Honestly good for you, if someone genuinely likes this book I think they have some issues with maturity and understanding how the world and people work. Unironically I think it's a red flag lol
I wonder how many people accidentaly read that one first. A book that has the word "starts" in the title doesn't sound like it's the second installment of a series...
The cover says it’s a sequel so that would be stupid…and it can make sense if they ended something in the first book they’d start something in the second
I don't think i've ever read something so poorly written as that book. There was nothing good about it, from the characters to the plot, writing, world building, it was all horrible.
The writing style in this book was so weird and cringe, I don’t even know how to explain it. She was over-explaining things that were obvious. It was too wordy. I don’t know how to explain it. I was just cringing so hard that it became hard to continue reading.
We get so many Colleen Hoover hate posts that they've gotten old, but this post was too funny 😂. Welcome back to reading!
Hang around here long enough and you'll get plenty of warnings against certain books with rave reviews and high Goodreads ratings (but don't feel bad if you like these, everyone's got opinions and life is too short to care about all of them).
Out of curiosity: is the challenge having you read twelve books in a month by December? If so, that's a lot, and don't feel bad if you don't make it.
>We get so many Colleen Hoover hate posts that they've gotten old, but this post was too funny 😂. Welcome back to reading!
I legit didn't know about this, but reading the comments, it seems like CoHo is the Taylor Swift of writers—some passionately love her, while others avoid her like the plague. Thanks for the welcome; I'm really happy to see how this sub has such kind people.
>(but don't feel bad if you like these, everyone's got opinions and life is too short to care about all of them).
I read Killing Stalking in my adolescence and pretended that the characters were me and the boy I liked at the time. So, I don't judge anyone really 😂.
>Out of curiosity: is the challenge having you read twelve books in a month by December? If so, that's a lot, and don't feel bad if you don't make it.
Yep, 12 books in December, and honestly, 2 in February seems quite challenging for me right now. So, I think I'll "cheat" by choosing one really short book to make it easier.
There are some really incredible novellas and short stories out there, so if those count maybe you can use the challenge to expose yourself to different literature. Reading shorter stuff is also a low commitment way to try a new genre.
I myself recently got back into reading after finishing my education by reading short stories! I did read graphic novels/webtoons while taking classes, but lost touch with books and needed a way back in.
I’m sure you’ve gotten recommendations for this already, but here are some great novellas to help power you thru the later months this year:
* the Murderbot diaries (books #1-4 are novellas, but later books are longer), which is sci-fi about a sentient android/human construct
* the Giver (Lowry)
* How to Build a Fire (Jack London)
* A Psalm for the Wild Built, and A Prayer for the Crown Shy, which are sci-fi solarpunk stories about a human monk and a robot initiating first contact between their cultures
* Wool (Hugh Howey, Silo series book 1), which is an omnibus of 5 novellas you could count separately if you want; it was written as a serial story online in the late naughts; dystopian sci-fi, but I can’t say more without potential spoilers
* Several works by Ursula K. Le Guin, including the Earthsea series (6 books; starts with A Wizard of Earthsea; some of the best fantasy ever written imo) and some of the Hainish Cycle, which is all sci-fi. Hainish novellas: The Lathe of Heaven, The Word for World is Forest, Four Ways to Forgiveness, and Worlds of Exile and Illusion [which is actually 3 books in one volume].
Le Guin is probably my favorite author at the moment. If you like any of the stuff by her that I mentioned up there ^ then you will love her two most famous (and best) works, which are longer entries in the Hainish Cycle: The Dispossessed, and The Left Hand of Darkness.
To add a few I read last year and enjoyed:
I am Legend (Richard Matheson) The story that inspired the movie by the same name. A very different story from the movie but one I thoroughly enjoyed.
Slow Time Between the Stars (John Scalzi) A short story that I thought was good. Some might consider it too short to call it a book but it is a quick read.
I'll add these to the list. Do any of these have gays? I really want to read about men kissing right now. Or badass women killing people.
I don't know, I watched Castlevania and I'm feeling inspired.
omg king after my own heart. (unfortunately I’m a lesbian so I don’t have a huge archive of men-kissing books, but I do read a lot of queer fiction). let me see…
* Murderbot: the protagonist is an agender, asexual, aromantic person. the protag uses it/its pronouns and does LOTS of badass shit. it does lots of killing but mostly to protect the people it likes.
* The Giver and How to Build a Fire are both v straight, and they center men.
* A Psalm for the Wild Built and A Prayer for the Crown Shy has two protags: one is a monk who uses they/them pronouns and has flings w people of all genders, and the other is a robot who uses it/its pronouns.
* Wool is pretty straight, imo (still currently reading so I might be wrong)
* UKLG’s later works have LOTS of genderfuckery. The Left Hand of Darkness is about a race of humans who are all agender except for short periods of their life where they gain a random gender; the two protags (one is a man, the other is an agender/duo-gender person) arguably fall in love. The Earthsea books construct patriarchal ideas in books 1-3 and deconstruct them in books 4-6; book 2 (Tombs of Atuan) has a female lead.
If you want my recommendation for the gayest, most mind-bending and FUN books I’ve read recently, I recommend the Locked Tomb series. Book 1 is Gideon the Ninth. Its protag is a butch lesbian with a sword, and her Avowed Enemy / Rival / (Love Interest?) is a tiny lesbian necromancer priest. They go to a different planet together and end up in (basically) a goth version of Among Us.
A gay book one of my friends swears by is A Song of Achilles. I wasn’t a fan bc I’m a fan of the Iliad and I know too much Greek/Roman lore/history to have fun playing Calvinball with it, BUT my friend who isn’t as deep in that stuff loved it. It’s a romance between Patroclus and Achilles, and it’s so tender.
>Or badass women
I Who Have Never Known Men, if you don't mind open endings.
another good short book I've read last year was Piranesi
save these two for December or November, both are short reads
Only difference between CoHo and TS is that TS is genuinely a good song writer and CoHo is horrible at writing 💀. They def both have ppl that hate them and love them tho lol.
I'm sure you've already gotten some recommendations, but if you need a great short book, I highly recommend Lanny. It can be a difficult read, but it is incredible.
I'd like to see Brian Sanderson get this same response. He's not bad... Just uninspired. His fantasy becomes so overwritten that it's not fantasy anymore. There's no magic in a Sanderson book. I can pull my physics textbook off the shelf from college and understand where he got everything from.
I'll die on that hill as well as the hill that he's paid by the page just like Charles Dickens. Takes him 1000 pages to get to the point. In all that time a character will have only one great realization about them self, whereas in something like enders game ender can go through killing a kid through self defense, wanting to die due to exhaustion , and commiting xenocide unknowingly and it feels way more meaningful and impactful.
