It has been way too long since I have been able to write one of these posts! My biannual reading of Twilight took much longer than expected, and my new job takes a lot of mental effort. But I’m back now, and that’s all that matters 😉
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reed
Let me begin this by saying I was very, very suspicious when I started this book because the main characters are Latina and biracial (Black/white), respectively, and the author appears to be your standard white lady. I am not a fan of this combination of all, but that being said, I actually ended up liking the novel quite a lot. It follows the story of an up and coming writer who is hired to write a story about one of Hollywood’s most famous actresses from the 1960s, except that when she gets there, the actress tells her she actually wants it to be a biography. The book moves through her life chronologically and is divided into sections based on the names of her husbands, but it is not any of them that marked her life in a significant way. This book is full of spoilers and unexpected themes, and I was here for it. Not only was it entirely about women, even with the misleading title, but it was about women loving women. Like I said, I was here for it.
Insatiable, Daisy Buchanan
Insatiable was one of the more unique novels I have read. It was both predictable and surprising, and deeply feminist where one would least expect it to be. The protagonist, Violet, is a woman in her mid-20s who recently broke off her engagement and her friendship with her best friend, is struggling to keep her head above water in a dead-end job when she meets an intriguing and enigmatic couple who promise her the world. They invite her to sex parties and offer her a job at their new company, and Violet begins to imagine a future where she is loved and appreciated. Along the way she meets people who make her question who she is and what she really wants, including the path that the patriarchy has set out for women: “What did I want?” she says, “What would I do if I could do what I liked? What would happen if I let myself dream…? Was there a world in which I didn’t become a wife, a mother, my mother?” Of course, the answer to his last question is a definite, resounding, YES. What I appreciated most about this book was her inner dialogue, her questioning of everything we aren’t meant to question, because too many people (especially women) assume they should want things without ever taking the time to know if they actually want them. And I believe the world would be a much better and more evolved place if we all took the time simply to think, before rushing and doing what is expected of us.