman’s career is affected because they have to take care of themselves postpartum and that can be something within itself. Also, there’s the fact that the mother has a baby to take care of. so more time is probably devoted to the baby then work.
Then there’s also the layer that Evelyn had to deal with—-being famous and judged for her body. Because Evelyn was mostly looked at for her body and acting, being a mother would change how people viewed her because she would no longer be this voluptuous fantasy, but a mom. That’s so different. I remember when Kim Kardashian was pregnant with North and people ridiculed and trashed her, calling her all these rude names. I remember seeing magazine pictures of people saying she gained weight or she looked so different—-just everything and anything to tear down who she was and who she was now. It made me disgusted back then and it makes me disgusted now because she was pregnant and her hormones were doing its thing and how was it okay for anyone to judge or ridicule her?!!?! She was freaking pregnant, of course, her body was going to change and no one should be judging her or making her feel insecure for that. Everyone’s pregnancy journey and story is different and I wanted to scream at anyone who made Kim Kardashian feel like a whale or compared her to a whale just because she was pregnant and wasn’t this fantasy anymore. I was HEATED. I don’t even know what to say to that. Like where is people’s humanity sometimes? I’m embarrassed for people. Because she didn’t deserve that. But I talk about Kim Kardashian because I think of how Evelyn Hugo might have had the same romanticized figure and how I think people would have ripped her a part in the real world too. It just disgusts me how easily people can tear others down like that and how they think they have a right to judge a person when they have no idea what they are going through or experiencing. I can’t.
It’s just a huge conversation about how most women (especially in the past I think) are constantly prized for their body like that’s all they are, but when their body changes and it’s not this idealized fantasy people can look at, suddenly they’re not good enough or worth much.
“The only currency I had was my sexuality, and I used it like money. I wasn’t well educated when I got to Hollywood, I wasn’t book-smart, I wasn’t powerful, I wasn’t a trained actress. What did I have to be good at other than being beautiful? And taking pride in your beauty is a [darning] act. Because you allow yourself to believe that the only thing notable about yourself is something with a very short shelf life.”
(pg. 239)
It made me sad how Evelyn talked about how she thought the only good thing about her was her body. But she knew her body was her greatest asset as a woman back then because it got her where she was with sleeping around, her promiscuous movie roles, and how people romanticized her. I say all this not to judge her, but when reading about Evelyn a big part of who she was was her alluring appearance. It made me think how women are constantly looked at for their appearance like that’s their only value of worth, when there is so much more to them than if they have big boobs or a butt. Appearance is still something valued today, but what’s desirable or changes by the decade or generation and by that standard, there is no standard but a continuous cycle of making people feel like they’re never good enough and that they have to change to fit this mold. It just makes my heart sad because I grew up always caring about my appearance as well. I’m not proud of it, but women are told to be beautiful people and that’s sometimes their power, or so I was taught. But I have grown up to learn more that women are not just beautiful in who they are and however they look, but it’s their intelligence, strength, and perseverance in a man’s world that doesn’t respect them, and it’s making men look at them and do just that.
I agree that women would rule the world because some men are a bit too gullible or plain. I mean, women have all the power and strength if you think about it, and men have always feared women’s strength and power because they don’t understand it. So what have they done? They tried to make women feel inferior for ages and keep them “in their place at home” so they could have power because power makes them feel like they are important and well, powerful, when they’re really not. Sometimes they are just people who hide behind ties and suits, acting like they know it all when they don’t know a darn thing and all they do is cry and scream at each other and they mistake that for power. Real power comes from women in my opinion because women call the shots, they keep men grounded, and women hold what is desirable to men sometimes.
“Imagine if every single woman on the planet wanted something in exchange when she gave up her body. You’d all be ruling the place. An armed populace.”
(pg. 190)
Exactly.
But men fear women sometimes, and to control that, they flipped the narrative and gave themselves power because they know how strong women are and they just don’t want them to know it or feel it because if they did, they wouldn’t have the power they know hold. But women are much much MUCH smarter than people give us credit for and we know the power we hold, and you know what, I think we’re getting to a place where women will have more power in this patriarchal world than men. I feel like women will be treated as actual equals and superiors one day and I can’t wait to see it.
But I digress.
One thing that was also interesting was how Evelyn was going to do a new movie with Don.