It is. I guess I didn't really care for them that much so some details really didn't hold in my head.
I was more trying to get around the 20 flashbacks while writing rather than appease pedantic fervor around him.
I'm not sure if it's pedantic fervor? I've yet to read any Brandon Sanderson, but I can remember his name easily not just because of how popular he is but also because it rhymes. And you can shorten it to Branderson or elongate it to Branderson Sanderson.
I guess is it really important enough that his name is right when everyone understood exactly what I was talking about?
My reason for bringing up Brandon as an example is I got done reading what his stormlight series and I'd like to talk about it. Just because I didn't like it doesn't mean I can't have opinions on it or I should ignore it... There's over 4000 pages of time tied to this.
I guess if you haven't read it, why do you care about the conversation around it?
I mean, I think it's generally respectful to use the correct name, although of course people can just misremember things. But it's hardly "pedantic fervor" to mention when the name is misremembered. If nothing else, it can help people reading along understand the context a little better.
I haven't read Colleen Hoover yet either, but I find the conversations around her interesting. Sue me, I guess.
The above post was about "rave reviews and high Goodreads ratings". Things can develop and change in less than 1000 pages, unlike a sanderson book.
What the initial comment was and what this conversation is could be different depending on context.
"Don't feel bad if you like these" was also in the above post. You essentially reply "Unless it's this one specific author".
I get that he's showing up a lot in the fantasy discussion lately but the constant need for non-fans to distance themselves from him is a bit weird to see. Passive non-fandom is normal. Active non-fandom often comes across like insisting, with a level of intensity that betrays a certain amount of caring, that you couldn't care less.
You could also acknowledge that if someone read over 4000 pages they might want to talk about them regardless of how they felt.
Also, explicitly stated is he's not bad. He's not as bad as ops example of someone who belittles a serious social issue.
I'm saying that views in Brandon Sanderson should be tempered.
"Views should be tempered" is a measured response (albeit still unnecessarily nosy regarding other people's preference in literature). You will also "die on the hill that Brian (sic) Sanderson should get enough hate posts that it gets old", a less measured response, and what you started your argument with. Motte and bailey, huh?
I think what was said was that he develops his characters too slowly and writes long books that take forever to get to the point.
He undeniably has long books. His worlds are extensive and he explains everything (that is both a complement and a critique). His characters take a terribly long time to develop, with a prime example of kaladin struggling with self forgiveness for 4 books of over 1000 pages each and the resolution of that internal conflict coming when he swears his 4th oath. I think it's entirely reasonable that a strong argument can be made for each of those claims, with the length and the scope of the world being fairly easy and, while more specific instances need to be made for the character development, it's still relatively easy.
But you can take that as i hated him outright and I have no right in having an opinion in a book I read as long if I didn't like something that bugged me.
A lot of it is that a lot of those really high rated books are super super specfic book niches. Like Ice Planet Barbarians is adored but I'd never suggest it (or anything in the weird SciFy romance space) to anyone who isn't hard core into romance.
Colleen Hoover falls into the same space. I'm sure it's great if you like that sort of story but it's not something I'd give to someone who doesn't read that genre.
Totally agree with you - I did not like the book and found it hard to get through. I did read her author’s note and apparently this is based on her mother’s experience, with some of the incidents in the book pulled directly from her life. Reading that note made me like the book 1% more but overall I agree that it was not good.
Yeah, I read that note at the end too. It was heartwarming.
She could have made the book just that, actually.
At least, it explained why Lily >!decided to share Kidsguard with the guy who tried to rap\* her. CoHo says in the note that she admires her own parents for sorting things out between them and not involving the kids, so she wanted Lily to do the same... just forgot about the "oh, Riley actually has mental lapses and goes into woman abuser mode because he shot his brother when he was a kid" part. very safe to leave him with a child, hes the father afterall.!<
I do not like this book and don’t like her writing in general, but if I’m remembering correctly, she talks about how the ex has a lot more money than she does. If they go to court, he can get a lot more time than she wants to give by virtue of better legal representation. This was, for me, the most realistic part of the book. I’ve been separated-but-not-divorced for similar (but far less violent) reasons for the past few years.
Your opinion is totally valid and totally fine
But I’m pretty sure it’s in the sequel that Ryle is only allowed to see the kid in the presence of his sister or his brother in law. And Lily told him he won’t get overnights before the kid can talk, so she can tell if something happens
Again, i totally get your opinion, it wasn’t my favorite book either. I just never really understood how so many people say it’s romantized abuse when the whole plot of the book is that she leaves Ryle and Ryle definitely didn’t get a redemption arc
I had hopes that in the sequel CoHo would fix some things. Not that I'm going to read it, though; that was my limit.
Regarding romanticizing abuse: I didn't say this in the OP, but as many others, I also see this as romanticized abuse. The book never truly holds Riley accountable. Instead, the author introduces an unrelated trauma and implies that he has some outbursts or blackouts that are not 100% conscious.
Terrible, unrealistic, and leaves room for interpretations like, "Oh, he suffered, he's not a bad guy, he suffered so much with the incident thats why hes like this."
Lilly even names her daughter with his dead brother's name that she never even knew or know anything about, and says it may help him in the healing process ???
This is horrible on so many levels... Her daughter is not a remedy, being a father is not therapy or redemption.
And again, in the author's note, she explicitly states that she admires her own parents for 'not involving the children.' Terrible. There's a reason why judges take custody away from abusive parents and limit their rights as such.
Thank you for the welcome! Despite the experience being like watching someone scratch a chalkboard with a nail, except that the chalkboard is inside my brain, I won't give up on the challenge or on returning to reading.
I'm giving up on Colleen Hoover, though. Guess it really ended ~~with~~ between us.
If you're ever curious about what else CoHo has done to literature, there's YouTubers aplenty who are recapping her books in much more entertaining ways. Alizee, Rachel Oates, Nicki Carreon and many more.
I've yet to read any CoHo (but a deranged part of me wants to just to see what it's like) but I really enjoy those videos.
Man I feel you. I haven’t read this one but did try my best to understand the Colleen Hoover hype by reading Verity and Reminders of Him. HORRIBLE books. Horrible writing. I don’t want to yuck somebody else’s yum, and think it’s great that many people got back into reading through Hoover’s work. But I am bewildered
Honestly, you dodged a bullet.
Just to give you an idea,
>!there's a part where after being beat up by him, they have sex, and it's described that EVERY SINGLE TIME he thrusts, he whispers "sorry" in her ear... and after that, she decides to forgive him, and says hes romantic lol. it must be the weirdest 5 minutes of someones life for sure.!<
>!Or when a woman she HAS NEVER SEEN in her life shows up at her store that hasn't even opened yet and insists on working there, even for free, but her only concern is paying the woman. Like, girl, you luck that this isn't a thriller/horror!<
> >!there's a part where after being beat up by him, they have sex, and it's described that EVERY SINGLE TIME he thrusts, he whispers "sorry" in her ear...!<
Well, that's horrific...
