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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
I had to finish this fast because I was sick to my stomach through so much of it. But Iris, the woman that you are. We always say what we would do until we’re in a situation and I’m just so happy you got your happy ending because so many don’t. You and Sarai are both princesses who deserve the world and I’m glad August would happy give you that and more. It takes a village and Lotus, Jared, Kenan and co., I’m glad my people have y’all too.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Very hard read but good ending.
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Yes, this book does spend some time focusing on some hard issues, but I completely adore the friendship that builds between August and Iris. Love that starts as a friendship is sweet to watch develop.
Ryan did an amazing job in putting together the details of the story and allowing the main character to grow. Iris is a very complex person and you can't help but root for her to figure things out.
Ryan did an amazing job in putting together the details of the story and allowing the main character to grow. Iris is a very complex person and you can't help but root for her to figure things out.
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Rape
Hated every second of it.
Iris is one dumb bitch. Coho's Lily Bloom haters, you need to meet Iris. And I'll tell you why later.
I finally get why they're called trigger warnings. Coz damnit I was TRIGGERED.
Plot Summary:
IRIS is the FMC
AUGUST is the MMC
CALEB is the villain
LOTUS is the FMC's cousin/ best friend, and the only sane person in the book.
Iris is currently in a relationship with Caleb when she runs into August. She identifies August as Caleb's nemesis but doesn't give her identity to August. So, August doesnt know that she's literally his enemy's girl.
Iris gets pregnant with Caleb child and that's obviously because he planned for it since that's how the relationship has been from the beginning. He decides what she wears and all that. And has been constantly pressuring her into marrying him or at least moving in with him.
Iris doesn't even love Caleb. They both tell each other the words, but she doesn't love him and she knows it.
Iris has got dreams of her own, and goals, and starts off as a career oriented woman and completely despises depending on a guy. And yet when she gets pregnant, she lets the guy force her into moving in with him and completely accepts his financial support. Like yes she's broke and that is her baby's daddy, but the issue is where she blindly accepts everything from him.
And all this while she knows she's got the feels for August his career nemesis.
After the child is born Caleb's abusive side comes out and he hits and rapes and blackmails her into staying with him.
Then somehow she manages to escape him, avoid society for a while and falls back into the arms of August.
My Unorganized Thoughts:
IRIS
Okay I'm NOT mad at her for what she did or didn't do during the abuse. I'm just absolutely disgusted with her for the way she actually fell into his trap.
She's always about NOT depending on a man, and then when she gets pregnant she just packs shit and moves in with him to a place where she literally knows no one.
She's using his cards and his car. And honestly that's okay of you're comfortable in your relationship. But everything that she uses IS REGISTERED IN HIS NAME. So it's very clearly HIS. And this dumb bitch when she makes her first escape, tries to run off in a car that's REGISTERED IN HIS NAME and used cards that are REGISTERED IN HIS NAME. Honestly, I get the car, but the cards? Couldn't she have used her own cards and just asked him to transfer cash into her accounts? For a girl who despised depending on a guy, girl you sure as hell was super-glued to him.
When her best friend/ cousin Lotus tries to make Ms Dumb Bitch see how she's let herself get trapped by Mr Dickward (and this is even before the abuse), Ms Dumb B shoots her best friend (who's known and been there for her since forever) down and hangs up on her and let's her useless ego (useless coz it's never made an appearance when with CALEB) get in the way and makes up her mind that she'll ask Lotus for help.
Only to later wind up and ask her for help.
IRIS vs LILY BLOOM
Uk when I read It Ends With Us, I wasn't like a fan of hers, but I totally got where she's coming from. And I never hated her. In fact, I was proud of her.
These are the two texts I sent my friend as I was reading this book.
.
1 Coz uk I've actually become a fan of Lily Bloom. Coz that woman at least recognized the signs.
2 And she had difficulty leaving the guy or whatever because she was actually in love with the guy
3 The entire time she's with ryle, she never even emotionally cheats on him with Atlas. She doesn't even yearn for atlas.
