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The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Published by Simon and Schuster on June 13, 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, Historical, Women
Pages: 400

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (4 out of 5)

I devoured The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Evelyn Hugo is a wonderfully complex character. She is driven, calculated, and stubborn. The story of her rise to fame was tough to put down. This is the perfect book to get you out of a reading slump. Unfortunately, my reading experience was diminished by too high of expectations (thanks a lot Bookstagram).

Evelyn Hugo is a major bombshell Hollywood actress from the 1950’s to 80’s. Off the screen Evelyn was frequently in the tabloids because of her tumultuous love life, which included a whopping seven marriages. In the present-day Evelyn selects a seemingly unknown journalist, Monique, to conduct her first interview in years. At their first meeting Monique is shocked when Evelyn tells her she doesn’t want her to write a magazine article, but instead wants to share her entire life story, to be written as a tell-all book. Monique cannot turn down this career-changing opportunity, but she also wonders why Evelyn selected her to write her biography. The novel then follows Evelyn’s retelling of her scandalous life including the story behind each of her seven marriages.

This is my favorite story that focuses on the price of fame. Evelyn’s story is so salacious and fun to read. Reid includes gossip articles interspersed between chapters of the book, which I thought was a nice touch. Comparing Evelyn’s true story with what was reported in gossip columns showed how she excelled at controlling her public image. She even hides her ethnicity to appeal to the mainstream. Evelyn is Cuban, but has herself remade in appearance, accent, and name to pass as white. Reid writes Evelyn as a morally ambiguous character. I respect her drive and determination to be a famous and successful movie star. But I am also frustrated by her repeatedly choosing to damage her relationships to further her career. She denies herself romantic relationships with people she loves in favor of toxic marriages that grow her stardom. I also enjoy how Monique is influenced by Evelyn’s story and changes over the course of the novel. Lastly, the story has LGBTQ representation, which I always appreciate.

Don’t be mistaken, this is a great book, but I question whether it deserves all the 5-star reviews on Goodreads. It is impossible to avoid this book’s massive hype. So unfortunately, I was expecting a lot. Have high expectations ruined your reading experience? Some of the book’s twists were predictable. Also, the formula of telling the story of each of Evelyn’s marriage becomes a bit repetitive by the end. By the fourth marriage I was thinking: we get it; Evelyn marries to advance her career, not for love. And sometimes I was irked by Reid’s blatant teasing of the reader. Many chapters ended with lines like this: “I have no idea that in less than a week, Evelyn Hugo will finish her story, and I’ll find out what this has all been about, and I will hate her so much that I’ll be truly afraid I might kill her.” I admit these lines were effective because I kept reading, but they also felt like cheap tricks. My husband says that these lines read like a 11-year-old’s first attempt at creative writing(!)

Despite this book being overly hyped, it is worth the read. This is the perfect choice for a light read at the beach or while on vacation. Evelyn Hugo is certainly an unforgettable character.

Her Body And Other Parties

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Published by Graywolf Press on October 3, 2017
Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Short Stories (single author), LGBT, Women
Pages: 245

Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado, was a thoughtful birthday gift from my husband. This short story collection has many of my favorites: weird plots, beautiful writing, and layered themes. Machado’s stories focus on women and crimes committed upon their bodies. There is a wide variety of story formats and genres throughout the collection. One of the weirdest stories, Especially Heinous, features episode synopses of the first 12 seasons of Law & Order SVU. The main characters’ names: Benson and Stabler, remain the same, but Machado introduces supernatural and science fiction elements that become progressively wilder. Reading Especially Heinous reminds me of time I’ve spent reading episode synopses of shows on Wikipedia. Another one of my favorite stories was Real Women Have Bodies where a dress shop sells dresses with human souls sewn into the fabric. And in Eight Bites a woman makes the horrifying decision to surgically remove a portion of her GI tract to decrease her appetite and have a thinner figure. As a foodie this story was highly disturbing. The pressure placed on women to maintain a certain figure leads this character to sacrificing one of life’s greatest pleasures: eating.

