Colleen Hoovers best-selling book, ‘It Ends with Us’, follows Lily Bloom, the protagonist, as she moves to Boston and meets neurosurgeon, Ryle, who she ends up marrying. However, Lily and Ryle’s marriage is soon put to the test when Atlas- her first true love- makes an appearance, throwing Lily, into what the readers assume will be, a ‘love triangle’.

However, this book is not a cute love story with a ‘love triangle’, it's a book that explores domestic violence and abusive relationships. This is one of the problems with ‘It Ends with Us’: the marketing. Starting with the blurb, which does not mention abuse once, making readers, who were not expecting such heavy topics, to feel deceived. While I think Colleen Hoover bringing abuse to light is very important, not labelling the book as such is counterproductive, as it implies the abuse was not important, or a significant part of Lilys story, and it’s unfair for readers who were not anticipating it, considering a significant amount of her audience are young teens.

Ryle is portrayed as ‘assertive, stubborn’ and ‘arrogant’, and as a good man whose past trauma can sometimes ignite an anger that is not considered so kind- in other words, an overdone cliché describing an abusive man, which often disregards their abusive actions. Not long after Ryle and Lilys marriage, Ryle starts physically abusing Lily. From here, Lily and the readers get to explore first hand what being in an abusive relationship is like, and Hoover gives a very realistic perspective on how abuse can be hard to escape from. 

That said, what personally averts me from this book, is how Hoover explored Ryle’s character. I think his character had the oppurtunity to show the readers how easily white, fortunate men escape consequeces regarding domestic abuse because of their privlege. Instead, it almost seemed like Hoover defended the character’s actions, by describing him as a dark, angry, mysterious man, feeding into the trope of 'he’s broken! I can fix him!', rather than admitting he is manipulative. Ultimately, it feeds into toxic masculinity, despite the fact that it’s, what I’m assuming, Colleen Hoover was trying to fight against. Overall, readers almost receive an anti-feminist message.

Furthermore, having Lily unable to realise the danger of allowing Ryle to co-parent was irresponsible. While I understand Colleen’s intent of taking the readers through the same emotionally manipulative journey as Lily was to fully understand the difficulties of abuse, Lily’s decision to co-parent with Ryle was not a redemption arc for Ryle, nor was it her getting over her past by being cooperative, but rather a disregard for her child’s safety. While Hoover made an emphasis to make it realistic, her ultimate goal was to bring awareness, and considering the age of her audience, and the impact that domestic abuse has, Colleen Hoover should have thought more carefully about the message she was providing, and how her books can impact how people may look at, or deal with, a similar situation.