It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover Book Review

Note: This review is spoiler free ! 
Book: It Ends with Us
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Age: For readers 17 and up 
Rating: ⅗
First Half of the Book: 2/5 stars
Second Half of the Book: 3.5/5 stars 

This book could have easily been rated higher if it weren’t for that hair ripping, cringeworthy, toxic first half of the book. I swear Colleen Hoover took the plot of a wattpad story and inserted it for the first half of “It Ends with Us”. 💀 
But the second half was MUCH better. It had actual substance and a good message.

What I Didn’t Like: *Copies and pastes the entire first half of the book* 🙇‍♀️ 😬  (Just kidding hehe)
​

1. The Wattpad Storyline:

• Was the author drunk while writing the first half?? This is ridiculous and I feel like I’m reading fanfiction.

• Exhibit A: This book starts out with two strangers meeting each other on a rooftop and immediately spilling their deepest darkest secrets…. Why? No clue. What kind of people have deep convos with a stranger they just met? Ur really going to spill all your life’s secrets to a man you just met? Maybe it’s just me and my introvertedness, but I don’t get it 🤷‍♀️
• Exhibit B: This thing between Ryle and Lily is weird and unrealistic. They’ve met like ONLY twice now and he’s knocking on all the doors in her neighborhood to find her?? And he’s literally panting over her. He says that he can’t pass his medical school exams because he can’t stop thinking about her and gets distracted. He then goes on to say he lost sleep over her 😭  Then he has the AUDACITY to beg her to… um do stuff…HELLO?! U GUYS BARELY KNOW EACH OTHER AND HAVE HAD TWO SMALL INTERACTIONS. This is the stupidest thing ever 😂 . 
• Exhibit C: “You make me want to be a different person, but what if I don’t know how to be what you need”. Wow, so romantic 🙄 . This was said after the fourth interaction between them. Totally not rushed at all 🤩  🤩 ! Gosh I have to keep reminding myself this is not fanfiction 💀
• Exhibit D: “But I’ve missed you and for some reason I sleep better when I sleep next to you”. I- that’s a bit much for two people who barely know each other but ok.

2. Toxic and Non Consensual Behavior Romanticized: 

• Exhibit A: Immediately after these two meet, Ryle invites her to… um do stuff part 2…. I got the icks. Ngl if a stranger said that to me, conservation would be over faster than you can say “lawsuit” and I would be filing a restraining order right away 😟 
• Exhibit B: Then a few pages later HE STARTS TO LIFT UP HER SHIRT?! This guy needs to learn to ask people before he touches them 😤
• Exhibit C: A quarter through the book, Ryle begs her to… um do stuff part 3…. And she said no (thank goodness this guy gives me the creeps).  AND then he literally pressurizes  her even after she said no. And this is normalized in the book??
• Exhibit D: "Please have s** with me. I want you so so bad and I swear- once you have s** with me, you'll never hear from me again. I promise" UM IMMEDIATELY NO. GET BACK! GET BACK! 🤺 🤺 🤺 I’LL BE RIGHT BACK, I’M GOING TO GO LOCK UP ALL MY DOORS 😧
• SPOILERS: The problem is that this toxic behavior is romanticized and passed off as flirting. That’s a dangerous message to support. It was only considered abuse when we were told that it’s abuse. Otherwise, the previous “flirting” moves Ryle had made were apparently justified.
  
  
  
  
• **This is in neither the likes or dislikes section, just wanted to mention it: Why is 99.999999% of YA female leads red haired (including Lily) but only about 2% of the world’s population is?! 💀
  
  

What I liked: 

1. Message (Kind of a Spoiler): The message about abuse was very powerful. It was developed in a way that truly encased the mind of a woman going through domestic abuse. It was very well done.
2. Atlas: ONLY BEARABLE PERSON IN THIS ENTIRE BOOK. I loved every scene he showed up in. Especially Lily’s diary entries about Atlas.

I feel like this would be a much stronger book if it weren’t for the fanfiction type writing in the first half. But I feel like everyone should still give it a read because of the powerful message behind this book! 

Read review for ACOSF

Read Review for the Inheritance Games