But this legend, this iconic female that I'm reading Abt
1 she's so OBLIVIOUS
3 (yup I switched the numbers' order) She's constantly wishing and hoping she's with the other guy. That's emotional cheating right there!
2 She's taking shit from a guy SHE DOESN'T EVEN FREAKING LOVE like wtf
That's all my honor.
Again, NOTE that I'm still talking Abt Iris before the abuse started. Coz there were so many freaking signs that's we'll discuss under "Caleb".
CALEB
This absolute son of a bitch controls Iris.
He always wants her to straighten her hair, or like wear specific crop tops for him, NEVER gives a thought to her dreams. Always disregards her wants. Darling, he climaxes and doesn't even care if she comes.
He takes, and takes, and takes, and NEVER GIVES.
So darling, at this point we don't even have to talk about the abuse. Coz uk a guy doesn't need to abuse you to label a relationship as toxic. These things right here is ENOUGH.
I'm just flabbergasted that you let a guy like this trap you with pregnancy and then trap you into living with him. Couldn't you have asked him to just financially support you wherever you choose to live. Like in a city where you knew people. He's clearly rich, and we've established that you're okay with being financially supported by him when the situation calls for him.
And this thought didn't even cross your mind. I DO NOT GET HOW WE CAN CALL A WOMAN WHO IS THIS STUPID, STRONG.
CALEB vs RYLE:
Ryle Kincaid actually loved Lily Bloom. And outside of the abuse he NEVER forced her to do anything. There were literally no signs that there was a monster hiding in him.
He was a perfect gentleman to Lily and treated her SO WELL in IEWU. And even after the abuse he was BROKEN, he REGRETTED IT. He was remorseful. Now that's a guy who's deserving of help.
He's clearly got issues. But issues can be solved. There is a chance for redemption.
But Caleb was a toxic maniac madman through and through.
Honestly though this comparison isn't needed coz monsters come in all shapes and sizes. But what I'm trying to say is, you never could've guessed Ryle meant trouble and still Lily acted with her brain intact, while with Caleb eventhough there were SO MANY FUCKING SIGNS Ms Dumbness doesn't SEE IT.
AUGUST
I loved this guy. Trust me I did. I hate how Goodreads doesn't have a 0-stars feature. Coz then we're forced to give books 1 star, even when we don't want to. So the 1 star I ended up giving this book, I justified it for August. Because that's how much I actually liked this guy.
He was sweet, kind, patient. He was understanding and he was respectful.
This is what he says to Iris, before he gets to know about the nature of their relationship, before the abuse even starts.
“But the girl I met in that bar didn’t want to be taken care of. I’d do everything in my power to help you follow your dreams so you could take care of yourself. And then we’d both know you were with me because you wanted to be, not because you had no other choice.”
And if this quote wasn't enough to convince that this guy deserved my respect and adoration.
Unfortunately, even with all that, at some point I started getting a bit confused. Like was constantly seeking her out. Like dude was pining for her and panting after her. He never did anything wrong, or pressured her, or caused her any trouble at all, other than always being there for her. But I swear it all felt unreal and probably unnecessary. Like I get u saw her at a bar and it was love at first sight (and word), but still. Is there no limit. Dude was walking a fine line between being in love and being obsessed. If he walk the latter side, he'd be no different from Caleb.
AUGUST vs ATLAS
This comparison is irrelevant. But let's just say that Atlas was better than August.
PLOT and WRITING
Okay so we just compared the three main characters of this book with another book that's so freaking similar to this. And all 3 characters from this book, just lost. Uk what makes it terrible? The characters of the other book weren't that good to begin with, and the fact that they were very easily better than the ones here just reflects on how poor the writing is.
Dude, if you skip past the rape and the sex, this book was BORING.
It's a long book. An unnecessarily long one, and yet I finished it with surprising speed. How? Coz it bored me to tears I was skimming through stuff at some point.
And believe me when I tell you that the book only has two elements. Rape and Sex.
