Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo arrives as both a love letter to old Hollywood and a devastatingly honest exploration of what it costs to live authentically in a world that demands performance. This isn’t merely another celebrity tell-all disguised as fiction; it’s a sophisticated examination of how we construct our identities, the sacrifices we make for love, and the complex relationship between truth and survival.
The novel follows aging Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo as she finally decides to tell her life story to unknown magazine journalist Monique Grant. What begins as a strategic career move for both women evolves into something far more profound—a reckoning with choices made, loves lost, and the price of living multiple lives simultaneously.
The Architecture of a Life Lived in Performance
Reid demonstrates remarkable skill in structuring Evelyn’s narrative across seven marriages, each representing a different phase of her evolution as both a star and a woman. The marriages aren’t merely plot devices but rather careful examinations of how Evelyn wielded romance, sexuality, and public perception as tools for survival and advancement in an industry that devoured women who showed weakness.
The genius lies in how Reid reveals that while the husbands serve as chapter markers, the real story unfolds in the spaces between them—in Evelyn’s relationship with Celia St. James, her forbidden love that spans decades and shapes every other decision she makes. This central relationship is rendered with such emotional complexity that it elevates the entire narrative from celebrity fiction to something approaching literary depth.
Character Development That Defies Expectations
Evelyn Hugo: Beyond the Stereotype
Evelyn herself is Reid’s greatest achievement—a character who could have easily fallen into the trap of the manipulative starlet archetype but instead emerges as someone whose calculating nature stems from genuine vulnerability. Her ruthlessness isn’t sociopathic; it’s strategic, born from understanding exactly how little agency she actually possessed in a system designed to exploit her.
Reid’s portrayal of Evelyn’s relationship with her own image is particularly nuanced. The character understands that “Evelyn Hugo” is a construction, a performance designed to protect and elevate Evelyn Herrera, the scared girl from Hell’s Kitchen. This meta-commentary on celebrity and authenticity gives the novel intellectual weight that supports its emotional core.
The Supporting Cast’s Surprising Depth
What distinguishes this novel from similar works is how Reid develops her secondary characters beyond their functional roles in Evelyn’s story. Harry Cameron emerges as more than just a beard for Evelyn’s relationship with Celia; he becomes a genuine friend whose own struggles with identity and love mirror the central couple’s challenges. Even the husbands who serve primarily as plot functions—like Don Adler and Mick Riva—are given enough psychological complexity to feel like real people rather than cardboard cutouts.
A Romance That Redefines Epic Love Stories
The relationship between Evelyn and Celia operates on multiple levels simultaneously. It’s a forbidden romance constrained by the social mores of their era, a professional rivalry that fuels both women’s careers, and a profound emotional partnership that survives decades of separation and deception.
Reid writes their love story with remarkable restraint, allowing the emotional weight to build through accumulated details rather than grand romantic gestures. The bathroom scene at the Academy Awards ceremony where they reconcile after years of separation is a masterclass in tension and release, combining physical desire with emotional reconciliation in a way that feels both inevitable and surprising.
The relationship succeeds because it acknowledges that epic love stories aren’t always about being together; sometimes they’re about the choices we make to protect what we love most.
Technical Mastery and Narrative Structure
Reid employs a dual-timeline structure that could have felt gimmicky but instead serves the story’s thematic concerns perfectly. The framing device of Monique’s interviews with Evelyn allows for natural exposition while building toward the revelation of why Evelyn chose her specifically. This choice transforms what could have been a straightforward biography into a meditation on legacy, connection, and the stories we inherit from previous generations.
The integration of period details never feels heavy-handed. Reid captures the golden age of Hollywood without falling into nostalgic romanticism, acknowledging both the glamour and the systematic exploitation that defined the studio system.
Critiques: Where Ambition Meets Execution
While the novel succeeds on most fronts, some elements feel less fully realized:
- The Modern Timeline Occasionally Lacks Focus: Monique’s personal struggles—her failing marriage, career frustrations—sometimes feel underdeveloped compared to the richness of Evelyn’s story. While this imbalance serves the novel’s ultimate revelation, it occasionally makes the contemporary sections feel perfunctory.
- Some Plot Conveniences Strain Credibility: Certain reveals, particularly regarding Monique’s father’s connection to Evelyn’s story, feel somewhat contrived despite their emotional effectiveness. The coincidence required for the story’s resolution pushes against the novel’s otherwise realistic character development.
- Pacing Issues in the Middle Section: The marriages to Rex North and Max Girard, while necessary for plot progression, feel slightly rushed compared to the more developed relationships with Harry Cameron and Celia St. James.
LGBTQ+ Representation That Honors Its Historical Context
Reid deserves particular credit for her handling of LGBTQ+ themes within their historical context. Rather than imposing contemporary sensibilities on past eras, she explores how queer relationships survived and thrived within systems designed to erase them. The novel doesn’t shy away from the real costs of staying closeted, but it also celebrates the creativity and resilience required to maintain authentic relationships under impossible circumstances.
The portrayal of Harry Cameron’s sexuality and his relationship with John Braverman adds layers to the novel’s exploration of how people created families outside traditional structures, turning the “lavender marriage” concept into something approaching mutual salvation.
Literary Connections and Influences
Reid’s work clearly draws inspiration from Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon and other exposés of golden age Hollywood, but she transforms the sensationalism of those works into something more psychologically complex. The novel also echoes themes found in Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt in its exploration of forbidden love, though Reid’s approach is more optimistic about the possibility of eventual authenticity.
Readers who appreciate “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” might also enjoy:
- Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid – Reid’s follow-up novel about a fictional 1970s rock band
- The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer – Another epic love story spanning decades of historical upheaval
- Fingersmith by Sarah Waters – Victorian-era lesbian romance with similar themes of identity and deception
- The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith – The classic forbidden love story that paved the way for authentic LGBTQ+ romance
- City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert – Another look at female sexuality and agency in mid-20th century entertainment
The Author’s Growing Mastery
Compared to Reid’s earlier works like Forever, Interrupted and After I Do, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo represents a significant evolution in her storytelling abilities. Where her previous novels focused primarily on contemporary romance, this work demonstrates her capacity to handle complex historical narratives while maintaining the emotional accessibility that defines her style.
The novel serves as a bridge between Reid’s earlier, more traditional romance novels and her later works that experiment with form and genre expectations. It suggests an author growing more confident in tackling ambitious themes while maintaining the readability that has made her work so popular.
Final Verdict: A Romance That Earns Its Epic Status
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo succeeds because it understands that the most compelling love stories are often about the costs of love rather than its rewards. Reid has crafted a novel that works simultaneously as historical fiction, LGBTQ+ romance, and celebrity memoir while never losing sight of its central concern: how we create authentic connections in a world that often punishes authenticity.
The book’s popularity reflects both its accessibility and its emotional honesty. While some elements feel contrived and the pacing occasionally falters, the central relationship between Evelyn and Celia provides enough emotional weight to carry the narrative through its weaker moments.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a novel that earns its tears honestly, building toward its devastating conclusion through accumulated emotional investment rather than manufactured sentiment. For readers seeking romance that acknowledges the real costs of love while still celebrating its transformative power, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo delivers an experience that justifies its considerable acclaim.
Reid has created something rare: a popular novel that doesn’t sacrifice complexity for accessibility, proving that readers are hungry for stories that honor both their intelligence and their hearts.