Those people are not wrong. If you like Colleen Hoover, you do need to read better books. I get people want to read her for enjoyment or shit, I get that. I understand that.

My issue is with people who act like she has published some groundbreaking piece of literature that's so deep with layers of onion. No. That's not true. Her writing sucks. And love, if you like her books, you might as well read some better books written on Wattpad by 14 year olds.

Thirdly, her books are problematic. Their plot is problematic. I am specifically going to talk about It Ends With Us. That book justifies sexual assault, no accountability for bad and abusive characters. And you know what? I understand that characters can be morally bad. What I don't understand is that CoHo doesn't provide any sort of accountability or acknowledgement for that shit.

Fourthly, it glorifies toxic relationships, grooming and is just very unrealistic. Now why I say unrealistic? Because according to the strategically placed Author's Note in the end, it's supposed to highlight her mother's story. Atlas is some guy who out of nowhere became a successful chef? But okay, I'll give my willing suspension disbelief. My other problem is with how bland her characters are. The main character is called Lily Bloom for fucks sake. And she's the most one dimensional, half-assed and generic character i have ever seen.

Fifthly, the writer herself is problematic and I'm sorry if I have trouble supporting someone who tries to conceal her son's sexual assault attempts. I am not going to go into depth, you can that on twitter.

Sixth, how am I supposed to take a writer seriously who makes her characters laugh at their son's "big balls". Like are you kidding me?

I apologise for my lack of politeness but i get really angry when people act like hating on CoHo is because of her success or something. We have our reasons, very valid and real reasons to not enjoy her work. You can enjoy reading her but for god's sake stop acting like she's some groundbreaking literary artist.

> As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

> It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

> It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. 1984, George Orwell

> There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

> It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

> It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

> 124 was spiteful. Full of Baby's venom Beloved, Toni's Morrison

> Of Man's First Disobedience, and the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe. Paradise Lost, John Milton

> I stand at the window of this great house in the south of France as night falls, the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life. Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin

Oscar Wilde's essays and letters that he wrote while in prison and THE BALLAD OF THE READING GAOL

we had murder of roger ackroyd in our syllabus last sem and my teacher spoiled the book in the second lecture itself 💀 he was just giving an intro lol

I haven't read the book, but i am going to read it to see how bad it can get 😂

>“he shoved me down the stairs but sex is hot and he has a six pack!”

This is true. There is a majority of teen audience that finds all this assault hot. I mean, come on. The book is nowhere near dealing with abuse, instead, it deviates farther and farther from it. I get that it is hard to detect abuse, and it is hard to get out of it, but then this discredits CoHo's author's note where she claims to talk about an abuse cycle in this apparently life-changing story. I have mad respect for her for getting out of that situation, but as a part of her "target" audience, I was very underwhelmed with the book. The writing is just horrible, and I could go on and on about it.

However, the issue is also her content. What she claims to do in the author's note and what she actually does in the story are just so in dissonance with each other. I am truly flummoxed by the amount of sales this author is making, because all her books follow the same type of trope. Her characters ought to have some trauma in order to be interesting. Why? I get that mental health is important, but then I am sorry, but she has failed in providing representation to such traumas.

Again, I would like to apologise for my incessant, useless rant. It just angers me so much that our generation is going to be remembered with such people who have done nothing but contribute to the capitalisation of an important art form, that is literature. And again, as an English Major, having read some great works, it is frustrating to see rare writers of our times who manage to write something par excellence.

P. S. Mad respect for your major, i just am so bad at economics that I have so much respect for people who manage to study it haha.

I appreciate your response. And i completely respect your choices, and I'm sorry your family is abusive. You don't deserve that. As someone also, who comes from a conservative and abusive family, i understand the place you're coming from.

What i would say before diving into why i don't like the book is the fact that i may be too biased because i am an English major? I don't know if that matters or not.

