Lesbian Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
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ko-fi.com/sapp...
Taylor Jenkins Reid threw the first brick at Stonewall!
Academic sources:
Morrison, T. (1992) Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
Ali, K. (2019) Sacrifices, Sidekicks, and Scapegoats: Black Characters and White Stories in Nora Roberts’s Romances
Hester, E., & Patai, D. (1983). Women in 1984. PMLA, 98(2), 256-258. doi:10.2307/462051
Further Reading:
Stonewall Riots:
www.nytimes.co...
Bury Your Gays Trope:
scholarworks.g...
Thought I was crazy for not really loving this book as I have only seen people being absolutely in love with it. I agree with you that it doesn't leave much to the imagination and I hardly gave it a second thought after I had finished reading it. I mean the story was entertaining enough but the writing was forgettable at best.
As someone who’s been in Celias shoes (meaning with women that put men first etc) I would love to hear the story from Celia’s pov
I am obsessed with searching the perfect fanfiction because of this.
yess absolutely loved the seven husbands of evelyn hugo... we’re gonna pretend i didn’t ugly cry for the last 150 pages.....
I love hearing other opinions! I don’t agree with you though ☺️
I am bisexual, married to a woman. The way the author described bisexuality spoke to me.
To me, the quote you chose of the conversation between Evelyn and Celia was something I could have said myself.
My wife who is also bisexual could have said it too and agrees with that description.
To me (this is of course my own opinion and I completely respect yours !) yes, I have chosen the harder life being with the woman I love, even though I could have ignored my feelings for her (it would have been very painful ) and go ahead and continue dating only men and fall in love with a man and be in hetero relationship and be very happy in it.
I chose not to, I chose to live my relationship to the fullest and now we are married. But that was something I could have done differently.
For Celia, being a lesbian, she would suffer so much more than Evelyn in the same situation.
I thought this was a very blunt, necessary truth. It spoke to me deeply and I loved how bisexuality was discussed in this book.
I do agree with you though that she didn’t have to sleep with that guy in Vegas, however I feel like this has more to do with Evelyn being such a flawed character making so many bad decision than it has to do with her sexual orientation.
I however loved watching your review ❤
Thanks for the thoughts you share.
I agree it has nothing to do with being bi.
More to do with Evelyn just at times doesn't really think through and considerate Celia's feeling much before making huge decision, like that sleeping with Mick riva and having graphic sex scene with her ex.
I kinda hate her for disregarding Celia's feeling like that, many readers say Celia is annoying and insecure for it, but for God sake she is a saint for putting up with Evelyn's bullshit so many years till she can't anymore.
I’m glad that you brought up the racial aspect. I loved the book but HATED that Reid tried to speak on Monique being told she wasn’t black enough. 🙄 It’s just not her story to tell and it really rubbed me the wrong way.
i think the entire monique pov was boring and bad but when it was evelyns story i couldn’t stop reading
Hi, I'm from Brazil, I founded your review because I was desperately trying to found someone that saw this book in a similar way as I did and I can say that we see eye to eye. I really think some moments were bad written and the representation parts looked like they were not written by the same person who could pull out that amazing 50's Hollywood scenario. I am a heterosexual girl, but the parts about Evelyn's relationships didn't work for me neither. Two aspects bothered me the most: one was that ,for me, her love story with Celia felt a little cliche and unrealistic, because it's the old tale of the love that survives even not having mutual respect, common goals or shared values. Personally, I don't believe love can survive without those things. The second thing that bothered me was how men are portrayed like they are all the same and that you can't have a relationship based on mutual respect and trust with one. In my opinion, people are different. Assuming all men are abusers and cheaters won't help heterosexual women to face it. it only makes us think that we need to accept this as a price to have a partner. To do not settle for this, an heterosexual woman needs to believe there's trustworthy men out there and there is because cheating and abusing aren't things that come written in anyone's DNA.
Excellent review! I found it difficult to properly critique this book cos I found the characters so one dimensional! I had been so excited about reading it due to all the hype surrounding it but the standard of writing and plot was a huge disappointment. It seemed, to me, that the author only included ‘diverse’ characters as kind of like a tick box exercise i.e. the lesbian character, the bisexual character, the biracial character. I can’t help thinking that if the story had been in the hands of say Sarah Waters, it would have been a much better novel.
OMG I loved this review, Sapphic! I haven't read the book but your take on the theme of bisexual women and lesbians relationships reminded me of another book, Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney, which I hated.
I love this outfit! You look like a lesbian, dark academia character!
