It Ends with Us: The Review
This is only the beginning
Greetings and salutations! I’m Jake and I like to read books. I’ve been reviewing books on Instagram since 2019. It started as a way to escape having to write up my PhD thesis, but I enjoyed it so much that I never stopped.
I like to keep things fresh and interesting so I try to read every genre, nothing is off limits. It gets boring if all you do is read the same thing over and over. Ordinarily, I like to read sci-fi, weird stories, and anything that makes me question my existence. Having said that, my first review as one of many Dorks isn’t sc-fi, it isn’t a weird story, but it did make me question my existence. Without further ado, I present It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover.
🌟tl;dr🌟
Love, abuse, and a successful flower shop
I went into this book expecting nothing. I barely even knew what it was about, but I keep seeing #CoHo everywhere and the book was £4.50 ($5.5). What was I going to do? Not buy the book?
I shouldn't have bought the book.
In the name of fairness, I’ll start with the good. The writing is fast paced and no one says anything unrealistic. Every character interaction feels real. At least that was true up to the point when I wrote that sentence in my notes. After reading the whole thing, it feels like it falls off the rails somewhere around the middle. Of course, the credibility of the events in this book have to come with a huge asterisk: I've never been abused by a spouse so maybe it's pretty realistic.
Even though I'd class the writing is good, there are points when it feels like CoHo purposefully writes things to try and test how much you'll accept. For example:
"When he was wiping cow shit on me, it was quite possibly the most turned on I've ever been"
What am I supposed to do with that information? Keep reading obviously. It has to make sense at some point, right?
Like many romance books, first person present is the perfect choice for this story. The Unreliable Narrator™ means we don't get to see the whole picture and thank God we don't. I think I might've thrown the book out the window if I'd been allowed in Ryle Kincaid's head. He’s the perfect doctor boyfriend who turns out to be a monster. He starts off so nice, but it turns out he's just an abusive gaslighter. Sad times.
I really struggled to feel sorry for Lily Blossom Bloom (let's not get into the names in this book, they’re all ridiculous and I try to avoid dunking on the low-hanging fruit). The red flags were there from the very start when she rocked up to Ryle’s house for the first time to discover he'd blown up and mounted a photo of her from their first meet cute. Somehow, we're supposed to be surprised when it goes south? But of course, she was addicted to him like "the worst drug"...how could she have seen it coming?
Fear not though, Lily’s first love Atlas (another stupid name?) is back on the scene and he might just be able to save her from the terrible life she’s made for herself. Spoiler alert, he won’t, but there’s a prequel book about their romance. I could go on for thousands of words about why this book isn’t a romance, but let’s cut straight to the point: if the book doesn’t have a happy ending it’s not in the romance genre. Genre definitions are rigid. This book is something else.
Before I fall off the deep end and can’t stop ranting, I’ll draw this review to a close. Although the writing is fine, I started to get really bored of this book. I’m a strong believer that the worst emotion to feel is apathy. The "hard-hitting" parts didn't quite have the heft of something like My Dark Vanessa and instead I just wanted it to end, resolution or not. It's tiresome to read a character who keeps flip flopping between emotional states. Not really my brand of escapism.
I tried, but I don’t think I can call myself a CoHo fan.