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It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
Year published: 2016
Book # for author: around her 14th
Genre: Romance
Setting: Boston, MA, year unspecified
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover book synopsis
It Ends With Us (on Amazon here) was all over bookstagram for years so I gave it a try. Lo and behold, I found it horrible, but could see why a lot of people liked it: it didn’t require a ton of processing, read a bit like a movie, had romantic elements and even an important message. But it’s hard for me to even give a synopsis of the book because I never really let it settle in.
In a nutshell, our main character is Lily, a woman about to open her own flower shop in Boston. She meets Ryle, a neurosurgeon, on a rooftop one night while processing her father’s recent death. Ryle is charismatic but not really the relationship type. Which is why it’s a huge compliment when he does want a relationship with Lily. They aren’t 100% sure it’s a good idea because of his issues, but they both really want to make it work because of their strong love and attraction. They eventually get married but tension builds. Will Ryle really fix his issues once and for all?
Then Lily’s old boyfriend Atlas reenters the picture when they bump into him at the restaurant he owns. This turns the story into a love triangle, further angering the deeply flawed but still very human Ryle.
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover book review, aka why I hated It Ends With Us
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover didn’t respect us readers. It even insulted our intelligence with all the random details that didn’t add up. Instead we could have heard about realistic struggles. But no, Lily effortlessly opens her flower shop and gains an employee who happens to be super rich and the sister of Ryle. This employee wants to work for Lily for the fun of it (and very little pay). She also happens to become Lily’s bff in a matter of days.
I found Lily’s hatred for her father over the top. Even the child of the most abusive parent has some acknowledgement for them, even if it’s just intellectual. Like they probably recognize that they did put food on the table and had a hard childhood themselves. Not Lily though.
Lily and Atlas’s past relationship was a nice, heartwarming story but why was this a love triangle exactly? It took way from the message and the struggle. In contrast, the book and show Maid is about a similar theme and a lot more realistic. I talk about it in my Ultimate List of Netflix Shows to Watch here.
My frustration levels increased when Lily’s flower shop works out with minimal marketing effort or even effort at all. *Spoilers to follow* This then gives her complete financial independence when she makes the decision to leave Ryle. Nice, because everything just falling into place is how it works out most of the time. Sarcasm.
*Spoilers continue* Both the book and movie also glossed over Lily being a single parent at the end. Even becoming a parent with a supportive partner that helps a ton is not an easy thing, let alone becoming a single parent from birth onwards.
Let’s skip to the good parts. The fact that Colleen wrote this story to understand her mother’s life and why she stayed with an abusive man for so long gave it depth. It showed us that most of the time there’s love in these relationships too. That they aren’t all bad, and that these women aren’t dumb in staying.
But my rating is still: 3/10.
It Ends With Us movie review
Because of the redeeming qualities and all the hype, I was excited for the movie. The trailer looked good aside from one scene that seemed like bad acting (the one with too much laughter on the rooftop). I was surprised Lily was played by Blake Lively, as in the book she’s younger. But having her older gave more substance to the movie, I realized after seeing it. The trailer is on YouTube here.
The book had originally read like a movie so the story was more suited to this format. Because the movie distracted from a lot (but not all) of the extra fluff in the book, I enjoyed it. It made the abuse more vague, and therefore Lily’s struggle more understandable. Ryle’s tragic backstory had more presence in the movie so there was what to empathize with on his side as well.
Did it romanticize abuse as everyone’s saying?
In a way, but that is what we signed up for in seeing this movie. It wasn’t meant to be an accurate portrayal of domestic abuse, it told a story that highlighted specific aspects of that journey for one specific person in a not too realistic way.
What were those aspects? That there was some sort of love there despite the abuse, and that’s what can make it so hard to leave these situations. If you go into the movie with this mindset you shouldn’t be too offended.
My rating: 6.5/10.
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