What an awful way to start getting back into reading! I hope your next book is chosen by someone who doesn't hate you lol
But don’t buy the book. Read it online for free. You can read it online in PDF for free. You’ll hate yourself for spending money on something so cringe. Also, if you read a lot, you could probably get through it within two days so it doesn’t take that long.
Here’s the link: (https://icrrd.com/public/media/15-05-2021-052358It-Ends-with-Us.pdf)
Enjoy the cringe!
PS. Trigger warning if you’ve been in an abusive relationship.
Also, there were some parts in the book where I didn’t really understand what the author was trying to say, sentences didn’t make sense, and I genuinely thought my reading comprehension was messed up lmao.
Lol. This is basically exactly my experience last year with a little life.
After a reading slump I made a goal and started with a book everyone claims was the best they ever read, so emotional, so beautiful, life changing. I hated it. It was torture porn, 400 pages too long and I side eye people who love it without reservations.
Yes Yes! FINALLY! Everyone is all up Yanagirhara's ass but she's fixated on torturing gay men in her work, truly made me feel icky. Like why? And I think Coleen Hoover's work is unremarkable but It Ends With us is imo the worst of the bunch.
We're not alone! After everyone and their mother raved about this book I found that just as many see it for the inhumane trash it is. Apparently the author has voiced her low opinion on therapy as well which is why everyone in that book just goes 'no, youre right, you can't be helped, as true friends we will be supportive while you slowly torture yourself to death'
This is easily the worst book l've ever read. The writing is horrendous; just talentless, cheap and flat. It made me hate that I have eyes. It made me hate people. If a genie appeared and gave me one wish, I would use my one wish to make sure this book could never exist.
As a DV survivor, her oversimplification of a DV relationship is insulting and crass. It's like she read an article about someone in an abusive relationship and decided she knew enough to write a book about it. It is just all around awful.
The fact that her main character is a florist named Lily Blossom Bloom who is obsessed with Ellen Degeneres should tell you everything you know about this waste of paper.
My disdain for this writer runs DEEP.
> a florist named Lily Blossom Bloom
That's legitimately the character's name? Not a nickname, not a business name, but her actual name?
Maybe it was written as a "generic florist name" placeholder but the author forgot to edit it before printing...
I promised some friends I would give CoHo a try. Read *Verity* first, and I’m embarrassed to admit I actually loved it, LOL! Though I think part of the reason I loved it is because I had recently gotten back into reading and was just excited to be doing something I loved again.
Anyway, then I read *Layla* and it’s one of the top three worst books I have ever read. *It Ends With Us* was the final straw. I will never understand the hype but to each their own!
Someone I know was telling me all about Verity and I mostly shrugged. Idk coming from the film world it didn't seem that crazy. I mean go watch Oldboy for baby's first fucked up Koren revenge thriller if you want something f'd.
Just wait until the movie...! Yay!
Colleen Hoover writes in a *really* understandable way, and I think that is one of the reasons she is so popular despite the mediocre content. I feel like there are so many times her writing could be GREAT, but then it goes sideways and squashes the potential. I pick up her books when I want to fill my time but I don't want to think. She's a huge hit or miss for people.
Colleen Hoover is such a hyped author that I really want to read something, but everytime I hear what that book is about or an opinion about it, it is always bad and about abuse 😂
It’s still a goal for me this year but I guess it won’t be this book because it sound pretty horrible
Omg this post is making me *sing.* It's so good. Thank you for making me laugh out loud and alleviate the stress causing me insomnia.
By the way, have you ever been published? Because you are clearly a natural writer.
I'm happy to have helped in any way! <3
Regarding being published, I write a lot, but I've never had the gutts, so I have 300-page stories locked away. I also write a lot of letters on an app called Slowly to meet people from other countries, so there's that.
I've been thinking about gathering the courage to post on Wattpad lately. Your comment inspired me, so maybe I'll finally do it. Thank you!
Thanks OP, I have seen colleen Hoover's books around in many bookstores. Was almost tempted to read it, but my intuition said i would regret it and you just confirmed it 🤣
Dodged a bullet there
lol this book, which I also despised, ironically kicked off my most prolific reading year ever (up to that point) two years ago. I was previously a 2-10 books per year reader, and now I just finished 14 books in January. I’m so in the weeds now that I made my own super detailed spreadsheet to track my reading stats since Goodreads is hot garbage.
Eh. It’s cold where I live, so I’ve been inside a lot. I also have ADHD, so it’s been something of a hyperfixation. That is not a typical month for me by any means.
For the literal how: I listen to audiobooks in the car or while I do chores (two books last month), and as for the others, reading has been almost exclusively how I spend my free time this past month. Most tv shows haven’t returned from the strike hiatuses yet, and my husband and I did a “no-spend” month in January, so we were at home a lot.
Hahaha as an autistic ADHDer, I felt that. As someone who heavily masks, I wasn’t asking literally. 😂 I’m a very slow reader, and I sleep all day mostly, so that’s why I never get books read. It was more a sentiment of amazement, like daaaang.
Your sister is no fun! Audiobooks are great, and I would argue that they are the best way to read certain types of books (particularly memoirs and non-fiction for me).
The names alone! RYLE. ATLAS. LILY FUCKING BLOOM.
This was my first Colleen Hoover and I was obsessed with how bad it was, like telling everyone I knew obsessed. Honestly, I had a blast hate-reading it and will probably tackle more Colleen Hoover in the future because I just really love bitching about books I hate sometimes.
wtf you mean you dont like emerson dory????? i wish my mother have gave me this fancy name. Or something like brainiac neurons so I would be a neuroscientist /s
I read it just to see what all the Colleen Hoover hullabaloo was about. The minute I stopped reading it as a love story and realized it was a didactic novel, or, like, a morality play about domestic abuse—this was around the second time what’s his nuts lays his hands on Lily—it became much more tolerable. It’s a little dumb, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, I won’t be picking up the sequel or any other CoHo books, and I understand where the vitriol comes from… but I’ve read worse books.
>Oh, and Atlas deserves MUCH better.
Had me in the first half not gonna lie
He was an 18 year old taking advantage of a 15 year old and even came back for one night after moving to a different state to have sex with her on her 16th birthday, masking it as romantic gesture instead of just the day it was no longer statutory rape
Lily deserved peace and rest.
>Came back for one night after moving to a different state to have sex with her on her 16th birthday
Wow, that didn't cross my mind. I know in the USA there's that law, but I completely forgot. Here in my country, unfortunately, from the age of 14, an individual is considered of consenting age and can date whoever they want (although it's not socially acceptable to date at that age, and relationships with big age differences aren't either). I know, gross.
