Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo has captivated readers worldwide with its glitzy Old Hollywood setting, complex characters, and emotionally layered storytelling. Since its release in 2017, the novel has generated widespread acclaim, social media virality, and enduring popularity. Yet among its admirers—and even its critics—there’s a recurring question: Is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo a romance novel?
This article aims to explore that question in detail, diving into the book’s structure, themes, character arcs, and literary elements to determine whether the novel aligns with traditional definitions of the romance genre—or if it perhaps transcends, challenges, or subverts them.
Defining the Romance Novel: Key Criteria
Before analyzing The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, we need a clear definition of what constitutes a romance novel. According to the Romance Writers of America (RWA), a romance novel must have:
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A central love story, where the main plot centers on the romantic relationship between two people.
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An emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending, often termed a “happily ever after” (HEA) or “happy for now” (HFN).
This definition is echoed in academic circles and publishing classifications. Romance novels may span subgenres—historical, contemporary, erotic, LGBTQ+, etc.—but these two elements are foundational.
With this framework in place, we can now evaluate The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
Overview of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Set primarily in mid-20th-century Hollywood, the novel follows reclusive movie icon Evelyn Hugo, who grants an exclusive interview to relatively unknown journalist Monique Grant. Over the course of the narrative, Evelyn recounts her life story—specifically focusing on her seven marriages and the decisions that shaped her rise to stardom.
The book weaves between two timelines: Evelyn’s glamorous but tumultuous past and Monique’s contemporary efforts to understand the star’s motivations for choosing her as biographer. As Evelyn’s story unfolds, the novel reveals that her true love was not among her seven husbands, but rather with a woman—Celia St. James.
Love and Identity: Evelyn and Celia’s Relationship
At the heart of Evelyn’s story lies her decades-long relationship with Celia St. James, an acclaimed actress with whom Evelyn shares a passionate, complicated, and ultimately tragic romance.
From a romance genre perspective, Evelyn and Celia’s love story is a major narrative force. Their relationship follows a trajectory familiar in romantic fiction:
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Initial attraction and tension: Their bond begins amid the pressures of fame and the need to hide their sexuality.
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Emotional conflict: Their relationship is strained by jealousy, pride, societal expectations, and personal ambition.
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Separation and reunion: They experience breakups and reconciliations that reflect evolving understandings of love, compromise, and identity.
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Tragic closure: Though they reconcile later in life, Celia’s death from pulmonary fibrosis marks a somber conclusion to their love story.
Celia and Evelyn’s relationship is the emotional center of the novel—more than any of Evelyn’s seven marriages. Readers are invested in their love and heartbreak. But does this love story qualify the book as a romance novel?
Does the Novel Have a Central Love Story?
By most accounts, yes.
Although the title and structure suggest a focus on Evelyn’s seven husbands, the narrative gradually reveals that these relationships are largely transactional or strategic. The emotional core—the true “central love story”—is Evelyn and Celia. Reid positions this love story as the emotional and thematic heartbeat of Evelyn’s life.
Crucially, Evelyn admits that everything she did—every calculated move—was for love. “I loved her so much I wanted to be everything she needed,” Evelyn tells Monique. The gravity of her feelings is undeniable.
Even Monique, who begins the novel indifferent to Evelyn, is transformed by this tale of love, regret, and redemption. Evelyn and Celia’s relationship influences Monique’s own choices and values, emphasizing the story’s broader emotional reach.
Does the Novel Have an Emotionally Satisfying and Optimistic Ending?
This is where the novel diverges from traditional romance conventions.
While the relationship between Evelyn and Celia is deeply moving, it ultimately ends in death. Celia dies. Evelyn dies by suicide. There is no traditional “happily ever after.”
Still, one might argue that the novel offers a bittersweet emotional satisfaction:
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Evelyn and Celia are able to spend meaningful time together before Celia’s death.
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Evelyn is able to publicly declare her truth through the biography.
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Monique gains clarity, strength, and purpose through Evelyn’s story.
Yet, in terms of genre classification, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo lacks the unequivocally optimistic ending expected of traditional romance novels. This key point suggests the book uses romance as a major element, but does not conform entirely to the romance genre.
Literary Fiction with Romantic Elements
Many critics and readers classify The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo as literary fiction or historical fiction with strong romantic elements. This aligns with how publishers and booksellers shelve the book—often under “Contemporary Fiction” or “Book Club Favorites.”
Unlike typical romance novels, Evelyn Hugo spans decades, explores a wide array of themes—fame, sacrifice, bisexuality, race, abuse, and female empowerment—and incorporates a multi-layered narrative structure involving Monique’s parallel arc.
This complex storytelling goes beyond a single romantic plotline, which is why many hesitate to classify it strictly as a romance.
Genre-Bending and Reader Expectations
Taylor Jenkins Reid is known for writing genre-bending fiction. Like Daisy Jones & The Six and Malibu Rising, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo blends historical imagination with emotionally rich character studies. Reid’s ability to center intimate emotional experiences within larger societal and cultural settings defies easy categorization.
For some readers, this blending feels like a subversion of genre expectations. Romance readers often expect a “guaranteed” HEA. Those unfamiliar with the genre, however, may use “romance” more loosely—referring to any book with a prominent love story.
This disconnect fuels the ongoing debate: genre purists say no, it’s not a romance novel. Others argue that the powerful, poignant love story qualifies it emotionally, if not structurally.
LGBTQ+ Representation and Queer Romance
Another dimension to consider is how the novel contributes to LGBTQ+ representation in popular fiction.
While many mainstream romance novels—especially in earlier decades—centered heterosexual couples, Evelyn Hugo brings bisexual and lesbian love stories into the spotlight. Evelyn’s struggle with her sexuality, her public image, and her private longing for Celia offers an important perspective on queer romance in mid-20th-century America.
Though the book may not fit neatly into romance genre conventions, it has been embraced by many LGBTQ+ readers as an emotionally resonant, deeply personal depiction of queer love.
In this sense, the novel enriches the tradition of queer romance narratives, even if it doesn’t follow a traditional romance structure.
Emotional Resonance Over Formula
One reason The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo resonates so strongly is its emotional depth. Readers experience not just the highs of Evelyn and Celia’s romance but also the devastating losses, sacrifices, and moments of self-reckoning.
Romance novels are often about emotional payoff, and Evelyn Hugo delivers that in spades—even if the outcome is tragic. Evelyn’s decision to tell her full story before her death provides a kind of closure, a final act of love for Celia and for herself.
This emotional resonance is one of the book’s most “romance-like” features—even if the traditional happily-ever-after is denied.
Conclusion
In conclusion, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is not a romance novel in the strictest sense, but it is a novel with a profound romantic heart. It uses the language of love to explore identity, power, sacrifice, and self-definition. For readers seeking emotional intimacy and complex, beautifully rendered relationships, it may offer more than many traditional romance novels—precisely because it dares to be something else entirely.
