The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Week 8: Secrets, Lies, and the Architecture of a Public Life
Read the chapters in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo dealing with the construction and maintenance of Evelyn's public image, her relationship with the press, and her various cover stories.
Previewing Week 8 of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 11-week guide when you’re ready.
Evelyn Hugo is not just a woman with secrets — she is a woman who understood, decades before anyone called it personal branding, that a public persona is a story you tell on your own terms or someone else will tell it for you.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Evelyn speaks about her public image with the clear-eyed detachment of someone who built it deliberately. How does Reid distinguish between the parts of the 'Evelyn Hugo' persona that were imposed on her by the studio system and the parts she actively constructed herself?
2.Throughout the novel, the tabloid press operates as both a threat and a tool. What moments show Evelyn using the press strategically — planting stories, managing rumors — rather than merely fending it off?
3.The concept of the 'open secret' — the thing everyone suspects but no one states — runs through the novel. How does Reid use that concept to comment on the way society has historically forced LGBTQ people to exist in a kind of enforced ambiguity?