Like if Ms. Dumbdear wasn't getting hit and raped by Mr. Dickledore, she was having sex with August.
There's a very tiny part where we see Miss Icon fight for herself, and then she's on the road to self discovery for a short while (technically it's around a 1 year time, but the pages in the book on that is comparatively shorter than the other pages), and she gets back into real world has a few "trust-issue" related fight with August that was totally uncalled for (coz where did all those trust issues go when you were with a guy who was a walking, talking red sign) before falling back into his arms.
And man she doesn't make it easy for him. And I don't even know why. She blames it on trust issues and shit. But you've known this guy for almost as long as you knew Caleb, and at some point it stops looking like you're protecting yourself (coz hey u had a chance to do that and we all remember just how much of a shit jon you did at that) and starts looking like you're just treating August like shit.
But I would give this woman one credit. At least after she finds out how sick Caleb is, she actively plots her way out of the relationship instead of just staying in it for her child and all the other pretentious reasons.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Ok so maybe I was too harsh on Iris. And maybe that's precisely why this author came up with this book. To show us that it's not easy to just up and leave an abusive relationship.
“Yes, there are women who stay too long. Yes, there are women who accept abuse, confused that somehow it’s still love. That wasn’t me, but I knew that if I tried to leave and failed, he would kill me.”
~ Quote by Iris, herself.
But my major problem sits with how Iris didn't identify her relationship as an unhealthy one even BEFORE THE ABUSE STARTED and was completely unassuming and made herself so vulnerable!
I'm all for women power. And we know that Caleb deserved to die. A much more cruel death than what was given. Actually no. He should've lived and rotten behind the bars. So don't tell me why we're not blaming guys like him and we're only blaming women like Iris.
Here's the thing love. WE ARE BLAMING GUYS LIKE HIM. We're more than just blaming him. We're cursing him and hoping he'd go to hell. He's a monster.
Now say he's a literal monster. An actual monster..say a zombie. A zombie who's got a taste for blood. A zombie that looks like a semi-decomposed human.
Would you, or would you not call a woman or even a man stupid for living with the zombie? Like I get it partially resembles a normal human. But aren't you getting that rotting stink? Can't you see that their walk and talk is quite different from an actual normal human?
How can you let yourself be such a little red riding hood from those original blurry cartoons.
God, deliver me from this.
Save me.
When Iris said this though. My heart broke. Literally no woman should've to go through this. Literally no one.
Lord did this book aggravate me.
Iris is one dumb bitch. Coho's Lily Bloom haters, you need to meet Iris. And I'll tell you why later.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
I finally get why they're called trigger warnings. Coz damnit I was TRIGGERED.
Plot Summary:
IRIS is the FMC
AUGUST is the MMC
CALEB is the villain
LOTUS is the FMC's cousin/ best friend, and the only sane person in the book.
Iris is currently in a relationship with Caleb when she runs into August. She identifies August as Caleb's nemesis but doesn't give her identity to August. So, August doesnt know that she's literally his enemy's girl.
Iris gets pregnant with Caleb child and that's obviously because he planned for it since that's how the relationship has been from the beginning. He decides what she wears and all that. And has been constantly pressuring her into marrying him or at least moving in with him.
Iris doesn't even love Caleb. They both tell each other the words, but she doesn't love him and she knows it.
Iris has got dreams of her own, and goals, and starts off as a career oriented woman and completely despises depending on a guy. And yet when she gets pregnant, she lets the guy force her into moving in with him and completely accepts his financial support. Like yes she's broke and that is her baby's daddy, but the issue is where she blindly accepts everything from him.
And all this while she knows she's got the feels for August his career nemesis.
After the child is born Caleb's abusive side comes out and he hits and rapes and blackmails her into staying with him.
Then somehow she manages to escape him, avoid society for a while and falls back into the arms of August.
My Unorganized Thoughts:
IRIS
Okay I'm NOT mad at her for what she did or didn't do during the abuse. I'm just absolutely disgusted with her for the way she actually fell into his trap.