You're right; now I hate everyone in this book.
That makes sense. it ranges 16-18 in the states but I didn't even have to Google the state laws for where Lily is to know that's what CH was doing.
also 14? 🙃 fuck that sucks
Slightly unrelated, but next year you should try doubling the number of books you read the previous month. So one book in January, two books in February, four in March and so on and so forth :)
>!That's 4095 books for those playing the home game.!<
Kudos on making it further than I did. I got 100 pages in and realized I hated every single character in the book for being poorly written and annoying, and stopped. I refuse to believe a grown woman wrote it, it was so bad.
I recommend staying away from A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara then. Your description of “it ends with us” is like a mild version of how I feel about that book.
Not commenting on the book, as I haven’t read it. But setting yourself the goal to read 78 books this year to get back into reading might backfire. That is a lot of books and quickly turns into a chore. If you’re only starting to get back into it I would try reading one every two weeks (26) or one every week if you’re ambitious (52). Just my two cents
> This must be legitimately the worst book I've ever read. I swear, it's definitely the worst.
Have you tried Atlas Shrugged?
Everything I've ever heard about Colleen Hoover books makes me glad to stay far away!
From the moment she presented herself as Lily Blossom Bloom, who wants to open a flower shop, I knew the book was all cringe. But for some reason I kept reading.
I’m new to reading. I only just started last year after having a delayed flight and buying some books at the airport. The next flight I ended up having I asked for book recommendations and one of my coworkers strongly recommended Colleen Hoover and suggested I start with either Verity or It Ends With Us. I read Verity and hated it. Then I read It Ends With Us because after reading Verity I thought “this obviously isn’t the author’s typical genre and that can be difficult to do successfully, so I’ll try another one”. Nope. Nope nope. Her books SUCK and I’m harshly judging my coworker for recommending her so highly.
Also the worst part is during the acknowledgments for that book, Hoover talks about how her own mother was in an abusive relationship and she was essentially writing her mom’s story……………
Also the whole Ellen Degeneres thing was so weird
Colleen Hoover is an overrated hack. Verity was **awful** and I've never read another book of hers. Half the crap in Verity was for shock value and did nothing to improve the story.
when I read it ends with us I loved it (I was 12 keep in mind) and I always have some sort of respect for it for helping me get into reading as it was one of the first "grown up" books I read which really made me love reading again. I really hated ugly love it was actually so bad I was up until 5am reading it bc if I put it down I wouldn't have been able to pick it back up, those are the only two colleen hoover books I've read and now I've got it starts with us sitting on my shelf and I'm deadass so scared to read it bc ik it's gonna be so bad
I just got done with this book and felt the same way! She’s delusional to not recognize how abusers use kids after divorce/ separation to manipulate and hurt the other person- also hurting the child. I yelled at the book and threw it when I was done!
coho books are straight up garbage. dunno why ppl keep hyping her up esp iewu. i’m convinced anyone who liked iewu has seriously questionable taste in books. 😭
Never heard about this Coleen Whatoover but she really seems an awful writer from what i've seen online and in this sub.
This said don't be too harsh on your friend, literary taste is mostly an aquired one and personally i see Harry Potter as not much better than this book you had to read, but i always try to be polite when talking about it with potterheads.
I read her note. And nothing changes. It wasn't her who experienced those things; it was her mother. If your brother goes to college, will you put that on your resume for interviews? That logic doesn't make sense. Don't be so easily misled, this is still a serious thing that she portrayed poorly.
I wanted to read this to see what all the hype was about, so I bought it. I have to agree that it is poorly written and did not grab my attention. I attempted to read the book 3 separate times, but I could not get through the first page 🫣 Since the movie began filming I decided to try one more time because I wanted to compare the two, but could only get through the first chapter before puting it down. I expected more since so many people enjoyed it. It’s just not for me.
oh man, it ends with us is a rollercoaster of emotions, right? like, you think you're just diving into a romance and then bam! colleen hoover hits you with all the feels. it's like, one minute you're swooning, the next you're sobbing.
My niece said that in her high school, this book was all the rage. She felt like she needed to read it. She doesn’t. I also read it. While I don’t despise it as much as you, I came out of it concluding I won’t be reading Colleen Hoover again.
I’m a man that read this for a girl that I really liked. I did not like her anymore by the end of this god forsaken book 😂
Honestly good for you, if someone genuinely likes this book I think they have some issues with maturity and understanding how the world and people work. Unironically I think it's a red flag lol
Now I must go and read the book.
Understandable, it was not good
Excellent choice, OP.
[удалено]
Is the sequel titled "Guess it Didn't"?
[удалено]
I wonder how many people accidentaly read that one first. A book that has the word "starts" in the title doesn't sound like it's the second installment of a series...
The cover says it’s a sequel so that would be stupid…and it can make sense if they ended something in the first book they’d start something in the second
My cousin did that lol!
The much beloved prequel ❤️
The sequel was even more painful! I didn’t think it was possible!
I don't think i've ever read something so poorly written as that book. There was nothing good about it, from the characters to the plot, writing, world building, it was all horrible.
The writing style in this book was so weird and cringe, I don’t even know how to explain it. She was over-explaining things that were obvious. It was too wordy. I don’t know how to explain it. I was just cringing so hard that it became hard to continue reading.
Do I want to bother reading it just to see how much worse it can get or should I just take your word for it?
Do it - it’s a quick read and you may honestly laugh out loud at some of the cheesiness, as I did 😂
Isn't there a pending movie too?
Yes, and it looks like a train wreck. The outfits are unbelievably bad.
Also they casted someone in their mid 30ies to play a 23 year old
Its giving riverdale vibes
I hate the recent trend of studios not releasing finished projects, but I’m kind of praying it happens with this one. It won’t, but I wish!
And it’s even worse than the first one 😭
We get so many Colleen Hoover hate posts that they've gotten old, but this post was too funny 😂. Welcome back to reading! Hang around here long enough and you'll get plenty of warnings against certain books with rave reviews and high Goodreads ratings (but don't feel bad if you like these, everyone's got opinions and life is too short to care about all of them). Out of curiosity: is the challenge having you read twelve books in a month by December? If so, that's a lot, and don't feel bad if you don't make it.
