Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - It Ends with Us

well. this was a ride. oscillating (still) between 1 and 2 stars. need to figure out a personal rating system. i think 1 means i absolutely abhorred everything about it. this book had some moments where i didn’t hate it or didn’t cringe; and i understand the message and i think, honestly, when i had gotten to the end, the 2 star i was contemplating was due to the message, but i don’t believe coho handled the topic as well as she should have. while i appreciate that this is personal to the author, this is a dangerous narrative to push to impressionable young readers while glorifying and romanticising aspects of it. while atlas was also one of the ‘better’ (tbh, everyone in this story pissed me off at least once; marshall’s might have been the least offensive but i am still undecided) character, he is still not the perfect man and while i’m glad he was there to help that night, it would have been more powerful if someone else could have been the person for lily to lean on—e.g., allysa or her mother.

the attempted rape, graphic sexual assault and humiliation of lily that night should have resulted in ryle never spending unsupervised time with his child, or any children. like i need him locked up. and i wish it was stressed by others in the book at how terrifying this was. allysa, as his sister, would’ve loved for lily to give him a second chance? what the fuck? whether speaking as his sister or her best friend, you should STILL want her to have nothing to do with that man ever again? in fact, you shouldn’t even want anything to ever do with that man. [also pissed me off when she made him tell lily about their brother as if that had anything to do with anything. whole time i was sat there like... is this supposed to make up for you shoving her down the stairs and then GASLIGHTING her about it? talmbout “you fell”??] the fact that it was so different from the first two “incidents” in the fact that it was calculated should have sounded warning bells that this is not just a “damaged” man who is dealing with inner demons. he planned to humiliate and harm her that night. he does not need to be redeemed or coddled or talked down to in order to understand why lily cannot stay in their marriage (“what would you say if it was your daughter?” good god. he is not a child.)

also. regarding atlas, depending on the situation, i tend to have few problems with 16–18 relationships [dependent on the fact that there are no power imbalances, grooming, and that no one is being harmed, etc]; e.g., if the older person had just turned 18/the younger person’s 17th is soon/they had been together prior to one partner turning 18. however, there was genuinely no need for them to have sex. their relationship, to serve as the comparison to ryle and lily’s, worked well enough before the scene and it would have had the same impact had she left that scene out as it had already been established how much they meant to each other and how crucial he was as a fellow child of an abusive home.

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crimieon's review

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Content Warnings

sarahasperger's review

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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