She's always about NOT depending on a man, and then when she gets pregnant she just packs shit and moves in with him to a place where she literally knows no one.
She's using his cards and his car. And honestly that's okay of you're comfortable in your relationship. But everything that she uses IS REGISTERED IN HIS NAME. So it's very clearly HIS. And this dumb bitch when she makes her first escape, tries to run off in a car that's REGISTERED IN HIS NAME and used cards that are REGISTERED IN HIS NAME. Honestly, I get the car, but the cards? Couldn't she have used her own cards and just asked him to transfer cash into her accounts? For a girl who despised depending on a guy, girl you sure as hell was super-glued to him.
When her best friend/ cousin Lotus tries to make Ms Dumb Bitch see how she's let herself get trapped by Mr Dickward (and this is even before the abuse), Ms Dumb B shoots her best friend (who's known and been there for her since forever) down and hangs up on her and let's her useless ego (useless coz it's never made an appearance when with CALEB) get in the way and makes up her mind that she'll ask Lotus for help.
Only to later wind up and ask her for help.
IRIS vs LILY BLOOM
Uk when I read It Ends With Us, I wasn't like a fan of hers, but I totally got where she's coming from. And I never hated her. In fact, I was proud of her.
These are the two texts I sent my friend as I was reading this book.
.
1 Coz uk I've actually become a fan of Lily Bloom. Coz that woman at least recognized the signs.
2 And she had difficulty leaving the guy or whatever because she was actually in love with the guy
3 The entire time she's with ryle, she never even emotionally cheats on him with Atlas. She doesn't even yearn for atlas.
But this legend, this iconic female that I'm reading Abt
1 she's so OBLIVIOUS
3 (yup I switched the numbers' order) She's constantly wishing and hoping she's with the other guy. That's emotional cheating right there!
2 She's taking shit from a guy SHE DOESN'T EVEN FREAKING LOVE like wtf
That's all my honor.
Again, NOTE that I'm still talking Abt Iris before the abuse started. Coz there were so many freaking signs that's we'll discuss under "Caleb".
CALEB
This absolute son of a bitch controls Iris.
He always wants her to straighten her hair, or like wear specific crop tops for him, NEVER gives a thought to her dreams. Always disregards her wants. Darling, he climaxes and doesn't even care if she comes.
He takes, and takes, and takes, and NEVER GIVES.
So darling, at this point we don't even have to talk about the abuse. Coz uk a guy doesn't need to abuse you to label a relationship as toxic. These things right here is ENOUGH.
I'm just flabbergasted that you let a guy like this trap you with pregnancy and then trap you into living with him. Couldn't you have asked him to just financially support you wherever you choose to live. Like in a city where you knew people. He's clearly rich, and we've established that you're okay with being financially supported by him when the situation calls for him.
And this thought didn't even cross your mind. I DO NOT GET HOW WE CAN CALL A WOMAN WHO IS THIS STUPID, STRONG.
CALEB vs RYLE:
Ryle Kincaid actually loved Lily Bloom. And outside of the abuse he NEVER forced her to do anything. There were literally no signs that there was a monster hiding in him.
He was a perfect gentleman to Lily and treated her SO WELL in IEWU. And even after the abuse he was BROKEN, he REGRETTED IT. He was remorseful. Now that's a guy who's deserving of help.
He's clearly got issues. But issues can be solved. There is a chance for redemption.
But Caleb was a toxic maniac madman through and through.
Honestly though this comparison isn't needed coz monsters come in all shapes and sizes. But what I'm trying to say is, you never could've guessed Ryle meant trouble and still Lily acted with her brain intact, while with Caleb eventhough there were SO MANY FUCKING SIGNS Ms Dumbness doesn't SEE IT.
AUGUST
I loved this guy. Trust me I did. I hate how Goodreads doesn't have a 0-stars feature. Coz then we're forced to give books 1 star, even when we don't want to. So the 1 star I ended up giving this book, I justified it for August. Because that's how much I actually liked this guy.
He was sweet, kind, patient. He was understanding and he was respectful.
