Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo




WOW. This was easily a star read for me. This contents of this book are woven into two timelines, one of Monique Grant, who is a biracial journalist who gets the opportunity to write a biography about Evelyn Hugo, whose life is the other timeline included. Through Evelyn's retelling of her life story, we learn about soooo many important topics and such amazing motifs are brought up. Objectification of women in Hollywood, identifying as LGBTQ+ in the decades prior to the 2000s (and even currently), "death with dignity," etc. We see how Evelyn Hugo spent so long making a name for herself in the film industry that she loses sight of her own true identity, but then reconciles her image with that of someone who learns the importance of and the depth allowed by intimate, platonic, sexual, and matronly love.

Despite Evelyn's eventual comfort with her lifestyle, her own identity continued to be prescribed and defined by others in a way that invalidated her own experiences. People believe what they want to believe, and a bisexual actress didn't fit the narrative of what people wanted to believe. So I'm glad that Evelyn took matters into her own hands and put it out there for the world to read about, once and for all. And the twist with Monique at the end - the reason why Evelyn chose Monique to retell her life story. UGHHHHH. Didn't see that coming. My heart broke.