Have you ever been so invested in something that you’ve forgotten to eat? To sleep? Not moving for hours on end because you’re absolutely engrossed and riveted in that story or movie or song?

Well, that’s how this book was for me. I just finished a re-read of it, after not having thought about it since it first came out, and I’m just. destroyed. Truly and utterly, inside and out. I love this book. I remembered loving it the first time I read it, but like most things surrounding human memory, I’d forgotten the details, the bits and pieces that really make you stop and go, “woah.” This book is raw and unapologetic, and fantastically queer. It’s an ode to the LGBT folks who couldn’t and can’t be themselves for fear of persecution, and a love story to those who found happiness even in the darkest of nights. It is my life’s mission to get as many people as possible to read this book so that they too can know the delight of Evelyn Hugo.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is about a struggling journalist, Monique Grant, who gets the biggest story of her lifetime – to tell the biography of Evelyn Hugo in all its grit and glamour. Monique, who is going through some life difficulties (like her husband leaving her), decides this is the perfect opportunity to launch her career and she takes on the momentous task of telling Evelyn’s story to the world.

Between narratives driven by both Evelyn and Monique, we learn about Evelyn’s life from the 1950s all the way through the present. It is enrapturing, tragic, scandalous, happy, and bittersweet. No detail is left out, and the pace of the story is ruthless – I was literally driven to keep reading. I could not bear to put this book down, even for a moment. It’s a wonderful blend of historical fiction, romance, and mystery, and I do think that it’s a book that most people will enjoy.

Easily one of my top-ten favorite books of all time. Please read it. I beg you.

Check out the original review here!