genre: historical fiction
Evelyn Hugo is one of those rare women who make it all the way to the top. You know the ones, the ladies that the press reports on like their love life is actual news, that have more money than they could ever spend and the kind of celebrity that makes them an actual cultural phenomenon. And when Monique, regular old Monique, is requested to meet with Evelyn for an exclusive story at the magazine when Monique works - it feels almost too good to be true. But we soon find out that while Evelyn may be forthcoming about some things - she also knows exactly what she wants and will do what is required to get it. We learnt this about her very quickly. It is, however, what ELSE Monique learns about her that makes up the meat of this story of a woman in a time where the rules for behavior were so strict they could cut you down in a heartbeat.
Yep. I liked it. It's an easy listen and I really liked the back and forth in time between Monique and Evelyn in the present day with Evelyn's experiences during Hollywood's golden years. It's about marriage and friendship and celebrity and how we can hurt the people we love. It's about the weight of social convention and about the power in learning to worry more about how you think about yourself than you do about what others think. I liked the look at the experience of LGBTQ folks in more recent history - it's so hard to think about but so important too. For myself, I did see some of the plot from a mile away but I was surprised more than once and was pretty much well entertained throughout so a solid four stars from me.
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