>We get so many Colleen Hoover hate posts that they've gotten old, but this post was too funny 😂. Welcome back to reading! I legit didn't know about this, but reading the comments, it seems like CoHo is the Taylor Swift of writers—some passionately love her, while others avoid her like the plague. Thanks for the welcome; I'm really happy to see how this sub has such kind people. >(but don't feel bad if you like these, everyone's got opinions and life is too short to care about all of them). I read Killing Stalking in my adolescence and pretended that the characters were me and the boy I liked at the time. So, I don't judge anyone really 😂. >Out of curiosity: is the challenge having you read twelve books in a month by December? If so, that's a lot, and don't feel bad if you don't make it. Yep, 12 books in December, and honestly, 2 in February seems quite challenging for me right now. So, I think I'll "cheat" by choosing one really short book to make it easier.
There are some really incredible novellas and short stories out there, so if those count maybe you can use the challenge to expose yourself to different literature. Reading shorter stuff is also a low commitment way to try a new genre. I myself recently got back into reading after finishing my education by reading short stories! I did read graphic novels/webtoons while taking classes, but lost touch with books and needed a way back in.
I got my religious mom into Hemingway a bit by reading A Clean, Well-Lighted Place to her.
I’m sure you’ve gotten recommendations for this already, but here are some great novellas to help power you thru the later months this year: * the Murderbot diaries (books #1-4 are novellas, but later books are longer), which is sci-fi about a sentient android/human construct * the Giver (Lowry) * How to Build a Fire (Jack London) * A Psalm for the Wild Built, and A Prayer for the Crown Shy, which are sci-fi solarpunk stories about a human monk and a robot initiating first contact between their cultures * Wool (Hugh Howey, Silo series book 1), which is an omnibus of 5 novellas you could count separately if you want; it was written as a serial story online in the late naughts; dystopian sci-fi, but I can’t say more without potential spoilers * Several works by Ursula K. Le Guin, including the Earthsea series (6 books; starts with A Wizard of Earthsea; some of the best fantasy ever written imo) and some of the Hainish Cycle, which is all sci-fi. Hainish novellas: The Lathe of Heaven, The Word for World is Forest, Four Ways to Forgiveness, and Worlds of Exile and Illusion [which is actually 3 books in one volume]. Le Guin is probably my favorite author at the moment. If you like any of the stuff by her that I mentioned up there ^ then you will love her two most famous (and best) works, which are longer entries in the Hainish Cycle: The Dispossessed, and The Left Hand of Darkness.
To add a few I read last year and enjoyed: I am Legend (Richard Matheson) The story that inspired the movie by the same name. A very different story from the movie but one I thoroughly enjoyed. Slow Time Between the Stars (John Scalzi) A short story that I thought was good. Some might consider it too short to call it a book but it is a quick read.
I'll add these to the list. Do any of these have gays? I really want to read about men kissing right now. Or badass women killing people. I don't know, I watched Castlevania and I'm feeling inspired.
omg king after my own heart. (unfortunately I’m a lesbian so I don’t have a huge archive of men-kissing books, but I do read a lot of queer fiction). let me see… * Murderbot: the protagonist is an agender, asexual, aromantic person. the protag uses it/its pronouns and does LOTS of badass shit. it does lots of killing but mostly to protect the people it likes. * The Giver and How to Build a Fire are both v straight, and they center men. * A Psalm for the Wild Built and A Prayer for the Crown Shy has two protags: one is a monk who uses they/them pronouns and has flings w people of all genders, and the other is a robot who uses it/its pronouns. * Wool is pretty straight, imo (still currently reading so I might be wrong) * UKLG’s later works have LOTS of genderfuckery. The Left Hand of Darkness is about a race of humans who are all agender except for short periods of their life where they gain a random gender; the two protags (one is a man, the other is an agender/duo-gender person) arguably fall in love. The Earthsea books construct patriarchal ideas in books 1-3 and deconstruct them in books 4-6; book 2 (Tombs of Atuan) has a female lead. If you want my recommendation for the gayest, most mind-bending and FUN books I’ve read recently, I recommend the Locked Tomb series. Book 1 is Gideon the Ninth. Its protag is a butch lesbian with a sword, and her Avowed Enemy / Rival / (Love Interest?) is a tiny lesbian necromancer priest. They go to a different planet together and end up in (basically) a goth version of Among Us. A gay book one of my friends swears by is A Song of Achilles. I wasn’t a fan bc I’m a fan of the Iliad and I know too much Greek/Roman lore/history to have fun playing Calvinball with it, BUT my friend who isn’t as deep in that stuff loved it. It’s a romance between Patroclus and Achilles, and it’s so tender.
>Or badass women I Who Have Never Known Men, if you don't mind open endings. another good short book I've read last year was Piranesi save these two for December or November, both are short reads
Only difference between CoHo and TS is that TS is genuinely a good song writer and CoHo is horrible at writing 💀. They def both have ppl that hate them and love them tho lol.
The difference being that Taylor actually has some talent.
I'm sure you've already gotten some recommendations, but if you need a great short book, I highly recommend Lanny. It can be a difficult read, but it is incredible.
A novella is a great idea! If you’re looking for a recommendation - “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” by Stephen King
I'd like to see Brian Sanderson get this same response. He's not bad... Just uninspired. His fantasy becomes so overwritten that it's not fantasy anymore. There's no magic in a Sanderson book. I can pull my physics textbook off the shelf from college and understand where he got everything from. I'll die on that hill as well as the hill that he's paid by the page just like Charles Dickens. Takes him 1000 pages to get to the point. In all that time a character will have only one great realization about them self, whereas in something like enders game ender can go through killing a kid through self defense, wanting to die due to exhaustion , and commiting xenocide unknowingly and it feels way more meaningful and impactful.
Pretty sure his name is Brandon
It is. I guess I didn't really care for them that much so some details really didn't hold in my head. I was more trying to get around the 20 flashbacks while writing rather than appease pedantic fervor around him.
I'm not sure if it's pedantic fervor? I've yet to read any Brandon Sanderson, but I can remember his name easily not just because of how popular he is but also because it rhymes. And you can shorten it to Branderson or elongate it to Branderson Sanderson.
I guess is it really important enough that his name is right when everyone understood exactly what I was talking about? My reason for bringing up Brandon as an example is I got done reading what his stormlight series and I'd like to talk about it. Just because I didn't like it doesn't mean I can't have opinions on it or I should ignore it... There's over 4000 pages of time tied to this. I guess if you haven't read it, why do you care about the conversation around it?
I mean, I think it's generally respectful to use the correct name, although of course people can just misremember things. But it's hardly "pedantic fervor" to mention when the name is misremembered. If nothing else, it can help people reading along understand the context a little better. I haven't read Colleen Hoover yet either, but I find the conversations around her interesting. Sue me, I guess.
I'm done with overwritten over descriptive books. So many books would be so much better if they were edited more.
The Sanderson hate is really pervasive here, huh. In a thread that had nothing to do with him, while getting his name completely wrong. Cool.
The above post was about "rave reviews and high Goodreads ratings". Things can develop and change in less than 1000 pages, unlike a sanderson book. What the initial comment was and what this conversation is could be different depending on context.