Omg I agree with ur review especially those bisexuals and racial aspect, it felt superficial to me rather than it coming across natural with the storyline. I was thinking it was only me just wanting too much from a book🤧
How was bisexual and racial aspect bisexual ??? The racial aspect felt genuine and bisexual aspect was amazing
@@farahanshaik8860 pls watch the review she explained it really well. For me while reading, there would be a story line going and suddenly, Evelyn would be in her name kitchen talking about her maid race…. I like how she had to fake being a white person storyline.. as it fits in with everything. And for the bisexuality, i like the parts where she try to say not to put her into a box but other than that, it was used again and again more than it needed. Most of the things are just forced by author writing like “oh she loved her, she loved him” I never get to feel anything. Yes this sounds like nitpicking but this book had such a high review so I had high expectations too
@@kaitlynb5467 in my opinion it was like the sharp realisation about her cultural disphoria was woven well initially but didn’t amount to much however bisexuality aspect was well done cause even tho she didn’t knew what bi was she understood that she loves both
@@farahanshaik8860 yes I agree with you, I think the bisexuality is well done. It is just that like this vid mentioned, it was how Evelyn treated lesbians like Celia in the argument was icky to me
I agree that the writing was sometimes lackluster, and the POC/LGBT+ representation felt a little more forced than genuine. Despite these glaring flaws, I couldn't help loving this book. The story is "sticky", meaning it took a few weeks to "wash out" of my system. For a while, after it was over, I felt empty, like when my favorite TV series ends. Something somewhere in the story stuck with me. I laugh. I cried. I FELT. If a book can accomplish that, I think it did something right. What that is, I'm not sure yet. But I loved TSHOEH.
(Spoilers) what I kept thinking about Evelyn sleeping with Harry to have a child was that they could have just used a syringe lmao. It’s like Evelyn was going out of her way to be an ass to Celia
Haha agreed
It's also bizarre that Harry and Evelyn, who were actually just friends and not really even living together took it upon themselves to decide to have a child without brining their real life partners into the decision...
And then Celia wasn't a mother figure to the child at all...
This book was full on rubbish. It's basically a soap opera.
@@andrewcrandall2419 Yep this part of the story was really out of place and weird.
I can't fathom why Celia still stay with Evelyn after that. Gosh. She went through a lot.
And the Straight keep calling her insecure and annoying, when Evelyn keep doin shit like that.
@@hatimlupus124after reading all those comments about Celia, I'm not sure anymore if I want this story to be turned into a movie lol. I already know how this will go. Most of the straight and anyone attracted to men audience, will heavily ship Evelyn and Harry romantically even tho he's gay and will have zero consideration for Celia's feelings or her point of view. Don't get me wrong, I didn't like how she spoke to Evelyn at times but the latter wasn't a saint either.
You made a lot of good points but I still really enjoyed it (and I’m not bi). It’s just an entertaining book and it’s still rare to get a “high profile” (by that I mean with good promotion, visibility etc) book with a lesbian relationship at the emotional center of it. It kind of felt like a fanfic in a way but I didn’t mind. Plus the whole Taylor Swift thing is fun.
I think this book helped me to understand why I always avoided bisexual women. But more than the sexual orientation of the characters, what bothered me more was the eternal cliché of women using sex to get what they want. Sure there are women that do this , but I guess the majority just want to feel safe and loved with the person they choose.
her other titles are called, inter alia, 'Malibu rising' and 'One true loves.' If that doesn't say something about the calibre of this writer... The author's acceptance of it being 'easier' to be bisexual is interesting. It is so that bi women may choose who they stay with and often will choose men out of ease? I think it all seems rather sinister if that is the case (sincerely, a lesbian who has been left for a man by a bisexual woman)
Holy crap. I laughed so hard. It’s so nice to see such a lesbian take.
This channel is so underrated
I totally agree with everything you said. I didn't enjoy the writting, it didn't let space for me to feel things haha Jenkins wrote like she wanted to only feel what she wanted me to feel, I don't like it.
I agree with your points about the writing and the writings about race but I disagree with your point about Evelyn putting her relationship with a woman second and only that relationship. Evelyn put everything that wasn't about increasing the power of her 'Evelyn Hugo' persona to the side for the vast majority of the book so I don't think it was specific to Celia. Also I think she could have adopted easily but she was right to distract the media by having a Las Vegas wedding and sleeping with that singer. She knew both her and Celia would be destroyed and she used something she often used as to get what she wanted, to get what she wanted. I absolutely think Evelyn would have cheated on Don to get a child or to get other things she wanted. I really don't think it's specific to Celia or their relationship being composed of two women.
Hi as an amateur historian, yes the beard thing happened a lot. I like to treat this one as a jumping off point and yes bisexual folks, I understand why you didn't like this your sexuality is not a joke. However in historical context, these would have been opinions people actually had. That being said, Reid's lack of research is inexcusable. I think what she was trying to do was validate bi folks but ironically did the opposite.