When Don basically groveled and stated his apology, I was like, we’ll at least he now owned up to being a piece of shiz. His sorry absolutely meant nothing because sorry didn’t change the fact that he abused her and Rosie.But I appreciated that he wanted to change his ways and be a better man *cue Taylor Swift’s Better Man song*. I thought it was quite powerful that Evelyn would do a movie with her ex-husband, especially the one she actually kind of loved.
What was wrong was how she didn’t tell Celia about the sex scene. I thought she should have really talked to Celia about it because Celia was her partner. I understood why Celia felt disrespected and betrayed because she was. Evelyn wasn’t honest with her and I don’t place Celia for leaving Evelyn. It blew up the four of their routines, so they went their separate ways.
But you know what? I could understand why Evelyn wanted to do the sex scene. It changed the way women viewed pleasure. It wasn’t until I watched a vlog somewhere where the person talked about how most times when people have sex, it has been mostly about the guys’ pleasure. Guys are not usually frowned upon when they talk about how they want to have sex compared to a woman because it makes a woman seem uncouth or salacious or something. But I liked how Evelyn wanted to do the scene because sex shouldn’t be something woman should be ashamed for wanting—-wanting their own pleasure. It makes me feel bad that people were ever made to feel that way because it’s a complete double standard or expectation that’s not fair. What a pivotal role Evelyn had in changing that narrative and she should be proud of how she broke down the barrier to what pleasure could be for women.
After Celia left, she divorced John, and in turn Evelyn divorced Harry because they couldn’t keep up their fake marriages without her.
So, Evelyn found sanctity with her French director, Max Girard who had always been pining for her.
Husband Six: Max Girard
Married out of comfort
Max just wanted what he couldn’t have and when he did have Evelyn, it wasn’t always what he wanted.
I felt like he just liked Evelyn for show—to know he had one of the most desirable and beautiful girls on his side. He also liked the idea of Evelyn much more than he did like the real person and I could feel that with how he wanted to change who he was to be a person who could be worthy or take pictures with her. I knew she only married him because she thought she ruined things with Celia for good and she wanted to feel something. Max had been another sort of constant in her life because she worked with him for that French film with her boobs out of the lake scene. Honestly, he probably just wanted to see her boobs and that’s why he loved her 🙈.
I imagined Max as Luc from Emily in Paris. I don’t know, I got that vibe 😂.
Evelyn didn’t love Max, and I loved how Celia and her sent each other letters like the olden days. Gosh, I am a child 😅. But it was cute because letters are intimate (as we also learned from Emily in Paris). I also thought it was sweet how Evelyn and Celia would say cryptic messages to each other on TV because that was their way of saying they weren’t afraid anymore to voice their love as much as they could. I was happy for Evelyn when she finally won an Oscar because she worked hard for it. I laughed when Celia said something in her speech about how I hope no one chips any teeth tonight kissing the TV as an ode to how excited Evelyn was for Celia when she won an award way back when and she kissed the TV and chipped her tooth. That’s real love and support right there 👌🏼.
Celia and Evelyn met up again after years to finally talk to each other where they hashed things up. A running argument they had was if Evelyn would give up everything to be with Celia because they could have run away and lived together in secret away from the spotlight, but Evelyn wanted to build her career and I respected that. Evelyn also didn’t want to take Celia’s career away from her even though Celia said she was okay without having the fame and awards. I didn’t think Evelyn was ready to give up her dream, but now that she had all these movies and an award, it felt fitting that she was ready to sacrifice her career for love. It just broke my heart how hard they had to fight to be together and had this whole back and forth thing because they couldn’t openly be out because they were famous and being a lesbian or bisexual wasn’t accepted back then. It really broke my heart because they obviously loved each other and wanted to be together but society and standards kept them apart and came between the years they could have been together. What they had to go through is so different from the progress we have today, thankful. But it makes me think about how devastating it was and that people have to fight for love because the world doesn’t accept their love. It’s not right because if you love someone so much it shouldn’t matter who that person is, but the love they share.
They were finally going to run away together to a small town in Spain, I think.
Also, Connor was a star. I had no idea how she changed all these schools or dealt with the obvious divorces her mom had. It must have been rough and I don’t blame her for acting out because she didn’t really have her mom’s care all the time.
But gosh, what happened to Harry broke my heart 💔.
