It Ends With Us By Colleen Hoover (review)

Title: It Ends With Us
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: August 2nd 2016
Publisher: Atria books
Format: Paperback
My Review: 5 stars

I’m not posting a synopsis because i recommend you go into this novel blind. To be honest i would love it if you read this review after you read the novel due to the fact that if you go into It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover blind you’ll get much more out of the story!

 

 

 

My review

As I sit her looking at this blank page on this word document I’m overcome with so much emotions I can’t find the words to express how I’m feeling.

This book has rendered me speechless. It is the most touching story I have read to date. My thoughts below may contain spoilers since it is hard to express my feelings towards this novel without spoiling. I tried not to post actual book spoilers but my thoughts could be classified as spoilerish so read at your own risk…also I added quotes from the novel that really jumped out at me and gave you a better image of what exactly I’m talking about since I tend to ramble a ton in my reviews .

First off let me start off with a warning. It Ends With Us contains abusive situations. If this is a hard limit for you I recommend you not read it or at least go into the novel with your eyes wide open.

Abuse….

There are three sides to every abuse.

There is the Abuser’s side, The victims side, and then we have the outsider’s side of the story.

“I feel like everyone fakes who they really are, when deep down we’re all equal amounts of screwed up. Some of us are just better at hiding it than others.” 

I’ve never been an abuser or a victim of an abuse but I’ve been an outsider. I was the person that witnessed an abusive situation and did nothing about it. Thank god the story I’m referring to had a happy ending just like this one.

This is Lily Blooms story and how she fell for two completely different men at two different times in her life.

There is Atlas the homeless boy that squatted in the abandoned house next door. Lily helped Atlas by letting him shower, feeding him, and even letting him sleep on her floor during the cold winter months. The friendship eventually grew into first love.

“Imagine all the people you meet in your life. There are so many. They come in like waves, trickling in and out with the tide. Some waves are much bigger and make more of an impact than others. Sometimes the waves bring with them things from deep in the bottom of the sea and they leave those things tossed onto the shore. Imprints against the grains of sand that prove the waves had once been there, long after the tide recedes. That was what Atlas was telling me when he said “I love you.” He was letting me know that I was the biggest wave he’d ever come across. And I brought so much with me that my impressions would always be there, even when the tide rolled out.” 

Then There is Ryle. Ryle is the neurosurgeon Lily meets on a roof after her father’s funeral. They get into a game called ‘Naked truths’ where they basically try to make each other feel better by one upping the other with horrible stories from their past. A connection is forming and sparks fly.

“There is no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things”

I am awed by Lily’s bravery when times were tough for her. At the beginning when the abuse started she came across as weak but then memories of her mother’s abuse came to the surface and she stood up for herself. She got out of that situation and in the end not only saved herself but also saved the man that was abusing her.

“Cycles exist because they are excruciating to break. It takes an astronomical amount of pain and courage to disrupt a familiar pattern. Sometimes it seems easier to just keep running in the same familiar circles, rather than facing the fear of jumping and possibly not landing on your feet.

My mother went through it.

I went through it. 

I’ll be damned if I allow my daughter to go through it.”

 

This situation is different than the typical abuse situations though. This isn’t a guy that gets drunk or high or has a superiority complex.

Due to Situations from Ryle’s childhood and the PTSD he suffered (it was never said whether he suffered from PTSD but the signs show he had), I truly believe the man had no idea of his occurring actions at the time. Rage can be a damn trickster, especially when you have blackout rage moments. Granted that doesn’t excuse the person’s actions and remove the consequences when he comes to. But it should be enough to want to check yourself in a hospital and get some serious treatment.

“You are my wife. I’m supposed to be the one who protects you from the monsters. I’m not supposed to be one.” 

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover is eye opening. I feel like every person should read this novel, maybe if there were more people that had their eyes opened to the situation we’d have more people standing up for the victims without a voice. Maybe then we’d have less people thinking…She’s so stupid for staying with him…or…Why doesn’t she just leave him it’s that simple and more people saying. Wow that guy needs to get some serious help, or even better more people standing up for the people in need of someone.

“All humans make mistakes. What determines a person’s character aren’t the mistakes we make. It’s how we take those mistakes and turn them into lessons rather than excuses.” 

 

I have had these thoughts. I’ve been the one saying those exact things. Blaming the victim instead of the abuser. I didn’t even realize I did it until I read a passage in this novel

 

“It’s easy when we’re on the outside to believe that we would walk away without a second thought if a person mistreated us. It’s easy to say we couldn’t continue to love someone who mistreats us when we aren’t the ones feeling the love of that person. When you experience it firsthand, it isn’t so easy to hate the person who mistreats you when most of the time they’re your godsend.” 

This quote really made me think long and hard about situations I’ve seen firsthand. Not just from a friend’s perspective but also from a stranger’s perspective. Walking through a store and hearing a man yell at his wife in the next aisle then the sound of flesh hitting against flesh. Rolling my eyes thinking she’s stupid for staying with an abusive asshole when in reality I should have been 1) stepping in and helping her and/or  2) taking in her side of the story . I can’t help but think if that were my boyfriend how much would I truly endure to be able to keep the memories and the love we feel towards one another alive. Would I walk away after an attack? Would I give up ten years of good times over fifteen seconds of horror and confusion? Those questions have been running through my head since I finished reading It Ends With Us.

 

 

“Fifteen Seconds. That’s all it takes to completely change everything about a person. Fifteen Seconds that we’ll never get back.”

 

I loved the “Dear Ellen” portions on the novel.

Lily and Atlas’s past was heartbreakingly beautiful. I love how everything comes full circle in this novel. I would like it if there was a novella about what happens after this novel ends! But especially I would love to read a Novella based on Atlas’s POV throughout his life and what not. I was really intrigued by this character.

My heart broke for Ryle when it came to the end of the novel.

I don’t think there is a Colleen Hoover novel that i have not at least once ugly cried during. Ryle and Lily’s conversation at the end had me bawling my eyes out. I couldn’t stop the tears. I was proud of Lily for standing up for herself and getting out of a situation and my heart broke for Ryle at the same time.

“Life is a funny thing. We only get so many years to live it, so we have to do everything we can to make sure those years are as full as they can be. We shouldn’t waste time on things that might happen someday, or maybe even never.”

Seriously if you haven’t read this novel yet. What are you waiting for. I know I’m one to talk because it’s been out for a month and I just now finished it but take my word for it. You pick It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover up and you won’t be putting it back down until you finish the last page.

Thank you for checking out my review

Peace, Love, and Happy Reading

Alecia @ The Staircase Reader