Damn I’m glad I watched this. The main characters homophobia towards her own wife is shocking. This story is supposed to make Evelyn look like the good person?? She sounds terrible! And the exchanging hairties nooooo 😭
In the book she literally says she’s not a good person and she wants the interviewer to make sure the people know she never claimed to be a good person…
She’s not meant to be a good person. She is a protagonist but not a hero. She does what she does because her one goal is “be famous at whatever cost” for most of the book. She learns later on that relationships are more important than fame but by that time it’s almost too late. And she doesn’t frame herself as a good person, she just explains what she was thinking at the time.
If you like time travel, I'd recommend "The Spanish Pearl" (& its sequel, "The Crown of Valencia") by Catherine Friend
i kind of disagree with your take on the book portrait of evelyn/celia. evelyn did not actually cheat on celia, evelyn did not "sleep with men multiples times behind celia's back". she slept with mick (which she thought celia had agreed to it) and with harry - that celia HAD agreed to it.
I also disagree that the book does "preaching" on topics like race and sexuality. yes, the author is straight and female, but she is giving voice to characters - not speaking to a movement or anything like that. Also don't agree with your take that Celia was secondary to Evelyn and men were priority. Evelyn had other goals, yes, but it's very clear how much Celia was sacreted to her. If Celia were a man, Evelyn probably wouldnt need to do some of the things she did, but homophobia plays a big part in this book.
Not to be mean, but i honestly think your views were a bit hard on Evelyn character based of your own personal view.
I'm a bisexual myself and i think bisexual representation was very interesting in this book.
lastly, i found interessing that you spend the majority of the video commenting on Evelyn character flaws related to bisexuality (even tho you are not bisexual yourself) and did not comment on plot, character development and etc - or even, did not comment on Celia's character that was sometimes very mean (like calling Evelyn a whore).
On the queer characters death - well everyone is very old and dying at that age is not very chocking. there are other heterosexual characters that died and you failed to mention. by the end, the idea for me was that Evelyn was completely alone and the people close to her were queer, so it was not like the author was writing off the gay.
Finally, i wanted to understand your points, but you sound a little bit condescending know-it-all on how you express yourself which was very put off.
I agree with many of your points. I’m a black lesbian woman and I loved this book. I didn’t feel like it’s social commentary was preachy at all.
Evelyn sleeping with Mick riva is icky cause Celia thought Evelyn won't sleep with him, just get married and get it annulled for like a day (sex is sacred to her, so I can understand how seeing this even with Evelyn having told her before and she has to accept Evelyn's decision to protect them both), so is when she does that graphic sex scene with her ex without even telling her Celia ( that is very inconsiderate thing to do to the woman you call your wife, she knows how sick she get when imagining her wife sleeping with other man after the harry situation and she beg Evelyn not to do it again, but alas Evelyn has done the scene..),
With Harry's child situation, sure Celia agree to it and we know how much it hurts her knowing Evelyn has to sleep with man while being with her, but the way harry and Evelyn handle that child situation pre and post birth gosh, that's painful to read especially if you relate more to Celia, I can't even with harry saying he always wanna bed Evelyn at least once..poor john.
Which death by a thousand cuts line are you talking about?? I noticed Evenly hugo has cardigan's line - i knew you'd (she)come back to me"- which, now I'm sure Taylor used it ON PURPOSE, AGAIN!
I only read the book because it's like a bible to gaylorism cult, and i quite liked it, even tho it has the awful writing you talk about, but i think the "fresh narrative" compensated that. Like, how are you terrible at writing and good at the same time?
if you loved evelyn hugo you would fall in love with Celia Hepburn: the secret life of a hollywood legend (sapphic)
Is this different book or same universe
Thank you for this review - feel like you articulated why certain parts of the book didn’t sit well with me
Wait I'm only 30 seconds in but is the Taylor Swift thing confirmed? Like, do we know that song is titled from the book? Because "death by a thousand cuts" is just a phrase as far as I know; I hear it all the time. I'm from the midwestern and Appalachian US
Your views are all deep and different. But I don't agree with the fact that Celia was secondary to Evelyn and men were priority. Evelyn was really in love with celia, longed for her
Toxic people can have toxic love affairs they prefer over other affairs. Doesnt make the affair less toxic because they prefer them
She could just really LOVE celia specifically because she has an easy out with Celia as opposed to her men who she could get tied down with through marriage and children
Yes, but we only know that because the author repeditly said so. In my case there were no clues of that incredible love and passion she talk about so much. She stoped talking to her for years, always for men issues. I think the only time she actually risked something was when she left Max.
Why did you have to spoil the twist? Like seriously! I am reading this right now and clicked on your video and learned the plot twist-so unfortunate! Don’t you think you should have a spoiler alert?
Um, unless she added it later, there was a Spoiler Disclaimer right at the start of the video. FWIW, I would NEVER read a review of a book while I was reading said book!