This is what he says to Iris, before he gets to know about the nature of their relationship, before the abuse even starts.
“But the girl I met in that bar didn’t want to be taken care of. I’d do everything in my power to help you follow your dreams so you could take care of yourself. And then we’d both know you were with me because you wanted to be, not because you had no other choice.”
And if this quote wasn't enough to convince that this guy deserved my respect and adoration.
Unfortunately, even with all that, at some point I started getting a bit confused. Like was constantly seeking her out. Like dude was pining for her and panting after her. He never did anything wrong, or pressured her, or caused her any trouble at all, other than always being there for her. But I swear it all felt unreal and probably unnecessary. Like I get u saw her at a bar and it was love at first sight (and word), but still. Is there no limit. Dude was walking a fine line between being in love and being obsessed. If he walk the latter side, he'd be no different from Caleb.
AUGUST vs ATLAS
This comparison is irrelevant. But let's just say that Atlas was better than August.
PLOT and WRITING
Okay so we just compared the three main characters of this book with another book that's so freaking similar to this. And all 3 characters from this book, just lost. Uk what makes it terrible? The characters of the other book weren't that good to begin with, and the fact that they were very easily better than the ones here just reflects on how poor the writing is.
Dude, if you skip past the rape and the sex, this book was BORING.
It's a long book. An unnecessarily long one, and yet I finished it with surprising speed. How? Coz it bored me to tears I was skimming through stuff at some point.
And believe me when I tell you that the book only has two elements. Rape and Sex.
Like if Ms. Dumbdear wasn't getting hit and raped by Mr. Dickledore, she was having sex with August.
There's a very tiny part where we see Miss Icon fight for herself, and then she's on the road to self discovery for a short while (technically it's around a 1 year time, but the pages in the book on that is comparatively shorter than the other pages), and she gets back into real world has a few "trust-issue" related fight with August that was totally uncalled for (coz where did all those trust issues go when you were with a guy who was a walking, talking red sign) before falling back into his arms.
And man she doesn't make it easy for him. And I don't even know why. She blames it on trust issues and shit. But you've known this guy for almost as long as you knew Caleb, and at some point it stops looking like you're protecting yourself (coz hey u had a chance to do that and we all remember just how much of a shit jon you did at that) and starts looking like you're just treating August like shit.
But I would give this woman one credit. At least after she finds out how sick Caleb is, she actively plots her way out of the relationship instead of just staying in it for her child and all the other pretentious reasons.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Ok so maybe I was too harsh on Iris. And maybe that's precisely why this author came up with this book. To show us that it's not easy to just up and leave an abusive relationship.
“Yes, there are women who stay too long. Yes, there are women who accept abuse, confused that somehow it’s still love. That wasn’t me, but I knew that if I tried to leave and failed, he would kill me.”
~ Quote by Iris, herself.
But my major problem sits with how Iris didn't identify her relationship as an unhealthy one even BEFORE THE ABUSE STARTED and was completely unassuming and made herself so vulnerable!
I'm all for women power. And we know that Caleb deserved to die. A much more cruel death than what was given. Actually no. He should've lived and rotten behind the bars. So don't tell me why we're not blaming guys like him and we're only blaming women like Iris.
Here's the thing love. WE ARE BLAMING GUYS LIKE HIM. We're more than just blaming him. We're cursing him and hoping he'd go to hell. He's a monster.
Now say he's a literal monster. An actual monster..say a zombie. A zombie who's got a taste for blood. A zombie that looks like a semi-decomposed human.
Would you, or would you not call a woman or even a man stupid for living with the zombie? Like I get it partially resembles a normal human. But aren't you getting that rotting stink? Can't you see that their walk and talk is quite different from an actual normal human?
How can you let yourself be such a little red riding hood from those original blurry cartoons.
God, deliver me from this.
Save me.
When Iris said this though. My heart broke. Literally no woman should've to go through this. Literally no one.
Lord did this book aggravate me.
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I fucking hate roller coasters but this is one I’ll never get off of
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad