“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" Book Club Questions

A discussion plan for book clubs reading Taylor Jenkins Reid’s 2017 book “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.”

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What’s your name, what’s one thing you like to do, and as a fun fact — who’s your favourite celebrity at the moment?

Recap of “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo"

—Aided by SuperSummary

A LOT of things happened in this book so this is a longer recap than usual! Feel free to skip to the discussion section below.

Monique is a junior reporter at Vivant magazine when she learns she’s been chosen by the iconic yet secretive star Evelyn Hugo to do an exclusive interview. Upon her arrival, she learns Evelyn has something else in mind: she wants Monique to write a tell-all biography to publish after Evelyn dies.

Monique, having recently separated from her husband, is struggling professionally and personally. Her boss doubts her ability to pull off a successful story, and Monique doubts herself too, but she becomes more confident as she works with Evelyn, eventually negotiating a promotion from her boss with the interview as leverage.

Evelyn describes her humble beginnings in Hell’s Kitchen and her desperation to escape a life of poverty and abuse. At 14, she marries Ernie Diaz (Husband #1) to get to Hollywood. After she’s discovered by producer Harry Cameron, she divorces her husband, changes her name, dyes her hair blonde, and stops speaking Spanish in the name of success. Evelyn rises to fame, and the world becomes enamoured by her beauty.

She soon marries Don Adler (Husband #2), the most popular actor in Hollywood. But he abuses her after she starts to outshine him. While filming Little Women, Evelyn befriends rising star Celia St. James. During the premiere of their movie, Evelyn learns that Celia is a lesbian and acknowledges her feelings for her. That night, she also learns Don has been cheating on her, and she leaves him for Celia.

Don tries to sabotage her career in Hollywood, so Evelyn becomes a star in French cinema. Evelyn and Celia are happy together, but have to keep their relationship a secret because of the public’s homophobia, and Celia grows to resent this. After a tabloid starts a rumour, Evelyn orchestrates a Vegas elopement with rockstar Mick Riva (Husband #3) to affirm her heterosexuality in the public eye. It works, but Evelyn discovers she is pregnant and has an abortion, and Celia leaves her after realising she slept with Mick. They don’t speak for 5 years.

Celia eventually marries quarterback John Braverman. Evelyn marries her co-star Rex North (Husband #4) for publicity, but after Rex impregnates his girlfriend, Evelyn spins an intricate story for the press and pretends that she and her producer Harry were having an affair. Harry is actually gay and dating Celia’s husband, John.

Evelyn and Celia reconcile, Evelyn marries Harry (Husband #5) and the two couples in lavender marriages live blissfully together in New York for years. After Stonewall, they decide to secretly fund LGBT causes since they can’t participate publicly without sacrificing their careers. Harry and Evelyn decide to have a baby, a girl named Connor.

When Evelyn betrays Celia’s trust by participating in an explicit sex scene with her ex Don Adler, Celia leaves again. Evelyn rebounds by marrying French director Max Girard (Husband #6). But she starts to learn that Max loves “Evelyn Hugo” the star and not actually her.

Celia’s ex John dies of a heart attack, and heartbroken Harry becomes an alcoholic. Six years after their split, Evelyn reunites with Celia, and she learns that Celia has terminal emphysema. Celia asks Evelyn to marry her brother Robert (Husband #7) so she can inherit her estate. Evelyn does so and they all move to Spain to live out Celia’s final years in obscurity.

Harry gets in a car accident while driving drunk with a lover in the passenger seat, who has already died when Evelyn arrives on the scene. She places the lover in the driver’s seat to protect Harry’s reputation, before he too dies.

Some years later in Spain, Celia dies, and Evelyn returns to New York, but her daughter Connor dies of breast cancer. Realising that everyone she has ever loved is gone, Evelyn is ready to share her life’s truths with everyone.

At the conclusion of the interview, she reveals that the lover in Harry’s car was Monique’s father, and that she has terminal cancer. When Monique leaves, she gets an inkling that Evelyn is intending to die by suicide so she doesn’t suffer through cancer treatments. After Evelyn’s death, Monique publishes the book and tells the world that the love of Evelyn’s life was Celia St. James.

Book Discussion Questions

1. What were you expecting going into this book? What had you heard about it?
2. Did you like the structure of the book? Did the flip back and forth in time period enhance your reading experience? Did the news excerpts help you appreciate what was going on in the story?
3. The book explored lots of themes—sexual orientation, gender, partnerships, friendships, domestic abuse, the cost of fame to name a few. Which theme did you think about the the most?
4. Do you follow celebrity & pop culture media?
5. What kind of insights did this book give you into the life of a celebrity? Do you think it’s an accurate depiction of what it might be like to be a star actor?
6. Which of the Seven Husband chapters did you find the most interesting?
7. Did any parts of the story remind you of real-life celebrities?
8. This book highlights power dynamics and objectification in the entertainment industry from the 1950s to now. How do these themes resonate in today’s society, and have we made any progress in addressing them?
9. What do you think of Evelyn’s views on beauty? What would it be like to have your career and life so dependent on your beauty?
10. Late in the book, Monique observes that “I hate Evelyn, but I think I like her very much”. What about you? Did you like Evelyn? Did you hate her? Both?
11. What were your initial impressions of Evelyn? How did that change throughout the book?
12. Evelyn pulled some pretty shrewd and cynical moves to keep her power. Which did you find the most admirable? Which did you find the most distasteful?
13. Did you learn any life lessons from Evelyn or Monique? Any moments where you thought "I need to channel her energy" or "I need to avoid making those same mistakes"?
14. Who was your favourite character? Why did you like them the most?
15. Which moments between Evelyn and Celia did you find the most touching, or most painful?
16. Did you trust Evelyn to be a reliable narrator as you were reading?
17. Evelyn says she doesn’t regret anything. Do you think this is true?
18. Are there any quotes that have stuck with you?
19. What’s one thing you would have changed in the book?
20. If you could meet and interview one celebrity at the end of their life, who would it be? What would you ask them?
21. You know right from the beginning that Monique has been summoned by Evelyn for a very specific reason. What were some of your theories?
22. What did you think about the ending?
23. What do you think happens in Monica’s future?
24. What do you think people will say about Evelyn’s biography?
25. What was your take-away from the book?

Lightning round!

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Enjoy your book club! 📚