the nuances of identity and fame: the seven husbands of evelyn hugo

If Taylor Swift's Slut! was a book it would be The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - the life story of a reclusive Hollywood actress, the stories of forbidden love, pain, and heartache that made her hide away from the world.

The words heartwrenching, addictive, and shocking do not even begin to describe the experience of reading this masterpiece woven and written into existence by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The talent she holds is immense and incomprehensible. She can make the reader weep over a fictional actress - a woman who should be loathed for her lack of remorse and the terrible atrocities she committed; who is also merely a woman craving the love she struggled to garner her whole life.

Evelyn's story is of the brutal nature of female ambition and the way in which we are treated for it. Just like fictional women before her, be it Lady Macbeth of Shakespeare's timeless tragedy or It's a story of a woman painted as a slut for doing what she had to in order to survive as an actress in the cold-hearted, but glamorous grasp of Old Hollywood.

It is also a story of identity and assumption - how we as a society are too quick to create labels to brandish someone and put them into a box. The representation in this novel is wonderful, and the message told through this diversity is one that should reach out to the corners of the earth in order to be heard by all. Evelyn Hugo is a bisexual, Cuban American woman and she is powerful within her identity. She also perfectly sums up the point of this book in her own words: "I'm bisexual. Don't ignore half of me so you can fit me into a box."

Reading this book is an experience that will leave people feeling heartbroken, as though their very core has been ripped to pieces. Simultaneously, it will leave them feeling invigorated, with a fresh wave of empowerment flowing through them. The lessons that are entwined into the pages of this novel are profound and important - they are lessons of love, feminism, and power. This is a book that people should not go without and one that should be declared mandatory reading worldwide.