But the standout of this anthology is The Husband Stitch. If you do not have the time to read this entire book, I implore you to make time to read this one story. It is a literary feat that deserves multiple readings and enthusiastic discussion. You cannot read this story without thinking about the horrendous possibility that SCOTUS may soon overturn Roe v Wade. The story follows the life of a married woman and eventual mother. The woman wears a green ribbon around her neck. She never removes the ribbon, and its purpose is not revealed until the story’s conclusion. This ribbon is the only part of her body that is off limits to her husband. The husband can’t stand not knowing the secret of the ribbon. I loved The Husband Stitch so much. I want to share my interpretation of the story (mind you this is a man’s interpretation of a story that is very much centered on women’s issues). Spoiler Warning for the Remainder of the Review!!!

I believe the ribbon represents the woman’s privacy. This was the one piece of her body she kept off limits from her husband. It was only for her. And like many straight males, the husband can’t stand part of his wife’s body being off limits to him. Even though the wife freely gives every other part of her body to her husband, he’s unsatisfied. At the end of the story the wife finally relents and allows the husband to untie the ribbon. Her head falls to the floor, and she dies. Are women really living if men have control over their bodies?

The husband stitch scene was hard to stomach. A husband stitch is an extra stitch the doctor puts into a women’s vagina after vaginal tearing from childbirth. The extra stitch is meant to create more tightness for the husband’s sexual pleasure. This is vile. Minutes after giving birth the wife helplessly listens to her male doctor and husband decide to surgically alter her body, without her consent. This reminds me of all the recent news stories of red states creating legislation that limit women’s access to abortions. These news stories are often accompanied by images of solely male politicians signing the bills that limit women’s access to healthcare.

There is a scene from the woman’s childhood when she spots a toe mixed in with the produce at the grocery store. She is insistent that she saw a toe, but no one takes her seriously. Her father explains that the male shop owner would never allow toes to be mixed in with his produce. This reminds me of how women are often not believed or taken seriously when they bravely come forward to share stories of sexual assault.

The Vanishing Half

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Published by Penguin on February 1, 2022
Genres: Coming of Age, Fiction, Literary, Women, African American & Black, LGBTQ
Pages: 400

I was fortunate to begin 2022 with the wonderful The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. This is a beautiful multi-generational drama focusing on race, family, and identity. Bennett is a skilled storyteller. I was fully immersed in her prose and found myself absorbed in the story. This is one of those rare stories that has universal appeal.

The story centers on the Vignes twins Stella and Desiree. The twins are from Mallard, Louisiana a town where many light-skinned Black people reside. The twins have a traumatic childhood after seeing their father get horrifically lynched by White men. At the age of 16 the two sisters run away from their mother’s home to start new lives in New Orleans. However, Stella soon makes a dangerous and shocking decision to leave her sister to go live as a White woman. The book is written from multiple perspectives and takes place from the 1940s to the 1990s. The daughters of the twins are also featured main characters.

While The Vanishing Half is arguably a slow burn the writing is so good that it reads quickly. The major characters are well developed. No perspectives felt weaker than the others. I really enjoyed how the story was told out of order. In the end a complete story of the family was revealed. There is a character that suffers from Alzheimer’s. I found these scenes to be well written, but tough to read as they reminded me of my grandma who suffered from the same disease.

The major theme of the novel is choosing one’s identity. Desiree and Stella who are physically identical, decide to live under different racial identities. Desiree’s trans boyfriend, Reese, struggles feeling comfort with his body that opposes his male identity. The difference is Reese’s gender expression is authentic while Stella’s racial expression is based on a lie. I was deeply saddened that Stella had to deny her Blackness and family in exchange for the privilege and security of life as a White woman. The vastly differing experiences of Desiree and Stella show that racial identity is more than just the color of one’s skin. Unfortunately, one’s presenting racial identity results in vastly differing levels of privilege and wealth in the United States.

The Vanishing Half is worthy of becoming a modern classic. Between the gorgeous writing and complex themes of family, identity, and race there are a lot of discussions to be had surrounding the book. And above all Brit Bennett is a skilled storyteller.

