Thoughts About The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Property of Stormberry

Maybe it was the hype created around this book, but I didn't really love it. I didn't got it right after it was released - I hardly ever do - but ever since it showed up in my recommended reads, I wanted to get my pawns on it and consume its words. It was only after the next instalment by the talented Ms Jenkins Reid hit the virtual shelves of Amazon.com, that I finally decided to get myself a copy - and I wanted it in physical format, not in Kindle - and went through quite an ordeal to own a much coveted copy.

When the book was finally in my hands, I was... not impressed. Thankfully it had decently cut pages - I hate decked edges - but the covers of the book one to two milimeters shorter than the pages. On both front and cover. Was it on purpose? Because I was not pleased. But oh well, what matters is the content, the words, not the look of the book... though I paid shipping and handling for this, so if I would have known, I would have gone with Kindle, mind you.

It took me a couple of months to get to sit down and read the book, even though I really wanted to read it. I really did. It was on my nightstand (along with a pile of other ten books), which made them my "this is what I really want to read next" pile. I somehow end up reading other things, but I don't lose hope. I'll get there... eventually, Anyway, the thing is that I lifted a book from the pile - finally! - and read it. And that book was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

WHAT FOLLOWS INCLUDES SPOILERS, SO STOP HERE OR BE WARNED.

I started head over heels with it, adoring both Monique and Frankie, and expecting to meet Evelyn and love her too. However, little after I did, I disliked her. Reading, I frowned because it never bodes well when you start by hating the main character. From the begining, the way Frankie's and Monique's style was portrayed in a way that made you want to look like that. They showed no-nonsense type of female characters, one bold and strong, the other gathered but self secure.

Things started crumbling down for me the moment Evelyn makes a request from Monique in a forceful way, that demands the later to give up her integrity. And Monique gives under pressure. From then on, Evelyn tells Monique a story of human canibalism, where the only way to get ahead is by abusing others, by going around the law, compromising, selling out, calculating and using others.

There are ways to set this into a narrative, explain it away as "this is the way show biz works", and "yes, this was how it went before the #metoo movement and it worked", but it doesn't make it right, which is why I found it disturbing. Maybe you are a smart, aware reader and you notice that the book portrays a world with no respect, where kindness is to be exploited and being "smart" equals having no qualms to use and abuse of others. Other readers might find it difficult to distinguish - among so many real life examples of success based on cheating, manipulating, fraud and scandals - which only gets worse when Monique claims to find the strenght and courage to improve her life and her chances by being aggressive. She says she's inspired by Evelyn Hugo and her canibal approach to life, and her attitude of "if you want something, you have to take it". The scenes where she conjures the Evelun Hugo in herself might seem inspiring and full of female power for some readers, but for me, those were excuses to check human decency at the door.

Let's be clear here: one thing is to stand your ground, and another is to start running over people. Respect and courtesy are not a sign of weakness. Rudeness is.

The part that I found more troubling was the relationship with Celia. I was never sold on the idea of their love story. Throughout the whole book Celia seemed to me petty and manipulating, just as selfish as Evelyn was, with the one difference that Evelyn was self centered but did not expect Celia to bend to her expectations, while Celia was upset and made huge dramas and fights because Evelyn wasn't doing and acting and behaving and thinking and living exactly as she wanted her to.

Their so-called love sells the idea that love is blind and exclusive devotion, that every part of a person's life - including their hopes and dreams, their goals and ambitions - must be nullified and put all in exclusive service of pleasing the person one loves. The loved person is the number one priority, even above oneself. Anything less that that is a fraud and can't be called love.

This is toxic. This is poison. This is a lie and is anything but love. Love is not devotion, love is having strong, positive feelings about the other person. Love is not exclusivity, love is being happy for the other person, but also being happy for oneself. Love is not exclusive. Love is not all consuming. Those are the sings of an obssession or an unhealthy attitude. Love is not sacrifice. Relationships aren't either about sacrifice, they are about compromise, which isn't even remotely close to sacrifice. And Love and Relationship aren't related either, in case you wonder.

However, from the moment Celia enters the scene, it's all down the gutter. Evelyn insists until she is blue in the face, that Celia is the Big It, The Big Kahuna, the Mother of the Wen and the One and Only. Yet there are constant bits and pieces that show us that Celia isn't that much different from Don Adler. Beating with words isn't much better than beating with fists, just because it doesn't leave visible bruises. The only thing to say that theirs is a big, true love, is Evelyn insisting on it, but you get no real chance to see it. Pushing someone into a guilty trip isn't a sign of love. And no, I don't buy that bullshit of "oh, she hurts me because she's so hurt because she loves me".

Love is not an excuse to stand and take abuse, no matter then shape, form or intensity it takes.

Through the book I saw no glamour or old Hollywood lifestyle, only people with money manipulating their entourage. I really wanted to see that, read that, but to be honest, I liked better the snipets about Monique's life than the episodes into Evelyn's life.

The end of the book was quite infuriating, with the letter and all. As you remember how Evelyn acted in the begining, with her pushing of Monique to put at risk her good name and livelihood, you can't possibly believe anything she says. Oh, and the end? It was transparent as glass. The letter was a twist, but the end of it was being suggested in one way or the other over and over.

The writing style is good, the pictures it draws of Monique and Frankie so precious, that it managed to save three starts from the bin I would have chucked the whole book into.