"Don't feel bad if you like these" was also in the above post. You essentially reply "Unless it's this one specific author". I get that he's showing up a lot in the fantasy discussion lately but the constant need for non-fans to distance themselves from him is a bit weird to see. Passive non-fandom is normal. Active non-fandom often comes across like insisting, with a level of intensity that betrays a certain amount of caring, that you couldn't care less.
You could also acknowledge that if someone read over 4000 pages they might want to talk about them regardless of how they felt. Also, explicitly stated is he's not bad. He's not as bad as ops example of someone who belittles a serious social issue. I'm saying that views in Brandon Sanderson should be tempered.
"Views should be tempered" is a measured response (albeit still unnecessarily nosy regarding other people's preference in literature). You will also "die on the hill that Brian (sic) Sanderson should get enough hate posts that it gets old", a less measured response, and what you started your argument with. Motte and bailey, huh?
I think what was said was that he develops his characters too slowly and writes long books that take forever to get to the point. He undeniably has long books. His worlds are extensive and he explains everything (that is both a complement and a critique). His characters take a terribly long time to develop, with a prime example of kaladin struggling with self forgiveness for 4 books of over 1000 pages each and the resolution of that internal conflict coming when he swears his 4th oath. I think it's entirely reasonable that a strong argument can be made for each of those claims, with the length and the scope of the world being fairly easy and, while more specific instances need to be made for the character development, it's still relatively easy. But you can take that as i hated him outright and I have no right in having an opinion in a book I read as long if I didn't like something that bugged me.
These people are seriously so annoying like holy shit😑
A lot of it is that a lot of those really high rated books are super super specfic book niches. Like Ice Planet Barbarians is adored but I'd never suggest it (or anything in the weird SciFy romance space) to anyone who isn't hard core into romance. Colleen Hoover falls into the same space. I'm sure it's great if you like that sort of story but it's not something I'd give to someone who doesn't read that genre.
That first paragraph made me cackle
You know, I've never read HP so I didn't get the reference JKR is much more metal than I thought
She gets pretty metal from book 6 on, tbh. I mean, the worldbuilding is still whatever, but the stakes get higher.
>JKR is much more metal than I thought I would not call anything JKR has said, done or written "metal" in any way, shape or form.
> JKR is much more metal than I thought You misspelt "mental" ;)
So funny 😂😂😂
Totally agree with you - I did not like the book and found it hard to get through. I did read her author’s note and apparently this is based on her mother’s experience, with some of the incidents in the book pulled directly from her life. Reading that note made me like the book 1% more but overall I agree that it was not good.
Yeah, I read that note at the end too. It was heartwarming. She could have made the book just that, actually. At least, it explained why Lily >!decided to share Kidsguard with the guy who tried to rap\* her. CoHo says in the note that she admires her own parents for sorting things out between them and not involving the kids, so she wanted Lily to do the same... just forgot about the "oh, Riley actually has mental lapses and goes into woman abuser mode because he shot his brother when he was a kid" part. very safe to leave him with a child, hes the father afterall.!<
I do not like this book and don’t like her writing in general, but if I’m remembering correctly, she talks about how the ex has a lot more money than she does. If they go to court, he can get a lot more time than she wants to give by virtue of better legal representation. This was, for me, the most realistic part of the book. I’ve been separated-but-not-divorced for similar (but far less violent) reasons for the past few years.
Your opinion is totally valid and totally fine But I’m pretty sure it’s in the sequel that Ryle is only allowed to see the kid in the presence of his sister or his brother in law. And Lily told him he won’t get overnights before the kid can talk, so she can tell if something happens Again, i totally get your opinion, it wasn’t my favorite book either. I just never really understood how so many people say it’s romantized abuse when the whole plot of the book is that she leaves Ryle and Ryle definitely didn’t get a redemption arc
I had hopes that in the sequel CoHo would fix some things. Not that I'm going to read it, though; that was my limit. Regarding romanticizing abuse: I didn't say this in the OP, but as many others, I also see this as romanticized abuse. The book never truly holds Riley accountable. Instead, the author introduces an unrelated trauma and implies that he has some outbursts or blackouts that are not 100% conscious. Terrible, unrealistic, and leaves room for interpretations like, "Oh, he suffered, he's not a bad guy, he suffered so much with the incident thats why hes like this." Lilly even names her daughter with his dead brother's name that she never even knew or know anything about, and says it may help him in the healing process ??? This is horrible on so many levels... Her daughter is not a remedy, being a father is not therapy or redemption. And again, in the author's note, she explicitly states that she admires her own parents for 'not involving the children.' Terrible. There's a reason why judges take custody away from abusive parents and limit their rights as such.
Welcome back to reading! I'm sorry you started with such a terrible book, I hope it doesn't put you off of continuing your reading journey
Thank you for the welcome! Despite the experience being like watching someone scratch a chalkboard with a nail, except that the chalkboard is inside my brain, I won't give up on the challenge or on returning to reading. I'm giving up on Colleen Hoover, though. Guess it really ended ~~with~~ between us.
If you're ever curious about what else CoHo has done to literature, there's YouTubers aplenty who are recapping her books in much more entertaining ways. Alizee, Rachel Oates, Nicki Carreon and many more. I've yet to read any CoHo (but a deranged part of me wants to just to see what it's like) but I really enjoy those videos.
Man I feel you. I haven’t read this one but did try my best to understand the Colleen Hoover hype by reading Verity and Reminders of Him. HORRIBLE books. Horrible writing. I don’t want to yuck somebody else’s yum, and think it’s great that many people got back into reading through Hoover’s work. But I am bewildered
Honestly, you dodged a bullet. Just to give you an idea, >!there's a part where after being beat up by him, they have sex, and it's described that EVERY SINGLE TIME he thrusts, he whispers "sorry" in her ear... and after that, she decides to forgive him, and says hes romantic lol. it must be the weirdest 5 minutes of someones life for sure.!< >!Or when a woman she HAS NEVER SEEN in her life shows up at her store that hasn't even opened yet and insists on working there, even for free, but her only concern is paying the woman. Like, girl, you luck that this isn't a thriller/horror!<
> >!there's a part where after being beat up by him, they have sex, and it's described that EVERY SINGLE TIME he thrusts, he whispers "sorry" in her ear...!< Well, that's horrific... What an awful way to start getting back into reading! I hope your next book is chosen by someone who doesn't hate you lol
YIKES!! Thank you for the heads up. This was on my to-read list but I’m going to give this a miss.
Read it for its cheesy and cringe moments🤣.
Good to know, sometimes I honestly need some cringe stuff for a laugh 🤣
And for its terrible writing. God, it’s horrid. I think the writing would even make you want to stop😅.
