After seeing this book everywhere for the past year and a half to say the least, I finally decided to give it a shot. I wasn't that sure about this read, because from the plot it's not what I would normally go for. What sold me was the fact that I knew the main character is bisexual, and I was really excited to pick it up.
I am quite sure that if you are into books and use the internet you probably have heard a lot about this book, it is super popular everywhere, and I am always a bit intimidated by books that are this popular. The thing is that the more hyped a book is, the higher the chance it might let you down. When you have fewer expectations it's always much safer. The story is quite simple, an old Hollywood start decides to tell the real story of her scandalous life to a young journalist. This book was a journey. Firstly it is absolutely addictive, I did read it in its Italian translation (which was good, but after reading a few passages here and there I kinda wish I had found an English copy). I read this book in like three days and a half more or less, and I am a slow reader. It is really well structured in this sense, because it leaves you wondering on what will happen next, and you really need to know, I was glued to the pages of this novel. I loved the whole thing, as I said not really what I would normally go for but everything about it was brilliant. I loved the characters, you can't help to fall in love with Evelyn, who proves to be a complicated character with all her ambitions and feelings, but you will care for the other characters as well. I really appreacited the small historical details that helped the story be believable. The events happen in the span of different decades from the 50s to the present, and even if they were simple, there were enough things that made feel the story real. It is not set in an idealized world were everything is fine and nice, things are complicated, if you are a woman, if you are queer, and so one. And now to one of the main things that made me buy this book, a bisexual main character. In my life I've experienced very little representation in media, and not always it was well made, often the word bisexual is not even in the pieces of media, as if people are still scared of this word. I am so happy and grateful this book is so popular among everyone, because I feel like it did a great job at talking about a bisexual character. Her experiece of figuring out felt true, the type of complicated confusion you feel, because you often don't even have the key words to understand. How people often reduce what you feel and what you are as straight or gay depending on the moment, forgetting you are a whole separate thing, that has specific experiences. All these things are said loud and clear in this novel, and reading it made me very emotional. I am really really happy I now have this book as a way to connect with people around me, it will be a great starting point for many talks with certain people in my life. It is unbelivably exciting to read about someone who you see yourself in. Before this book I felt something similar when reading Her Body And Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (review liked here), since there is such a natural representation on fluid attraction. What I did love about The Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo is that there was no fear to explicitly talk about being bisexual, to see those words on paper it felt surreal and amazing. I could talk about this forever, so moving away from it, I really enjoyed the way the story is delivered. The narration can be devided in three types, Monique the journalist interviewing Evelyn tells her story of meeting this star. Then there in Evelyn narrating the story of her life, and finally a really nice touch was given by articles that show what the media were saying about Evelyn at her time. It was a really cool addition to the narration in my opinion. As I mentioned all characters are interesting and you can't help but to grow to love them, Harry in particular will hold a very special place in my heart. Overall I get why this book is so talked about, why it is so hyped, and I agree it is a great read that I am really happy is so popular. The feelings that the characters feel are complicated, and they feel real, they feel natural, it's really well done. If you are like me and have been eyeing this for a while I would totally recommend giving it a try.
I actually decided to use this book for the 2022 genre bingo for the prompt lgbtq+. I was going to read a non-fiction about genderqueer history for this, but since I had to pause my non fiction reading outside of uni material, I thought this was perfect. And I am really happy I used a book with a character that identifies like myself for this prompt.
