by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Overall: This book has seen a lot of hype online, and I think it’s justified! I really enjoyed the tale of Evelyn Hugo and her seven husbands. When Monique gets the call from her editor at Vivant magazine, she’s not expecting an invitation to do a piece on Evelyn Hugo, one of the biggest (if, in her twilight years, a bit faded) stars in the world. Still less is she expecting the proposal Evelyn makes: that Monique, a virtual unknown, write her biography. Is Evelyn really willing to tell the truth about her past? Or is she trying to control the narrative for her own ends, as she’s done so often in the past? And why did she choose Monique?
Likes: I love Hollywood history, and this book was such a fun romp through the fashions, media coverage, and film styles of the 50s through the 80s. Jenkins Reid makes Evelyn her own person – she’s not a thinly-disguised real Hollywood star, for all she may incorporate some of the elements of the biggest actresses in the business (Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, etc.). The price Evelyn is (or isn’t) willing to pay for fame and fortune, up to and including love and intimacy, is one of the book’s central themes. Watching how this plays out with each of Evelyn’s husbands, and how she grows through her life, kept me turning the pages long after I should have been asleep.
Dislikes: there really wasn’t much. Once or twice some of the foreshadowing of the link between Monique and Evelyn felt a little forced, but that was about it.
FYI: Alcoholism, domestic violence, some icky and uncomfortable sexual situations.
Liz Helfrich 