Interestingly enough, like my previous read, I started it, took two days off, and then powered through the remaining 80% (give or take) over the weekend. Clearly, my reading productivity soars during these times, leaving me to get a review together early on in the week; it’s almost as if I had unintentionally planned it to be that way.
I’m not sure about many others, but bookstagram has influenced far too many of my book choices over the past year, this one included. Even before I saw it in a physical store, which to be fair, was rarely a possibility given the current climate, I felt like everyone and their mother had read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. With so many rave reviews I went into reading it believing that I too would give it a hight rating as well, but the more of it I read, the more uncertain I became of my final opinion of it. Going into it, I didn’t know what to expect and even now having finished it I am still uncertain whether this was entirely what I had thought the book was going to be initially.
Can we just take a minute seeing how the title, bares a lot of resemblance to The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. This coincidence of the names being identical definitely left more than one person confused, and even I have caught myself writing out the wrong last name when noting the book down a few times. Reid’s novel is layered, there is a mystery to it, it’s well written without great embellishments in the language and does keep you turning the pages. Despite the life of Evelyn Hugo being rather hectic, the telling of it flows coherently and you begin to understand the reasoning behind the things she does. It has a casual tone, which makes it a nice, easy, and relaxing read. Similarly, though the bulk of the storyline takes place several decades into the past, it is still thematically relevant and current. In its entirety, the novel can be labelled as a tale of love, loss, friendship, family, and the importance of holding on the these and prioritizing them, no matter the cost. This is largely demonstrated by Evelyn and her desire to protect her one true love, no matter the cost, in her case, reputation and emotional, and in these moments you do feel for the protagonist, as she repeatedly cycles through people to finally reach happiness. Though I am not entirely sure of the lesson that is to be taken away from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, I doubt that one does not exist. I see a lot of abuse of power done by characters over the course of the novel, in some ways echoing how the media portrays some celebrity figures even now. In ways, you can see that this drive to get ahead starts to simmer down the more people in the life she loses, and a realization of her past mistakes creep up on her. On the other hand, I also see a growth of the other lead character, Monique, whose story likely resonates with many readers.
Really though, I am not entirely sure that I like the book all that much. For me, there were some pace inconsistencies in the overall tale. There are moments where I found myself a little bored; it felt even a little repetitive at the times with the sheer numbers of men that she had married, as well as between the conflicts she had with the steady love of her life. I wouldn’t say it felt like I was reading the same thing over and over, but there was a cyclical element to parts of it, and a sense of slowness. Really, once it’s revealed who the love of her life was, I would say the story goes a little downhill, in some ways the main element has been revealed and there is little sense continuing on, yet, she still commits to I think four or five husbands after this revelation. In that sense, it definitely keeps you on your toes with what’s to come, and I was not disappointed the further I got into the novel and the more facts that surfaced.
Despite all the hype that this book received, it fell a little short for me. I understand peoples reasonings behind their ratings, but there was something not quite there for me to include a higher rating. It is definitely a good book, I would probably not have gotten through it as quickly if there was something really wrong with it, because there isn’t, there was just something that blocks me from fully immersing myself into the novel.
aga is reading 
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