OMG thank you for saving me from reading this book.
I've tried to read this book, but disliked the character Evelyn and how she was written so much that it ruined the story for me. I can see why many may have liked this, for me though the harmful tropes also made it a book I was eager to stop reading. Just can't bring myself to finish it. Have read much better depictions of bisexuality and complex relationships. It just could have been so much better! This is an unpopular opinion, but I hope this story never makes it to the screen
Jennifer Beals is trying to bring it to the screen 😂 that's why I read it. I love her but will no longer be taking any book recommendations from her!
@@SapphicUnderground Same! Thanks for covering it though, it's good to have thoughtful criticism as well as all the praise it seems to be getting
@@SapphicUnderground Actually now the project has taken another direction (it was confirmed by the author) and will have a tv show adaptation
@@SapphicUnderground Oh, I also read this book because Jennifer recommended it. And I loved it despite some bad writing plot/lit-wise. Your review with these sharp & interesting perspectives really hit me and made me think, and I realized that's why we hetero girls like the book so much. It's because reading and watching doesn't speak the real life experiences. Thank you for educating me.
I was disappointed about the whole concept of Harry and Evelyn's child WHILE Celia was dating her but in general absolutely amazing book and it is really entertaining.
Yeah, I think Evelyn might have still used her body w/ other man, if the Love-of-Her-Life had been a man (though she might have suspected said LOHL man would be less likely to put up w/ it).
I agree w/ most of your points, but I'm still glad I read the book, BTW.
Have only read the precis for this book, but what I can't get over is why the heroine isn't in jail considering every one of her husbands ended up dead? I mean yeah, who cares, gross men with too much money kick the bucket, but there are objective legal precedents for that regardless.
excellent review!
I read this because of the Taylor connection as well.
I completely agree that the writing style is simplistic and the sociopolitical messages are not nuanced, insightful or thought provoking at all. The story was interesting enough to keep me reading. It’s more of a lesbian ‘chick lit’ page turner than a literary classic. The sex scenes are fairly forgettable however.
The characters are basically mostly unsophisticated, lazy caricatures. Evelyn herself seemed a bit of a self serving, faithless, narcissistic cow, which might have been interesting if she had not been an unimaginative and superficial drawing of a popular but ill informed bisexual stereotype.
So I agree with all you said.
Basically, the only draw for me was the bearding/closeting narrative. I guess I just wondered if it’s still a reality in 2021, that famous female stars would create a false heterosexual image in this way, rather than just come out. Interesting to contemplate what that might look like on a personal level and from where the pressure to do it might come. I found myself wondered if that might be why it’s getting the TSwift seal of approval... it’s not that great a book, so an odd choice unless it has hit home on some idiosyncratic personal level.
I'm reading it right now.... But i'm absolutely not enjoying it, I was going to just stop. So i'm watching this to see if its worth finishing.
In my opinion, I found the characters to be so badly written.. and the style is stupid..I hate the character of Evelyn so much she's a hypocrite and she's annoying...i wasn't enjoying reading her story
Now that I watched this i'm no longer feeling any guilt for stopping.
when I read this book i barely paid attention to the writing (which i prob should've) butt I overall liked this book granted the LGBTQ representation could've been better rather "we're gay and we can't tell anyone"
3:10 How is this word spelled? / Scandinavian who is trying to expand their vocabulary😌
I think the word you're referring to is 'succinct'. 😊
As a queer person, I am so tired of other queer people gatekeeping every little thing for clout. Crappy review.
This book is on my bookshelf now I don’t know if I want to read it 🤭🤔
A lot of people like it, so it might be worth reading and seeing what you think!
I will but I think only Hemingway could do the one liners well.
Really enjoy your book and movie reviews. Thank you
I’m convinced. Thanks..
Thank you so much for mentioning the "those men" in reference to the Stonewall riots! I'm a trans woman, so I was LIVID to hear that in the middle of a book that was sold as good queer representation
Well, you argue that the author writes in a way that prevents the reader from making up their own opinions about a character. That readers are being treated like children. So, but when you claim that the author makes a point (in Evelyn's speech to Celia after she has cheated on her, the bisexuality vs. lesbianism speech), it is not the author. This speech only shows Evelyn*s shitty opinion and her way of condescending. You jump to conclusions about the author and thereby do just what authors try to avoid by writing in a more simplistic manner. (but all in all I of course fully agree with you on the book. It's crap in my opinion).
Imagine it wouldve worked out with Jennifer's plan that would have been AMAZING
No a great book
I hated this book so much, it's bad chick lit! The writing is terrible.
I feel like the critique of bi women putting women partners in second place only makes sense from a monogamous perspective, it isn't significant enough from a poly perspective.