Alright, first of all, kudos to CoHo for making a book that has a flowy style of writing (not sure what it's called). However, it's border-line cringey. CoHo's capabilities as a good writer never surface in the novel. Show, don't tell, is something she decided to ignore, and well, in my opinion, she failed. In the first page itself, the protagonist keeps on rambling on about what she is feeling rather than telling us how she is feeling so that we can conclude her emotions on our own. Her characters are hollow, vague and just very basic. She likes that Disney fish story, and she's obviously not like other girls.

Could CoHo be more obvious? The protagonist is called Lily Bloom. And she's a florist, for fuck's sake? And that guy is named Ryle - holy crap. Anyways, putting all these trivial irritations aside, let's talk about why abuse is glorified.

Diving into this book, i thought it's going to understand abuse, and it's going to actually do something. But no, it's branded as romance. It's truly astounding, how capitalism has modelled this book, this book that is supposed to deal with "abuse", is branded as romance. And im not the one saying this. Miss CoHo says so herself on many occasions, and never is she seen correcting anyone who calls it romance. The author's note in the end takes a sneak peek into CoHo's own life and how she dealt with abuse. Knowing about the note, i thought Ryle was going to face some consequences for his actions. But no. He is branded as a guy who's a part of a love triangle. He never faces any repercussions for his stupid actions. There is sexual assault in the book, and young girls on tiktok apparently find it hot? No one seems to be talking about any of these issues. Poverty is glorified in Atlas Corrigan.

There is excess of italics in the book, how the fuck am i supposed to derive anything if CoHo is sitting on my face, spoon feeding me everything?

And to your response about the book - i am glad you acknowledge the consequences of the book. There are so many people who find nothing wrong with this. It's like they're just floating away with what CoHo tells them as narrators. They like being spoon fed and they don't see the red flags that the book has. It just makes me angry that there is this bee-hive like situation that has been created and no one seems to question the content of the book, but rather engage in BookTok polarisation.

I'm sorry but i loathe it ends with us. The characters are vaguer than the black hole and don't make any sense. I know it's wrong to term popular literature as trashy because there are some good works in it's literary canon, but It Ends With Us is the textbook definition of low-end, capitalised trashy literature. I get second hand embarrassment from even calling it literature.

Again, i apologise, i know this is tremendously rude of me. You're allowed to like the book and you can call me jealous but there are better writers out there who are trashed under this new wave of garbage literature. And It Ends With Us is just glorification of abuse and toxicity.

Again, i know this low of me to ask you, but would you mind sharing what makes you like that book? Maybe i am biased in some way or being narrow-minded. I would love to know what you think.

BookTok is a joke. Don't trust any books that get famous there, because apart from some actually intelligent readers, it's filled with trashy recommendations that center around useless unnecessary sexual content and weird, abusive romance tropes. Now don't get me wrong, i like sex, I'm sex positive, but i absolutely hate the fact that erotica with bleak, hollow characters is the norm nowadays. I think we need a re-rennaisance

Honestly, as mediocre of an actor that Harry is, he actually did a great job. Obviously he needs to work more on his acting, i don't think it was bad in a tacky way, and it was still watchable. Yes, I'm a Harry Styles fan, yes i believe he can do better.

I don't like Olivia Wilde but she actually did a great job with direction, the production was superb and i really enjoyed the music in the film. (I'm not very much aware of the technical stuff so I'm sorry if I'm wrong). I didn't like Olivia Wilde's acting.

Florence Pugh is just iconic. She's so talented, and despite all the drama she has emerged from the ashes like a phoenix. I am so in love with her.

Another person i wanna appreciate is Chris Pine. I never knew about him before but now that i do, I'm so fascinated by the man. His acting is so fucking amazing AND he has a degree in English Literature (which is what I'm pursuing) and it makes me feel so good for some reason???? IDK OKAY THATS STUPID.

But overall, no matter how "bad" people say it was, i enjoyed it and i definitely need a 10 hour behind the scenes documentary because this movie just felt like a movie.

** Spits on Chris Pine *