Death By A Thousand Cuts

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This book was a roller coaster. As I was reading, I totally thought I was going to give this book a 4 star review because it was entertaining from the first page, but I never was really dazzled. But man that twist, I did not see that coming. My mouth dropped once I read the life altering line. Personally I had even forgotten Monique was listening to Evelyn’s story.

Which was an interesting take I took from the discussion questions in the back of the book: who described Evelyn’s husbands monikers? It really took me for a loop, where I was genuinely wondering if the book I read was the book Monique published under the same title or if it was genuinely Evelyn’s truth as she told it to Monique. Here I am questioning what is real and not real from a fictional book. It wouldn’t surprise me if Monique was so mad she just published the audio to text for the biography. Because I have to say the ending really pissed me off and not because I was mad at Evelyn, but I’m mad at Monique.

I wanted Monique to own her truth, she owned it with Frankie at Vivant and her Ex-Husband on divorce but she couldn’t own the truth with her mother? I know If I was Monique and found out what happened, I wouldn’t be able to keep my mouth shut. Didn’t Monique learn from Evelyn, that when Evelyn thought she was protecting her family by withholding information, it was ultimately screwing her over in the end? A quote I really loved from the book, from page 112, “Intimacy is about truth…when you realize you can tell someone your truth… when you stand in front of them bare.” That is when you are your most vulnerable.

Speaking of quotes, I actually was able to learn and self-reflect from this book a lot. It gave me a new perspective on life. I have to say, I learned to “Evelyn Hugo”.

A quote that has stuck with me was “The world respects people who think they should be running it,” from page 8. So early on it was made aware that Evelyn would struggle working in a power dominated world. It’s what’s made her who she is. She made herself into someone the power figures respected. She didn’t always feel how she acted but eventually she owned and accepted who she became - she didn’t regret a single thing. Which is a very admirable trait to have. After all she did say, “doing the right thing gets ugly” on page 25.

I have to mention, the amount of Taylor Swift lyric quotes from this book was iconic. I hope Taylor is involved in the movie picture because so many of her songs were quoted. It’s a question I have to dive into more: was the book written first or after Taylor’s Lyrics? There were so many lyrics from so many different albums. I will say Death by A Thousand Cuts was written after this book came out. And it couldn’t be a more perfect song representing this book already. No need to even write a more perfect song for the movie.

As a pop culture lover, I feel like this book gave me insight to a world I never knew existed. I knew celebrities had lives outside of what they showed the public eye, but never thought they could live such private lives as Evelyn did. I guess the rise of social media does have a factor in the modern day stardom but still there are so many celebrities getting written up in the media and we paint them from the articles we read. The newspaper clippings in the text added the layer of how outsiders viewed celebrities VS how they were actually living their lives. A new perspective I will take with me the next time I read the DailyMail or TMZ.

Another topic I thought was interesting was the idea of loving more than one person in a life time including falling out of love or pausing love. As an adult who is single and sees a lot of couples in long term relationships ending abruptly. That is really is possible to stop loving someone you thought you could love forever. I personally never have experienced it, but can sympathize with those who do a little bit more.

With recent pop culture resurgence of homie hopping, I really felt it was a necessary topic with this book, Evelyn's male friends were always fawning over her, her friends going for her exes, and the casting overlapping so frequently with friends, husbands of friends, wives of friends - there was so much chemistry to be had. It made it easy for those to fall in love - was it acting or was it real life? In my opinion, this book gave it a whole new lens for those (me) who aren’t in Hollywood. In the bubble of stardom, you can never really tell when someone is being genuine. Everyone is out for personal gain. Homie Hopping a concept more prevalent in old Hollywood but I guess holds true to present day Hollywood.

So in the end, I would like to believe the book was written as if Monique was telling the story from her memory with her sessions from Evelyn. Sharing her own family’s truth along with Evelyn’s truth to the world. The truth is a death by a thousand cuts.

Stick with me moment: Owning your truth and being a boss bitch.

Taylor Swift Song Association: Death By A Thousand Cuts

Rating 5/5 Stars