Trigger Warnings: Alzheimer’s, Racial Violence

The Other Black Girl

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc on 2021-06
Genres: Fiction, African American & Black, Suspense, Thrillers, Women
Pages: 357

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris is a workplace thriller that centers on challenges Black women face in the office. The story’s protagonist works in a major publishing house as an assistant editor, the same job Zakiya had before quitting to write this novel. Thus, the novel offers commentary on the publishing industry. I had the pleasure of seeing Zakiya speak about her bestselling novel at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT, one town over from where she grew up. While I enjoyed the majority of The Other Black Girl, I feel like Zakiya tried combining too many genres in one novel, resulting in a confusing ending.

Nella is the only Black assistant editor at Wagner Publishing. She is thrilled when a new Black female employee is hired. Nella hopes this new employee, Hazel, will be a much-needed friend that she can confide in at the predominantly white office. However, after Hazel takes some questionable actions, Nella becomes unsure whether Hazel is an ally or a rival. When Nella finds a sinister note telling her to leave her job at Wagner, she questions whether Hazel might be responsible. The story transitions into a thriller with multiple twists and secrets, originating back decades at Wagner. I wish that Zakiya had simplified the conspiracy elements, as they were confusing and not well explained. She either needed more pages or an additional book to explore these ideas. Though I will say I loved the mechanism of the major twist!

The novel does an excellent job of featuring examples of microaggressions that Black employees face in a white dominated office. Additionally, there is commentary on the publishing industry. The wealthy, white heads of publishing are gate keepers that determine what books and types of characters will be sold to consumers. This book helped me learn how much power editors have with altering author’s manuscripts and deciding which books will become mainstream. Not only are more writers of color needed, but we need editors of color too!

Zakiya’s event at Southern Connecticut State University was a fantastic event. In a cute moment her father, who is a journalism professor at the university, introduced her to the audience. Zakiya did a reading from the novel and then answered questions from the moderator and audience about the story and the writing process. In one interesting moment Zakiya mentioned how typically Black writers feel pressure or are encouraged to only write two types of Black characters. Either flawless characters that other Black readers will be proud of or Black characters that endure horrible hardships. Zakiya hopes that there will be more space in the future for loveable yet flawed Black characters. She cited Raven Leilani’s fantastic Luster as a recent novel with a complex, likeable Black female protagonist. One sweet moment was when Zakiya mentioned her first Black teacher who taught what has become one of her favorite books, Kindred by Octavia Butler (which has been sitting in my TBR for far too long).

The Other Black Girl, while not perfectly plotted, is an important read with great characters. This book will spark many important conversations about BIPOC experiences in the workplace and the flaws in the publishing system. I am looking forward to the Hulu adaptation being produced by Zakiya and Rashida Jones!

Detransition, Baby

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Published by Random House Publishing Group on January 12, 2021
Genres: Fiction, Literary, Transgender, Women
Pages: 368

Torrey Peter’s debut novel Detransition, Baby explores motherhood, through three individuals, brought together by one pregnancy. After detransitioning from living as a trans woman, Ames gets his boss Katrina, a cis woman, pregnant. Katrina is undecided on whether she wants to have the baby. Ames proposes they form an unconventional family with his ex, Reese, a trans woman. He is concerned he will be placed in the masculine, father-like role if he parents solely with Katrina. Ames hopes the gender roles of the parents will be less binary if a third parent is brought in. Ames is also aware of Reese’s deep, longing desire to be a mother and wants her to have an opportunity to have a child. Throughout the events leading up to Katrina’s decision with the pregnancy, Torrey includes flashbacks from Reese and Ames’ relationship. I really enjoyed this novel. The characters are delightfully messy (and not in a voyeuristic way), and Peter’s story is also informative on trans issues. This funny, sexy, heartbreaking story is well worth reading.