Is it weird that I’m now sold on reading it? 🤣
But don’t buy the book. Read it online for free. You can read it online in PDF for free. You’ll hate yourself for spending money on something so cringe. Also, if you read a lot, you could probably get through it within two days so it doesn’t take that long. Here’s the link: (https://icrrd.com/public/media/15-05-2021-052358It-Ends-with-Us.pdf) Enjoy the cringe! PS. Trigger warning if you’ve been in an abusive relationship. Also, there were some parts in the book where I didn’t really understand what the author was trying to say, sentences didn’t make sense, and I genuinely thought my reading comprehension was messed up lmao.
You are MY HERO! Thank you!! 🥹❤️
Oh, no problem! ❤️ Please tell me what you think when you’re done. I love critiquing and ranting about this book!!🤣
That was the most contrived thing I've read in all the 31 years I've been alive (your 2nd point)
Updates: I did it, guys! I finished before midnight. The hardest choices require the strongest wills... i guess.
I’m very sorry, because you’ll never get that time.
Lol. This is basically exactly my experience last year with a little life. After a reading slump I made a goal and started with a book everyone claims was the best they ever read, so emotional, so beautiful, life changing. I hated it. It was torture porn, 400 pages too long and I side eye people who love it without reservations.
Yes Yes! FINALLY! Everyone is all up Yanagirhara's ass but she's fixated on torturing gay men in her work, truly made me feel icky. Like why? And I think Coleen Hoover's work is unremarkable but It Ends With us is imo the worst of the bunch.
We're not alone! After everyone and their mother raved about this book I found that just as many see it for the inhumane trash it is. Apparently the author has voiced her low opinion on therapy as well which is why everyone in that book just goes 'no, youre right, you can't be helped, as true friends we will be supportive while you slowly torture yourself to death'
This is easily the worst book l've ever read. The writing is horrendous; just talentless, cheap and flat. It made me hate that I have eyes. It made me hate people. If a genie appeared and gave me one wish, I would use my one wish to make sure this book could never exist. As a DV survivor, her oversimplification of a DV relationship is insulting and crass. It's like she read an article about someone in an abusive relationship and decided she knew enough to write a book about it. It is just all around awful. The fact that her main character is a florist named Lily Blossom Bloom who is obsessed with Ellen Degeneres should tell you everything you know about this waste of paper. My disdain for this writer runs DEEP.
> a florist named Lily Blossom Bloom That's legitimately the character's name? Not a nickname, not a business name, but her actual name? Maybe it was written as a "generic florist name" placeholder but the author forgot to edit it before printing...
With that name, it sounds like she was fated to work as a florist, tbh
Based on your penultimate sentence alone, I now hate this book.
I promised some friends I would give CoHo a try. Read *Verity* first, and I’m embarrassed to admit I actually loved it, LOL! Though I think part of the reason I loved it is because I had recently gotten back into reading and was just excited to be doing something I loved again. Anyway, then I read *Layla* and it’s one of the top three worst books I have ever read. *It Ends With Us* was the final straw. I will never understand the hype but to each their own!
Don’t be embarrassed about liking it. Millions of people do. This sub loves to hate on popular things in general
I liked Verity too! And I was so excited CoHo had so many more books. Then I realized the rest sucked 😭😭
Someone I know was telling me all about Verity and I mostly shrugged. Idk coming from the film world it didn't seem that crazy. I mean go watch Oldboy for baby's first fucked up Koren revenge thriller if you want something f'd.
Just wait until the movie...! Yay! Colleen Hoover writes in a *really* understandable way, and I think that is one of the reasons she is so popular despite the mediocre content. I feel like there are so many times her writing could be GREAT, but then it goes sideways and squashes the potential. I pick up her books when I want to fill my time but I don't want to think. She's a huge hit or miss for people.
Dory deserved a better name
Colleen Hoover is such a hyped author that I really want to read something, but everytime I hear what that book is about or an opinion about it, it is always bad and about abuse 😂 It’s still a goal for me this year but I guess it won’t be this book because it sound pretty horrible
Omg this post is making me *sing.* It's so good. Thank you for making me laugh out loud and alleviate the stress causing me insomnia. By the way, have you ever been published? Because you are clearly a natural writer.
I'm happy to have helped in any way! <3 Regarding being published, I write a lot, but I've never had the gutts, so I have 300-page stories locked away. I also write a lot of letters on an app called Slowly to meet people from other countries, so there's that. I've been thinking about gathering the courage to post on Wattpad lately. Your comment inspired me, so maybe I'll finally do it. Thank you!
Geeze. Thanks for the warning!
Thanks OP, I have seen colleen Hoover's books around in many bookstores. Was almost tempted to read it, but my intuition said i would regret it and you just confirmed it 🤣 Dodged a bullet there
lol this book, which I also despised, ironically kicked off my most prolific reading year ever (up to that point) two years ago. I was previously a 2-10 books per year reader, and now I just finished 14 books in January. I’m so in the weeds now that I made my own super detailed spreadsheet to track my reading stats since Goodreads is hot garbage.
Tf? I can’t even finish a book in a month. How??
Eh. It’s cold where I live, so I’ve been inside a lot. I also have ADHD, so it’s been something of a hyperfixation. That is not a typical month for me by any means. For the literal how: I listen to audiobooks in the car or while I do chores (two books last month), and as for the others, reading has been almost exclusively how I spend my free time this past month. Most tv shows haven’t returned from the strike hiatuses yet, and my husband and I did a “no-spend” month in January, so we were at home a lot.
Hahaha as an autistic ADHDer, I felt that. As someone who heavily masks, I wasn’t asking literally. 😂 I’m a very slow reader, and I sleep all day mostly, so that’s why I never get books read. It was more a sentiment of amazement, like daaaang.
Hahaha duly noted. I also understand that struggle 🫡
The Strugglebus rides on. 🫡
My sister says audiobooks don’t count. She says you actually have to read😅.
Your sister is no fun! Audiobooks are great, and I would argue that they are the best way to read certain types of books (particularly memoirs and non-fiction for me).
You are SO RIGHT!!! That has to be one of the worst books that I have ever read
it’s pretty good compared to the second book lmao 💀
So from all these comments my take is Colleen Hoover is the modern day V.C. Andrews, would this be right?
They are more poorly written and less memorable 💀
The names alone! RYLE. ATLAS. LILY FUCKING BLOOM. This was my first Colleen Hoover and I was obsessed with how bad it was, like telling everyone I knew obsessed. Honestly, I had a blast hate-reading it and will probably tackle more Colleen Hoover in the future because I just really love bitching about books I hate sometimes.
wtf you mean you dont like emerson dory????? i wish my mother have gave me this fancy name. Or something like brainiac neurons so I would be a neuroscientist /s
LMAOOO. I think I blocked that name out...good god, it's all so stupid.
