Reviews with content warning for Suicide - It Ends with Us

3.5 stars

I feel really conflicted about this book and it took me a few days after finishing it to process my thoughts. In one sense, this book lived up to the hype. I read this book because of BookTok and I couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what happened next and got swept up in the story. I fell for Ryle (and his scrubs) and loved his story with Lily in the beginning.

However, all that being said, this book needed to come with a massive trigger warning. Despite all of the publicity for this book, I did not see any content warnings. This book was heavy and was not the cute romance book I was lead to believe it was. It tackles some very heavy topics and is quite descriptive when describing the events that occur. I understand the rationale for needing to form a relationship with the characters first, but this was uncomfortable to read in parts.

The author’s note helped me put this book into context and I admire Colleen for the strength it took her to write this book, but I wish that an author’s note was included in the beginning to forewarn the reader. The distressing topics covered is why I have rated it 3.5 stars.

Content Warnings

justlea's review

Go to review page

emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

livelyghost's review

Go to review page

emotional fast-paced

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

1.5

In full disclosure, I went into reading this knowing it was popular on Booktok/Bookstagram and with some spoilers already in play due to that. I was hoping that it would be this big for a reason, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why unless there's a lot more people discovering for themselves that they're in an abusive relationship than I would have anticipated.

Everything about this book is just off. Lily never mentioning a desire to work in floral or create her own business (especially after a conversation about how much she hates her very floral name) and then just randomly opening a frankly horrible sounding flower shop 6 months later, Alyssa dropping in as a perfect rich-girl friend literally off of the street, a teenager who loves Ellen DeGeneres so much she writes diary entries to her, (spoilers to follow etc)

a decision to elope 6 months after dating that somehow nobody objected to?? Ryle buying a condo without discussing it with Lily and she's magically like "no it's perfect"?? A fucking PREGNANCY that you didn't notice for 3 MONTHS??

. The more I think about this book the more I lower my star rating.

I understand that this was a deeply personal story to the author. Reading the author's note to get a better understanding of where she was coming from was helpful, but frankly I would have rather heard someone's lived experience than a fictional account. It was difficult for me to believe that anyone was so deeply enmeshed that leaving would be a big decision because nobody seemed to have any chemistry. Even Lily attests to the fact that she rarely sees Ryle because of their work schedules. Lily and Ryle's relationship often felt like an elementary-schooler describing what long-term relationships feel like. Every few chapters it just felt like we hit the Next Relationship Milestone despite the characters not having made any effort to reach it. No compromises, no discussions, just things happening because that's just what's supposed to happen right? The discussions Lily had with herself towards the end of the book about what she wanted her relationship to look like moving forward felt like the only things that rang true in this entire book.

It was interesting learning about her past relationship with Atlas and essentially how she made it through her teenage years but to be frank, if you took the entirety it out of the book it would read exactly the same.

1.5 stars for it’s popularity encouraging people to read, no higher because big Twilight energy tbh.

Content Warnings

umarshahzad's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing sad fast-paced

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

5.0

it baffles me how CoHo comes out with a banger every single time. From the start we are gripped with Lily Bloom’s life as she attempts suicide but when she sees a man name RYLE she sees all good in him. But constantly we see throughout the book how he abuses her, and then apologises for it. He is a violent character and this mirrors towards the author’s mother who and to go through the same trauma with Colleen’s father. It also deals with a lot of heavy and violent themes such as gaslighting, trauma, sexual violence and abuse. Ryle is the primary antagonist and we often see him and his flaws which make up for him being so violent towards Lily. We also have Lil’s childhood friend/boyfriend Atlas who is Lily’s hope towards the future but they drift apart after she moved to Boston. She is married with Ryle but often reminisces about her time with Atlas showing us how she is a character that often reflects on her good times. A huge motif throughout It Ends With Us is the form of abuse. We see it in the book with Lily’s father raping her mother, and we see it being symmetrical towards Lily and Ryle’s toxic relationship. Other than that I rated this a 5.5 stars and it definitely is an emotional book.

Content Warnings