"The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Reid Jenkins: Review:

“Don't ignore half of me so you can fit me into a box. Don't do that.”

“The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo”, this title could be so confusing. I didn’t read the blurb before buying this book, I bought it because I saw it all over Instagram. The title triggered me a lot, but OMG, what this title hides is more than you can imagine. I don’t know if I’m going to do justice to this book, not a single word could express how much I loved it, but I’ll try. Let’s start with the blurb.

At the age of 79, Evelyn Hugo, a Hollywood movie icon, is ready to tell the truth about her crazy life, mainly why she had married seven men. For that she chooses an unknown magazine reporter, Monique, to write her biography, which was a shock for her, since it constitutes an opportunity to jump start her career. We follow through the pages the story of the famous Evelyn, from the day she made her way to Los Angeles to become a movie start, through all the sacrifices she made to be successful and stay at the top, to the day she decided to leave the show business, and of course, why she had married 7 husbands.

This is one of the best books I’ve ever read, and it’s, till now, my favorite read of 2021. This book was life changing, and the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced about one thing: this book taught us to live our life fully till our death, to not miss opportunities being with our loved ones, to not waste our lives loving the wrong people, to not hide our true selves trying to please others. Life is so damn short to spend it pretending to be someone we aren’t.

Evelyn Hugo was a force of nature, a strong, beautiful, charismatic, brave, ambitious, complicated, flawless, Cuban woman, who never gave up, and who did everything in her power to achieve what she wants, and believe me, being a Latina woman trying to reach the top in Hollywood in the 50s was not that easy. But most of all, she’s the most iconic character I’ve read about, I enjoyed reading about her dialogues, and all the iconic quotes she said showed how powerful and charismatic she was. She’s, without a doubt, my favorite character.

Evelyn’s life was a rollercoaster of emotions. She played the Hollywood game till the end. And knowing that she was going to be surrounded by white American men, she knew that she had to give all what she had, to become what she wanted to be. She made some insane, controversial decisions, like hiding the fact that she was Cuban, dating famous men, lying about her life, hiding secrets, to further her career. She was a manipulator and liar. She changed her identity for more fame and more money. But she was a BADASS CUBAN WOMAN, working in an industry full of sexism and racism., and for that I love her so much!

I’m not going to talk about the romantic relationship in this book, because if I do I fear to spoil you. All I can say is it was heartbreaking knowing about the actual love of Evelyn. She had seven husbands, some of them were good to her, some were abusive, some were interested in her fame, but trust me, when you’re going to know why she married all of them, and who was her true love, you will be heartbroken.

Thank you, Taylor Reid Jenkins, for writing this masterpiece, for immersing us into the wild life of Evelyn Hugo. This book was a rollercoaster of emotions. Am I going to read all of her books? Hell yeah!