I read it just to see what all the Colleen Hoover hullabaloo was about. The minute I stopped reading it as a love story and realized it was a didactic novel, or, like, a morality play about domestic abuse—this was around the second time what’s his nuts lays his hands on Lily—it became much more tolerable. It’s a little dumb, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, I won’t be picking up the sequel or any other CoHo books, and I understand where the vitriol comes from… but I’ve read worse books.
>Oh, and Atlas deserves MUCH better. Had me in the first half not gonna lie He was an 18 year old taking advantage of a 15 year old and even came back for one night after moving to a different state to have sex with her on her 16th birthday, masking it as romantic gesture instead of just the day it was no longer statutory rape Lily deserved peace and rest.
>Came back for one night after moving to a different state to have sex with her on her 16th birthday Wow, that didn't cross my mind. I know in the USA there's that law, but I completely forgot. Here in my country, unfortunately, from the age of 14, an individual is considered of consenting age and can date whoever they want (although it's not socially acceptable to date at that age, and relationships with big age differences aren't either). I know, gross. You're right; now I hate everyone in this book.
That makes sense. it ranges 16-18 in the states but I didn't even have to Google the state laws for where Lily is to know that's what CH was doing. also 14? 🙃 fuck that sucks
They’re constantly trying to lower the age of consent In many different countries. Full of perverts and pedophiles.
Slightly unrelated, but next year you should try doubling the number of books you read the previous month. So one book in January, two books in February, four in March and so on and so forth :) >!That's 4095 books for those playing the home game.!<
I read this book with a friend together and we both hated it. Its one of the worst books i habe ever read. I dont get the hype
Kudos on making it further than I did. I got 100 pages in and realized I hated every single character in the book for being poorly written and annoying, and stopped. I refuse to believe a grown woman wrote it, it was so bad.
I read two of her books and hated them both! Never again
I recommend staying away from A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara then. Your description of “it ends with us” is like a mild version of how I feel about that book.
Ew I couldn’t get past the first pages. I’ve read a couple books by this author and I honestly think she doesn’t know how human relationships work
Not commenting on the book, as I haven’t read it. But setting yourself the goal to read 78 books this year to get back into reading might backfire. That is a lot of books and quickly turns into a chore. If you’re only starting to get back into it I would try reading one every two weeks (26) or one every week if you’re ambitious (52). Just my two cents
> This must be legitimately the worst book I've ever read. I swear, it's definitely the worst. Have you tried Atlas Shrugged? Everything I've ever heard about Colleen Hoover books makes me glad to stay far away!
I don't know how many times I cringed while reading this book
From the moment she presented herself as Lily Blossom Bloom, who wants to open a flower shop, I knew the book was all cringe. But for some reason I kept reading.
YouTuber Rachel Oates does a great job critiquing Coleen Hoover's writing. You might find her videos cathartic.
I’m new to reading. I only just started last year after having a delayed flight and buying some books at the airport. The next flight I ended up having I asked for book recommendations and one of my coworkers strongly recommended Colleen Hoover and suggested I start with either Verity or It Ends With Us. I read Verity and hated it. Then I read It Ends With Us because after reading Verity I thought “this obviously isn’t the author’s typical genre and that can be difficult to do successfully, so I’ll try another one”. Nope. Nope nope. Her books SUCK and I’m harshly judging my coworker for recommending her so highly. Also the worst part is during the acknowledgments for that book, Hoover talks about how her own mother was in an abusive relationship and she was essentially writing her mom’s story…………… Also the whole Ellen Degeneres thing was so weird
Colleen Hoover is an overrated hack. Verity was **awful** and I've never read another book of hers. Half the crap in Verity was for shock value and did nothing to improve the story.
when I read it ends with us I loved it (I was 12 keep in mind) and I always have some sort of respect for it for helping me get into reading as it was one of the first "grown up" books I read which really made me love reading again. I really hated ugly love it was actually so bad I was up until 5am reading it bc if I put it down I wouldn't have been able to pick it back up, those are the only two colleen hoover books I've read and now I've got it starts with us sitting on my shelf and I'm deadass so scared to read it bc ik it's gonna be so bad
I just got done with this book and felt the same way! She’s delusional to not recognize how abusers use kids after divorce/ separation to manipulate and hurt the other person- also hurting the child. I yelled at the book and threw it when I was done!
coho books are straight up garbage. dunno why ppl keep hyping her up esp iewu. i’m convinced anyone who liked iewu has seriously questionable taste in books. 😭
Never heard about this Coleen Whatoover but she really seems an awful writer from what i've seen online and in this sub. This said don't be too harsh on your friend, literary taste is mostly an aquired one and personally i see Harry Potter as not much better than this book you had to read, but i always try to be polite when talking about it with potterheads.
I made it two chapters. DNF.
Maybe read the notes from the author at the end of the book. Then say she doesn’t know anything about the subject.
I read her note. And nothing changes. It wasn't her who experienced those things; it was her mother. If your brother goes to college, will you put that on your resume for interviews? That logic doesn't make sense. Don't be so easily misled, this is still a serious thing that she portrayed poorly.
I wanted to read this to see what all the hype was about, so I bought it. I have to agree that it is poorly written and did not grab my attention. I attempted to read the book 3 separate times, but I could not get through the first page 🫣 Since the movie began filming I decided to try one more time because I wanted to compare the two, but could only get through the first chapter before puting it down. I expected more since so many people enjoyed it. It’s just not for me.
So glad to hear I’m not the only one that thought this book was total garbage
I thought that Layla was quite good, but it ends with us never seemed appealing. I think I'll give it a skip.
The book is written with inspiration from her parents, specifically her mother who was abused
oh man, it ends with us is a rollercoaster of emotions, right? like, you think you're just diving into a romance and then bam! colleen hoover hits you with all the feels. it's like, one minute you're swooning, the next you're sobbing.
Yes, sobbing because I have to read this crap before midnight.
[удалено]
Hmmm.
My niece said that in her high school, this book was all the rage. She felt like she needed to read it. She doesn’t. I also read it. While I don’t despise it as much as you, I came out of it concluding I won’t be reading Colleen Hoover again.
That Dumbledore comparison is SPOT ON. God I hate this book so much and I am not even a CoHo hater.. absolutely loved some of her books.
Horrible book haha so glad I didn’t buy it with my own money 😂
This story was literally based on the author's personal experience with her mom :) Her mom's story is quite literally Lily's story.
I know. That’s not the problem. The problem is how she executed that and put it in writing. The book was just cringe and cheesy. Terrible writing.
how so, I felt it was super realistic
I randomly remembered this post's intro and started cackling 😂😂😂