THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO Diversity Review
🐘🐘🐘🐘/5
**contains spoilers**
Where has Taylor Jenkins Reid been all my life? How is this the first of her books that I’m reading? I’m convinced it’s kizmet because though I’d seen this book floating around bookstagram, I hadn’t even bothered to add it to my TBR. But, I was a little early for a flight and so obviously I made my way to the airport bookstore (why, where do y’all go when you have time to kill?). I was deciding between this and ANAM CARA by John O’Donohue, and asked the cashier which he’d recommend. His take: “Well I haven’t read the Taylor Jenkins Reid one but everyone I know who has, they go back and read all her other books.”
Take one guess as to whose entire bibliography is sitting in my TBR right now.
Reid has hit the jackpot on a book that’s not only sizzlingly good, but hits the mark when it comes to diversity. She gives us a Latinx, queer female protagonist that is complex, fierce, and hard to put in a box, and then surrounds her with equally nuanced characters, a bunch of them also queer, adds a dash of jaw dropping plot twist, and wraps it in the glamour of Old Hollywood.
She shows us, not only, how easily good diversity can be achieved, but also how it helps build phenomenal characters. And for those of you saying “how can this be a great representation of diversity when the book is literally titled after her white, male husbands”, Evelyn Hugo has the answer for you: “…they are just the husbands. I am Evelyn Hugo.”
Bravo Taylor Jenkins Reid, bravo. Now let’s get into the various elements of diversity present in this book and why she hits the nail on the head. Reid gives us gender diversity, she gives us queer diversity, and she even gives us intersectional diversity. Cue Oprah voice — you get representation, you get representation, you get representation!
Evelyn Hugo is a flawed individual that you can’t help but love and admire. Though part of me recognizes I needed to get into my 30s to understand the full level of complexity she has and the importance of her advice, part of me also wishes I had read this book as a teenager. Because oh my gosh does it have some lines that I needed to hear: i.e. “Never let anyone make you feel ordinary” and “Nobody deserves anything. It’s simply a matter of who’s willing to go and take it for themselves”.
Evelyn is unapologetic in owning her body, using her body, being tenacious, and using what she has to get what she wants. She is brilliant and cut throat, and blurs the lines of good and bad. The best part about her is that she knows it, she owns it, and she also owns the consequences. She understands herself and when she holds a mirror to herself and her actions, she does not flinch. She even says it to Monique: “…all the things I did to protect my family, I would do every one again. And I would have done more, would have behaved even uglier, if I thought it could have saved them.” And she says this looking straight into the eyes of a woman whose father she framed for his own death.
She hires Monique because she wants to ensure that complexity is not lost. No one is putting Everlyn Hugo in a box, no one is controlling her (not even death), and even when the tabloids think they’ve caught her red handed, it’s just another scheme she set up to get what she wants.
With this book, Evelyn has landed on my list of top female protagonists of all time. But, as I’ve said again and again, a book cannot be truly representative if it’s based on one woman. Cue Monique, who finds her own power in this journey with Evelyn. She learns to accept her divorce and fight for what she wants. “Why shouldn’t it be me that comes out on top?”
She learns that love is so much more complex than what we read in children’s books and romance novels. Monique is able to start the road of forgiveness, while living in her hate, and rolling around in the mind of Evelyn as she writes her biography. To balance all those things in one character, to show her evolution not only as a woman but as a career woman and then as a daughter, if that’s not complex, I don’t know what is.
And we haven’t even gotten to Celia. But, before we do, full disclosure: I was not a fan. Would Celia and I be friends? No. I think she starts off as naive and insecure, matures to insecure and jealous, and then by the end she’s a bit boring. I never really understood Evelyn’s love for her, but I do love the juxtaposition these two ladies provide in the story. I like that Celia ultimately stands up for herself, and she walks away when Evelyn puts her second to her career and goals over and over. I like that she makes Evelyn work to get her back, and I even like that by the end she takes on some of the realist qualities Evelyn has. She has a great character arc, you can’t put her in a box, and she’s wholly human. I just don’t happen to particularly like that person. But, that doesn’t mean she isn’t a great addition.
What Reid does so well as an author and why I think she hit the ball out of the park when it comes to gender representation is that she gives you all different types of women — straight, gay, bisexual, Latinx, white, rich, poor, etc. and every single one of them is their own person. None of them are superficial or watered down for the sake of the other characters, or particularly men. Even Ruby, who is a side character, has such a beautiful conversation with Evelyn when they talk about Don’s abuse. Was Evelyn wrong for not warning her? Is it enough that she didn’t expect him to hit Ruby? What does it mean that they still do favors for each other? All of these questions are allowed to fester because they live in the fullness of their humanity, and that’s what creates the magic of this book.
