Taylor Jenkins Reid captures the essence of Old Hollywood, fame and fortune, and the inner workings of the social standards one must achieve to remain relevant in the media. Utterly heartbreaking, the sincerity of Evelyn Hugo’s wise words as she recalls her scandalous time as a global starlet opens the reader’s eyes to the strict systemic ways of the celebrity world—a place where the “American Dream” lacks the happiness many assure it promises.
1. “You take umbrage with the word sin because it implies that you feel sorry” (Reid 26).
2. “Heartbreak is loss. Divorce is a piece of paper…But I wasn’t heartbroken when Don left me. I simply felt like my marriage had failed. And those are very different things” (Reid 141).
3. “But no medium can capture what it is to be in someone’s presence, certainly not someone like her. Someone who makes you feel important simply because she’s choosing to look at you” (Reid 226).
4. “But accepting something is true isn’t the same as thinking that it is just” (Reid 237).
5. “It’s always been fascinating to me how things can be simultaneously true and false, how people can be good and bad all in one, how someone can love you in a way that is beautifully selfless while serving themselves ruthlessly” (Reid 251).
6. “’There is a difference between sexuality and sex. I used sex to get what I wanted. Sex is just an act. Sexuality is a sincere expression of desire and pleasure” (Reid 271).
7. “I made it fifty-fifty. Which is about the cruelest thing you can do to someone you love, give them just enough good to make them stick through a hell of a lot of bad” (Reid 272).
8. “My heart was never in the craft of acting, only in the proving. Proving my power, proving my worth, proving my talent. I’d proved it all” (Reid 324).
9. “But almost everyone who’s actually experienced something like that will tell you that panic is a luxury you cannot afford. In the moment, you act without thinking, doing all you can with the information you have” (Reid 327).
10. “’Nobody deserves anything,’ Evelyn says. ‘It’s simply a matter of who’s willing to go and take it for themselves’” (Reid 366).
Grappling with the high tides of utmost fame, the novel beautifully elucidates how mistakes one makes can be detrimental to those they care the most for. A seemingly fortune-filled tragedy unfolds before the reader’s eyes and Taylor Jenkins Reid astoundingly enlivens the character of Old Hollywood’s fictional icon, Evelyn Hugo. Overall, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo will bring on realistic lessons for a smooth ride on life’s rollercoaster and highlight the importance of assuring that cherishing family and friends is a number one priority.