The way Evelyn cried and held Harry and said, “My pride and true friend” or something like that, had me tearing up. Harry didn’t want to run away with Celia and Evelyn because he found love with someone else after John had passed away a few years earlier. He went through a dark time, and I appreciated that Evelyn was there for him and I loved how she worked hard so Harry would get up each day and have purpose to also work. She helped him through the darkness and that mattered more to her than actually doing the films. But she was driving one day in a cab and saw that Harry had been drunk driving with his lover and crashed into a tree. She didn’t want it to be a huge scandal that he drove drunk, so she took Harry to the hospital, asking the cab driver to take her there and to not say anything. It made me sad she lost her best friend and one of the only people who knew who she really was.
Husband Seven: Robert Jamison
Married out of love for real love
All the more reason for Evelyn to get away.
Her last legal marriage was to Celia’s brother, Robert. He seemed like a good man too. He didn’t expect much and he supported Celia and Evelyn. He was also very cool about marrying Evelyn because he knew how much Celia loved her. Also, if something happened, Evelyn would get Celia’s legacy because she married into her family, which I thought was a pretty clever thing to do—-marry Celia’s brother—because it was almost like being married to her actual love.
Celia was battling health issues because she used to smoke, so she wanted to spend her time with Evelyn as much as she could. Evelyn, Connor, and Robert moved to Aldiz where Connor thrived. I liked Connor’s relationship with Robert because she was interested in what he liked and he treated her like a daughter.
But what I loved most about reading this section of the book was when Celia and Evelyn tied the knot or the rubber bands in their own way. I loved loved loved how they were in such a good place to feel like they could marry each other without legality, but love, which is more powerful if you ask me. I loved how they could finally be together even if it wasn’t in the eye of the court or the world because deep down, I think we all know who we love and that love is enough. I loved that for them. Wives at last.
After, that everything just went downhill 😅.
It was just one devastation after another with Celia passing away. Gosh, my heart broke fro Evelyn because she and Celia had a good few years together but spent their entire lives fighting to be together—-time they could have spent loving each other out loud, but always having to hide it because of who they were and the world they lived in *shakes head*. It cried when Evelyn broke down at Harry’s grave because she needed her friend to be there with her during this absolutely heart-wrenching moment in her life when she lost her greatest love. It touched me that she cried to Harry because he had always been there for her, so to still be there with him was meaningful. I also felt sooooo heart-broken for Evelyn when she talked about how she lost her daughter and the battle Connor faced. I was a freaking mess. That couldn’t have been easy to experience as a mother. I’m still crying as I’m typing this. She just experienced so much painful and devastating loss in quick succession. Connor and her had such a blooming relationship too so it was difficult to read how she lost her daughter. I loved how much Evelyn loved Connor even if we didn’t see their relationship as much or know more about their dynamic
” . . . all she wanted was a family. Make sure it’s clear that I found it. Make sure they know that I’m heartbroken without it. “
(pg. 358)
That all led to where Evelyn was today—-alone in this big apartment with her assistant, Grace. I loved how Evelyn spoiled Grace because she appreciated all Grace did for her and how Grace kept her company; I loved that she gave Grace and her family trips and special things as a thank you. I also appreciated how Evelyn continued to give back without anyone knowing it.
But the reason Monique would hate Evelyn and why she was chosen to write this story was because Evelyn didn’t save Monique’s dad that day in the car crash. Harry was going to run away with Monique’s dad because Monique’s dad loved Harry. I didn’t see that coming and I’m still curious about the timeline about that, but I could understand Monique’s hate now. How could she not be angry at Evelyn for not bothering to save her dad and only save Harry?
I wouldn’t know what to think.
That was also such a revelation and shock to her because her dad had only been straight in her eyes because the dad loved the mom. But after reading the letter Evelyn gave to her, it was hard to deny how much the dad loved Harry. But the dad seemed like a genuinely good guy to choose his family over Harry because he loved Monique so much. I actually really liked that Evelyn told Monique her dad’s truth and that she wanted to make amends in her own ways because Monique would have never known who her dad was or how he chose them over Harry.
Hating Evelyn was easy and it was almost weird how much Evelyn was okay with Monique hating her because Evelyn felt like she maybe deserved that hate. But it was also hard to hate Evelyn because of all she had been through and what she was trying to do to make things right. Or right in the way that she never could live her truth or be open about who she was, but she wanted Monique to know her dad’s truth because she would have wanted to know the same thing.