It’s also why this story does a great job at highlighting intersectional representation — Monique isn’t just a woman. She’s a biracial woman who was also raised in a single parent home for a large portion of her life. Celia isn’t just queer. She’s a lesbian woman who comes from upper class Southern society. Evelyn is a bisexual Latinx woman from Hell’s Kitchen who was raised by an abusive father. Each decision the characters make, every perspective they have is informed by all of these aspects of who they are. What is important to them, what they value, how they make decisions, all of these things come into play and oftentimes they clash as well. Which is what makes reading about them so juicy.
In fact, Monique finds an entry point into Evelyn’s notes about being bisexual because she is biracial, and she’s able to understand all the ways in which the binary is limiting. We as readers also get to understand because Reid dives into Monique’s experience as a biracial woman.
Now, onto queer representation. I’ll start off with a quote from Evelyn herself when Moniquue asks her “Did being bisexual put a strain on your relationship”. Evelyn answers in such typical Evelyn fashion, and what I love about it is that this is a question bisexual people get all the time: which do you like better? Is it just a phase? Won’t you just end up cheating if you’re attracted to both men and women? Blah blah blah.
And Evelyn sets the record straight:
“Being bisexual didn’t make me disloyal. One has nothing to do with the other. Nor did it mean that Celia could only fulfill half my needs.”
“When Celia said she couldn’t have all of me, it was because I was selfish and because I was scared of losing everything I had. Not because I had two sides of me that one person could never fulfill. I broke Celia’s heart because I spent half my time loving her and the other half hiding how much I loved her.”
What I love about these quotes is that they’re great examples of how Reid actually delves into the complexities and realities of queerness, and doesn’t drop it into the character profile while ignoring how it changes the character. Evelyn is a bisexual woman. She’s also ambitious, cunning, and fearless. And its the latter that causes problems in her relationship- she wanted to do the sex scene so she did it, regardless of how Celia felt. She wanted to have a baby and she was going to do it regardless of the fact that Celia did not want to be a mother. What Reid has done is shown how multifaceted Evelyn really is, how human her relationship with Celia is, and she hasn’t sidelined or forgotten any part of Evelyn’s identity to do it. Another example is Harry Cameron who isn’t a sassy gay best friend. He’s a full, tragically tortured, masculine, and brilliant soulmate. John is a football star and a wonderful partner and friend. These people live in their fullness, and the obstacles and intricacies of their sexuality are a natural part of the plot, not as a plot point, but because they are authentically portrayed. That is the magic of doing diversity right.
Speaking of Harry, he was my favorite character in the entire book and his death destroyed me.
I get why Harry had to die. I really do. There’s no way that personality could live happily in Spain — no work and no distractions from his loss. He was never able to recover from John’s death, and I don’t think Celia would have been truly at ease in that family unit with Harry and Evelyn still being their unit. He needed to die so Evelyn and Celia could be a “traditional” couple without the hiding, and so she could eventually tell this story.
But when I tell you I balled my eyes out. When she’s on the ground saying “Stay with me Harry. Stay with me. Stay true blue.” Y’all I was in mourning for half a week over that character. In fact, as I write this, my heart still hurts for Harry Cameron because, in my mind, what they had was true love. In my mind, the great love story of this book is Evelyn’s love for herself, and then her love with Harry. I said it and I’m not taking it back.
Harry saw Evelyn for everything she was and didn’t look away, he wasn’t scared or judgemental, he loved her for it. He was there in all the ways that she needed, as much as he could be, and Evelyn did the same for him. They made each other’s careers, they looked out for one another, and more than that I really believe they liked each other more than they liked anyone else. In fact, they even say it in a way on their balcony after having Connor: Evelyn says to Harry, “If there are all different types of soul mates…then you are one of mine” and he responds, “I am absolutely positive that I need you more than I’ve ever needed another living soul. The only exception being ‘Connor’.”
This portrayal of more than one type of love is especially important when you’re looking at love outside a straight lens, and when you’re creating characters this interesting, a typical love story doesn’t do it justice.THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO is a romance in the truest way because it is a story about love, in all its forms. I read someone say on Twitter “no one did platonic love like Harry and Evelyn.” Never has a truer statement been said.
So I’ll close with this note: this book is a fantastic read. You won’t be able to put it down. If you like romance, if you like strong characters, if you like nuance, and even if you just like some good old fashion Hollywood glamor, this book is for you.
So I’m signing off now and making myself a gimlet in honor of Evelyn Hugo. Here’s to hoping she’s in romance fiction heaven with her mom, Celia, Connor, and Harry laughing and being loved. Here’s to all her fans, I hope we all get our Celia’s and our Harry’s. And most importantly, I hope we all learn to see and accept ourselves the way Evelyn does because that’s what truly matters.
To stay up to date on my latest work, you can subscribe to my Medium or any of the below social media platforms. If you’re looking for diversity advising, or would like to have your own script or novel analyzed, you can schedule a free consultation on my website.
