Reviews

It Ends with Us, by Colleen Hoover

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morganreads22's review against another edition

4.0

Really good book. I was a literally worried because everyone said that they feel like she paints abusive relationships in a positive light and I did not feel that way at all. I love the way she described it and put it in detail and how she ended it. I feel like this would have been a 5 star if I physically read it but I listened to it on audio book.

dani17731's review against another edition

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4.0

I really enjoyed this book. I haven't read anything else by Colleen Hoover, but I like the writing style and the depth of the characters.

jess21's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

babygirl06301's review against another edition

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3.0

2.5☆. spoilers ahead.

I came into this novel expecting my heart to break, and I have to say that I was disappointed. I thought [b:It Ends with Us|27362503|It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)|Colleen Hoover|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1470427482l/27362503._SY75_.jpg|43940889] was going to sweep me away in a whirlwind of tears and a great love for these characters because that's what seems to happen to everyone who has read it, but I realized the longer I was reading this story that it just wasn't for me.

I always feel like I should start off reviews with what I liked about a story (even though most of the time I cave and complain about it first), so I'm going to do that for [b:It Ends with Us|27362503|It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)|Colleen Hoover|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1470427482l/27362503._SY75_.jpg|43940889]. The major component of this story that I found myself really enjoying and looking forward to was probably the least-used component overall and that was Lily and Atlas. Atlas, specifically, was a character I really fell in love with, and I felt like he was drastically underutilized (though I understand that this story was Lily's journey to take on her own). But beyond that, I also liked the moments Atlas was with Lily because I felt like the most meaningful scenes that Lily had happened when she was with him. At least, in my mind. The reason I say that is because those moments were pretty much the only ones in the entire novel that I got to feel Lily healing--whether we're talking about the present day or her memories from when she was fifteen--rather than being told what to feel by the narration

That leads nicely into my biggest problem with [b:It Ends with Us|27362503|It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)|Colleen Hoover|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1470427482l/27362503._SY75_.jpg|43940889], and that is the writing style. I don't mean to be overly harsh when I say this, but from cover to cover, the writing felt a bit amateurish. Everything from Lily's development as a character to the narration style made it really difficult for me to become emotionally invested in this story or its characters. One example of that is the fact that, every time Lily walks away from an attack from Ryle or realizes something about herself, it's like she's reading it straight out of pamphlet on domestic abuse. There's no subtly in the way Lily is growing as a person, and I found myself very annoyed by the end of it that, rather than being shown how Lily came to realize why her mother never left her father, I kept seeing narration that was something like, "I totally understand that my mother just loved my dad, and that why she couldn't leave; I understand because I'm going through that, too!" The message of this story--a good message, mind you--is clear enough, so a.) I don't need it fed directly to me and b.) simply saying it like that does nothing to make me engage with Lily or her growth as a person. I don't feel like I went on this journey with her at all. Plus, it really felt like the only two points of conflict were Lily's feelings for Ryle and Atlas. Beyond that, everything was fine and dandy for Lily and her friends--babies and successful shops and significant human growth and on and on--and I found that to be quite boring because it meant that everything that happened between Lily talking to Atlas or being fearful of Ryle was fluff and entirely unimportant.

The writing didn't make the story inherently bad, and I will admit that the attempt that was made to humanize Ryle and show how important it can be to understand abusers was nice, but I just didn't feel like any of it was handled well enough for me to care much. In Ryle's case, there was one scene where his abuse was explained and, afterward, only a few short acknowledgments of it. The story seemed to still want the reader to sympathize with Ryle and forgive him by the end, when he becomes a father, but there wasn't any effort made to reform him. There could have been a great discussion about his mental illness and trauma and how he had to heal from those things before he could be in a healthy relationship, but instead, it ended up feeling like those tendencies were fine enough because they'd never come out again if he broke up with Lily. Worse, Ryle's explaination of his mental illness almost felt like an excuse, rather than a valid piece of his story, because it was only seriously talked about once.

Essentially, [b:It Ends with Us|27362503|It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)|Colleen Hoover|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1470427482l/27362503._SY75_.jpg|43940889] missed a lot of opportunities that would have made it a lot better, cleaner, and more emotional. A lot of people have been touched by this story, and I know it's a deeply personal story for [a:Colleen Hoover|5430144|Colleen Hoover|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1464032240p2/5430144.jpg]; I absolutely respect that, and I can see how many people could take so much away from this. It just wasn't hitting those marks for me. Still, given the fact that I do like Atlas quite a lot, maybe there's still the potential for me to love this world and this story in [b:It Starts with Us|60393672|It Starts with Us (It Ends with Us, #2)|Colleen Hoover|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1644605295l/60393672._SY75_.jpg|95171426]. Maybe I'll take the time to find out one day.