But all throughout the ending it felt like we were saying goodbye to Evelyn. It felt obvious with how she told Grace goodbye and was adamant for her to leave. It just felt like she was forcing Grace to go so she could go. Monique and I were on the same wavelength in feeling like we all knew what Evelyn was going to do if they all left. Here’s the thing though . . . I wondered if it was the right choice for Monique to turn back and not tell someone or help Evelyn when she knew Evelyn was probably going to take her own life. I understood that Evelyn Hugo was a woman of power and controlled her own life, so she wanted to go on her own terms and I get that. But still, for me, I wouldn’t know how to feel or if I would have a clear conscience to be okay with walking away when I know someone is going to do something like that. I don’t know. That’s something I would always question as Monique.
Evelyn did pass away the next day or soon and it was a full story, but I understood now why she wanted her biography out so soon and why she trusted Monique with it.
“I’ve been given so much in this life . . . But I’ve had to fight tooth and nail for it. If I can one day leave this world a little bit safer and a little bit easier for those who come after me . . . well, that just makes it all worth it.”
(pg. 383)
And you know what? I loved that 💚.
Because she was a complicated person who had her moments, but what she stood for and how she became who she was was born of strength and fighting for herself and love. I loved how she wanted to create a better world so people didn’t need to fight so hard to be able to love who they did freely and live their truth. I think her autobiography will forever change how people in history viewed her, which made me think about a quote I read in Take Me With You When You Go:
“Events from the future can change events from the past.”
– Take Me With You When You Go by Jennifer Niven and David Levithan
What happens now can change how we view things before.
Because the media painted all these stories for Evelyn and her seven husbands but they never knew the truth. But now they were, and they would see how everything she did was for love—-how much it cost her and how much she had to fight just to have it. No one should have to fight that hard just to love someone. I don’t think so. Again, love is something we should all be able to do freely because love is love.
“The media are going to tell whatever story they want to tell. They always have. They always will.”
(pg. 354)
True that. They still do.
So I’m happy that she had someone write her truth and that it could bring peace to her life and can change the world because of what she and her loved ones had to go through.
It’s crazy ow she was still a powerful influence even after she passed. But Evelyn Hugo was a legacy and a force and I don’t think it would ever be easy to forget who she was and how much change she brought.
She was quite a woman 💚.
Monique was impacted by Evelyn invariably.
I liked how she stood up for her marriage in knowing that it wasn’t right for her.
“If you are heartbroken right now, then I feel for you deeply,” Evelyn says. “That I have the utmost respect for. That’s the sort of thing that can split a person in two. But I wasn’t heartbroken when Don left me. I simply felt like the marriage failed. And those are very different things.”
(pg. 141)
I never thought about divorce and heartbreak like that. But I agree that sometimes marriages just don’t work out and it’s not a heartbreaking thing, but freeing. When it’s heartbreaking, it’s painful because you loved the person and love is an emotional well so deep and fathomless and encompassed by the person you love. Monique didn’t feel that with David and it must have been a lot of her to recognize that and voice it. I respected that she was honest with him.
It was also interesting to hear her mom talk about the dad and how the dad always felt like a good friend and someone who supported her. After knowing the dad loved Harry, it shifted her perspective of her dad. But it didn’t mean he loved her less or that he didn’t love the mom in his own way; love takes different forms. The mom and dad had a companionable relationship and that worked for them. I think sometimes relationships can be like that and it works out in that way, but it’s also a spectacular thing to want and hope for and have a relationship where you have reciprocal love that goes beyond companionship and comfort.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Seen Husbands of Evelyn Hugo because it was so different and morally gray. I was also captivated by her life because she fought so hard for it. What a story. It will definitely be sticking with me 💚.
Anyway, what was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part? What did you think of the book?
Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕
I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this 😊.
And as always, with love,
Rating
4.78 Full Bloom Flowers
Characters: Evelyn Hugo is a force to be reckon with because she is a fighter and a lover at heart who was just trying to make it in a world that didn’t accept her for who she was
Plot: Captivating, unique, and devastatingly beautiful
Writing: Taylor Jenkins Reid created such a fascinating and gripping story about a powerful woman growing up in the 50s and on. I also liked the structure of the book and the mood that was created to give Old Hollywood vibes
Romance: Unexpectedly perfect and poignant