Personally, I didn’t LOVE Monique, though I am always happy to see another biracial main character in literature. I appreciated her contribution to the story as I feel the book would lose some of it’s strength if there was not another character for Evelyn to explain her actions and motivations to and it was just her story, but it’s for that reason that I sometimes felt she was more of a plot device than an individual character. Compared to Evelyn, I just did not care for Monique’s individual life and problems. I enjoyed seeing how Evelyn influenced her life, but her storyline was so drab compared to Evelyn. Edit 4/3/2019 - After a second read, I GREATLY appreciate Monique. Her character is so nuanced and necessary to the story. I totally relinquish much of my initial feelings on her.

Summoned to Evelyn's luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the '80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn's story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways. Why Evelyn married seven times. Did she love any of her husbands? Does she have resentments? Does she suffer from heartbreak? Which one of is the love of her life? The more I got to know Evelyn, the more I fell in love with her. She has made a lot of controversial decisions during her career, but she knows it and she also knows she'd probably do it all again. She's played the Hollywood game, dated famous men to further her career, and used her body to get what she wants. She has experienced the full force of the industry's sexism and, in some ways, capitalized on it. She is deeply flawed and aware of it. She has traded important aspects of her identity for more fame, more roles, more money. She was a badass Cuban woman working in an industry that didn't like women to be badass or Cuban. She manipulated and she lied. Despite everything - and because of it - I liked her. Each husband’s section opens with an illustrative moniker (for example, “Poor Ernie Diaz,” “Goddamn Don Adler,” “Agreeable Robert Jamison”). Discuss the meaning and significance of some of these descriptions. How do they set the tone for the section that follows? Did you read these characterizations as coming from Evelyn, Monique, an omniscient narrator, or someone else?But first off (I can call this first off if I freaking want to!!!) I wanna say: DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT HISTORICAL FICTION CAN’T BE DIVERSE. Tell that anthropomorphized tennis ball they’re either uncreative or a secret bigot or a full-on dunce or ALL THREE. Because this book pulls it off with more than a tablespoon of grace, I’ll tell you that. not to be dramatic, but if there ever comes a point in time where the fate of the human civilisation is coming to an end and we need to create a time capsule to immortalise our posterity, this book better be in it. there has never been a more honest and enthralling book in the history of the world, ever. You didn't come here and tell me how much you miss me. Or how hard it has been to live without me. You said you didn't want to give up. And I don't want to give up, either. I don't want to fail at this. But that's not actually a great reason to stay together. We should have reasons why we don't want to give. It shouldn't just be that we don't want to give up. And I don't... have any.

What role do the news, tabloid, and blog articles interspersed throughout the book serve in the narrative? What, if anything, do we learn about Evelyn’s relationship to the outside world from them? I have basically been working my entire adult life for a body like that. (Note: Am very far away. Might be the spaghetti bucatini I’ve been eating for lunch every day this week.) My 3 favorite husbands are: Rex North (he was one of my 3 favorite marriages) to get more money for the movie their starring: Anna Karenina (the gods know how I much love Anna Karenina, so I'd have given my kidney or soul to see that movie). They both agreed to this plan and they're happy this way... Until Rex's pair, Joy, is pregnant and they want to get married. Celia is also married with John Braverman. god i’m just so emotional rn, i really need ten business days to recover if i can recover at all. this book will for sure leave a mark.To say their relationship was complicated would be putting it more than just mildly! It was really interesting to see Monique’s character arc though. I mean at the beginning she was a shy mouse that didn’t dare to say anything to her boss and by the end of the book she was a young successful woman who stood up for herself and finally had the guts to make decisions she never even dared to consider. I think that to get to know Evelyn and to find out the truth behind her father’s death was necessary to find her happiness and I’m convinced that both of those things were able to give her some closure. I could understand her anger towards Evelyn, her hurt when she found out what she had done and the inability to truly hate her for it. Because she got to know the person behind the movie star and she knew how broken Evelyn was on the inside, how much pain she had suffered, how much loss she had endured. =( Still, that scene when she pondered whether to get on the train or not, the thoughts that crossed her mind, her inner struggle how to deal with the situation at hand. Damn, this was one of the best book moments I ever had the pleasure to read. Well done, Taylor Jenkins Reid, well done! I had goose bumps following that inner conflict. *shudders* This book includes three ( three!) interracial relationships. Actually, it’s more like ten if you count the fact that our protagonist is Latina. Yes! This may be the bare minimum, but I’m so used to YA wherein one pale as snow teen romances a - gasp - pale as paper teen! Diversity in young adult books = one character is of Western European descent and the other Eastern European. Talk about a vanilla romance. (Buh dum ch.)

I think if more of the marriages were teased in the beginning - just to give the audience a taste of the mystery surrounding her love life (rather than going on and on about how intriguing it was...without telling us what was intriguing about it) would have helped significantly. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways. Evelyn offers some firm words of wisdom throughout her recounting of her life, such as “Be wary of men with something to prove” (p. 77), “Never let anyone make you feel ordinary” (p. 208), and “It is OK to grovel for something you really want” (p.192). What is your favorite piece of advice from Evelyn? Were there any assertions you strongly disagreed with? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

It really makes you think, doesn’t it? That people were so eager to believe we were swapping spouses but would have been scandalized to know we were monogamous and queer?” Is Evelyn Hugo going to tell me just enough to keep me on the edge of my seat but never enough to truly reveal anything? The framing of the story reminded me a lot of The Thirteenth Tale. Like that book, in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, a young woman - this time an ambitious journalist called Monique Grant - goes to interview an elderly woman. Unlike The Thirteenth Tale, this elderly woman happens to be one of the most famous actresses in the world. In the book, Evelyn Hugo starred in her first movie in 1956. Consider hosting a classic Hollywood movie night for your group, watching films from that year with similarly iconic stars, such as Grace Kelly in High Society or Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop. For added fun, have everyone dress up in their best Evelyn Hugo–emerald green outfits.