You pick up a book with a title like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and you think you know exactly what you’re getting into. It sounds like a beach read. Maybe a trashy-glamorous romp through Old Hollywood weddings. But then you start reading, and honestly, you realize the marketing was a bit of a (brilliant) bait-and-switch.
Taylor Jenkins Reid didn’t just write a romance. She didn’t just write a biography. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo genre is a complex, multi-layered thing that defies the easy labels people try to slap on it in the TikTok comments. It’s a hybrid. It’s what we call "upmarket" fiction, blending the page-turning speed of a thriller with the emotional weight of literary fiction.
Is It Historical Fiction or Contemporary?
The answer is both.
Most readers classify it as historical fiction, and they’re right. The meat of the story takes place between the 1950s and the 1980s. You’ve got the Sunset Boulevard glamour, the smoky jazz clubs, and the rigid, suffocating social norms of the mid-century. But there’s a whole other half.
The "frame story"—the scenes with Monique Grant, the journalist—is strictly contemporary fiction. This dual-timeline structure is a staple of the genre, but Reid uses it to do something specific. She uses the modern lens to critique the past. When Evelyn describes her "lavender marriages"—marriages of convenience to hide someone's true sexuality—the modern reader feels the weight of that history through Monique’s eyes.
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The Mock-Biography Style
One of the coolest things about the book is how it's written. It feels like a mock-autobiography. It’s so realistic that people literally go to Google to ask if Evelyn Hugo was a real person.
She wasn't.
But she’s inspired by very real icons:
- Elizabeth Taylor: For the sheer number of husbands and the legendary fame.
- Ava Gardner: Who famously worked with a ghostwriter to tell her "true" story late in life.
- Rita Hayworth: Who had to hide her Spanish heritage to succeed in Hollywood, just like Evelyn (born Evelyn Herrera) had to hide her Cuban roots.
By using fake news clippings and interview transcripts, Reid pulls the book into the realm of meta-fiction. You aren’t just reading a story; you’re reading a story about how stories are made.
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Why "Romance" Is a Tricky Label Here
If you go to a bookstore, you might find this in the Romance section. But if you're a romance "purist," you might be disappointed.
In the publishing world, a "Romance" (with a capital R) usually requires a "Happily Ever After" (HEA) or at least a "Happy for Now" (HFN). Evelyn Hugo... well, let’s just say it’s a tear-jerker. It’s more of a Romantic Drama or a Sapphic Tragedy.
The "Seven Husbands" part? That’s almost a distraction. The real heart of the book is the decades-long, forbidden love between Evelyn and Celia St. James. Because this relationship is central, the book is a cornerstone of LGBTQ+ Historical Fiction. It explores bisexuality in a way that feels very modern, even while the characters are trapped in the 1960s.
Evelyn is famously unapologetic about using her husbands as tools. She marries for power, for protection, and to keep the press away from the woman she actually loves. That makes it a Character Study. We’re watching a woman navigate a patriarchal system by playing the game better than anyone else.
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The "BookTok" Genre Factor
We have to talk about how this book exists in the cultural zeitgeist of 2026. It’s a "BookTok" book. This has almost become its own sub-genre: books that are highly emotional, visually evocative (the iconic green dress), and built around a "big twist."
It shares DNA with other Taylor Jenkins Reid "universe" books like Daisy Jones & The Six (Historical Fiction/Faux-Documentary) and Malibu Rising (Family Drama). If you like one, you'll likely like the others because they all sit in that same Glamour-Realism niche. They feel like a VOGUE cover come to life, but with a lot of grit and sadness underneath the surface.
Final Verdict on the Genre
If you’re trying to categorize it for a library or just for your own "To-Be-Read" list, think of it as Historical Women's Fiction with a heavy LGBTQ+ focus.
It’s about ambition. It’s about what we sacrifice to get to the top. Honestly, the husbands are just the chapter titles. The real story is Evelyn herself—a messy, brilliant, sometimes "bad" person who lived a very big life.
Next Steps for Readers:
Check out the "Author’s Note" or interviews with Taylor Jenkins Reid to see how she researched the 1950s Hollywood studio system. Understanding the "Morals Clause" that real stars had to sign back then will give you a much deeper appreciation for why Evelyn’s genre-bending story had to be so secretive.