I really enjoyed Peter’s loose, wandering writing style. She often strays from the action, diverting into long tangents that I enjoyed. I was reminded of my close friend who can never finish a story without telling a handful of smaller stories along the way. I have seen criticisms of this chaotic style, but I thought it paralleled the characters’ messy behavior in the story. In my favorite of these digressions, Peter compares white trans women to orphaned elephants in South Africa (you’ll have to read the book to understand the comparison). There are many pop-culture references and some random celebrity appearances, including Sarah Jessica Parker (clearly Peters is a major Sex and the City fan). The most memorable and well-written scene for me was a flashback to when Ames first tried on woman’s clothes at a store. Ames’ pure joy while trying on the clothes and breast plates, contrasted with the shame and embarrassment when a cis woman and her daughter walked in, interrupting the magical moment, was very powerful. All three of the main characters are human through and through, flawed and make questionable decisions. I did not enjoy the book’s conclusion, but I will withhold the reasoning to avoid spoiling this otherwise excellent novel.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for a fun, dramatic novel, with queer representation. I am thrilled to see a mainstream, best-selling novel focusing on trans lives. And if you don’t have time to get to the book, great news a tv adaptation of Detransition, Baby is in the works!

Trigger Warnings: Suicide, HIV, Miscarriage, Trans violence

Bloodchild and Other Stories

Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler
Published by Open Road Media on July 24, 2012
Genres: African American & Black, Collections & Anthologies, Fiction, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Women
Pages: 145

Within twenty minutes of picking up Bloodchild at the library, two strangers told me how much they loved the book when they saw it in my hands. The endorsements were well deserved. The collection contains five short stories and two essays, and there are no weak entries. The title story, Bloodchild, is the best short story I’ve read in recent memory. I know I will be revisiting it in the future.

Of the five short stories, three are science fiction. The two essays focus on Octavia’s journey to becoming a published author and her advice for aspiring writers. I think discussing the plot of the story Bloodchild will ruin the experience for first-time readers. My thoughts on the story are below to avoid spoiling the experience (I highly recommend you take the time to read the story first, it is only 30 pages, and you will not regret it 😊). The other stories in the collection include a future where people lose the ability to make speech sounds, an illness that causes the inflicted to self-harm, a woman dealing with the death of her mother, and a lonely, alcoholic woman with a miserable job. After each story Butler includes a brief afterward, which provides insight to the story’s inspiration. I love when authors do this. This reminds me of the introductions Stephen King includes in some of his short story collections (Four Past Midnight). I enjoyed Butler’s notes better than King’s because she includes her thoughts as an afterward rather than an introduction, so the story is not spoiled for the reader. I was looking forward to the two essays at the end of the collection the least, probably because of my preference for fiction over non-fiction. It was a pleasant surprise that they ended up being my favorite pieces outside of Bloodchild. The first inspiring essay is autobiographical, detailing Butler’s journey of becoming a published science fiction writer, which was unheard of for a black woman at the time. Even today the genre is still dominated by white males. In the second essay, Butler gives advice to aspiring writers. Butler believes that being a successful writer depends less on talent and more on consistency and practice. While I currently have no plans on writing fiction, I did find this passage motivating in terms of creating content for this blog. One of my favorite things as a reader is discovering new authors who already have a giant backlog of books written. I am looking forward to delving into the great Octavia Butler’s catalog.

Trigger Warnings: Incest, Body Horror, Rape

SPOILERS

Now for arguably the best short story I’ve ever read, Bloodchild. I am a big fan of gnarly body horror, which Butler absolutely, terrifyingly provides in this story. I also love when a science fiction/fantasy story doesn’t tell a reader how the world operates. Instead, I prefer when authors parcel out little bits of info, so that readers slowly piece together the experience themselves. The realization of the mechanics behind the symbiotic relationship between the humans and Tlic had me gleefully horrified. After reading the story I immediately went on google images and spent half an hour looking at fan art of the millipede-like Tlic. Interestingly, in Butler’s notes for the book she explains how many readers interpret the story as a metaphor for slavery, which was not her intention. I did not have that interpretation on my first read of the story, but I can see how the Tlic colonizing the humans can be read that way. Instead, Butler’s goal was to write a story of the “pregnant man”. To put male characters through the pain and trauma of childbirth.