The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a book about power and sexuality, and the sacrifices it takes to get what and whom you want in a society that may not welcome either.

What parts of yourself do you have to exaggerate or hide to make it big in a sexist, racist, world? What trades do you have to make? How do you make sure that you're even still you by the time you're a household name?

Can you weaponize your own objectification? Can you game systems that degrade and oppress you without reproducing harm? Without harming yourself? Who gets to decide the answer to that?

I can see this used in a gender studies course to unpack ideas about sexual agency and consent, as well as sustainable alternatives to the nuclear family. It's also a good entry point into questions about queerness throughout history, in decades and cultures where it has been erased and/or criminalized.

These questions fascinate me more than most, but even still, I'm not convinced I liked this. There are a few reasons why:

First, I listened to [b:Daisy Jones|40597810|Daisy Jones & The Six|Taylor Jenkins Reid|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1580255154l/40597810.SY75.jpg|61127102] first. The stories are more similar than I realized. But the audiobook production for Daisy Jones is far superior, and the two ending reveals in Evelyn Hugo were obvious to me beforehand. So, two letdowns there.

Second, Celia St. James is such a static and boring character compared to Evelyn and Harry, or even Don, an abusive ex-husband. I wanted to find more depth there, so I could fully buy into why they were soulmates. I bought that Harry and Evelyn were best friends. I felt like I understood them. I didn't get Celia on her own, or Celia and Evelyn together. And this is supposed to be, like, The Love Story. The last line gave me chills, but the relationship itself never did the same. Third, and the main thing. I keep getting stuck on how the only Black characters were more or less collateral damage to rich and famous white (passing) Hollywood elites. Evelyn let Monique's father have his reputation ruined. She dropped a truth bomb on Monique and then promptly killed herself. I don't want to get into my views on euthansia mid-Goodreads review, I'm just saying, in this context—it was like she dumped all her secrets onto Monique and saw herself out. I am grasping at what purpose it served. What points it made that could not have been made any other way. And well, I'm just stuck on that. I don't care for it, and I think it could have been handled differently.

I think this is a glamorous and unique slow build, and I do see why people love it. Despite myself I will probably read [b:Malibu Rising|55404546|Malibu Rising|Taylor Jenkins Reid|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1618293107l/55404546.SY75.jpg|74581401].