A couple of things struck me just as I was beginning the novel, allowing the spine to creak and crack with my start. First of all, I was wrong in several things I thought I knew going into this piece. I thought the entire story is about an older starlet, perhaps told chronologically and perhaps through flashbacks, but it turns out that the narrative has another level to it. A level which seems to hold the promise of only adding more interest to the book. Evelyn Hugo yes, but there’s Monique Grant, too. Monique is a as-yet-to-be-famous writer working for Vivant, an esteemed magazine. Monique is requested, nay demanded, by Ms. Hugo to do her interview, an interview that comes from Ms. Hugo’s request to begin with. So, despite her lack of credibility, Monique is handpicked (for reasons unknown) to do what could possibly be one of the biggest interviews/pieces of her career.

Secondly, I noticed that my timeframe was off. Coupled with the talk about an older Hollywood and the lush-looking picture on the cover, I had assumed the bulk of Evelyn’s story was set farther back on the timeline. Say the 1930s or '40s. Off by at least a decade, but more like two or three, depending on what part of Hugo’s career you’re addressing, that changes a lot. The 1960s were an incredibly tumultuous time in history. That timeframe, coupled with the unearthing of Hugo's bisexuality, set up a different backdrop altogether.

I've got to say this thing is so well-written and feels exactly like other actual Hollywood memoirs I’ve read, I have to keep reminding myself (like a mental pinch on the arm) that this was fictional, especially during the first half. As tumultuous as the '60s were, Reid doesn't go into too much of the nation's history during that time period, instead staying homed in on Hugo telling her own focused story. Surprising or not, this only made the characters seem that much more real. Honestly, it would be difficult to try to express how real they actually felt, because you can only use so many words to try and capture that feeling of realness, but trust that it exists here within these pages.

Taking this beyond simply a character study, which it is, Reid delves so far into Hugo and we feel for certain how real she is, covering so many decades feels like a gift. This is my first Reid novel, but it will not be my last.