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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Girl…..this guy was a red flag five pages in. And NAKED TRUTHS? Just as cringe as the constant references to Ellen, I can’t cope. Don’t even get me started on naming her child after someone from his bloodline. I appreciate the importance of this story, however, the surrounding plot is so poor.
....i honestly have no idea how to put my emotions into words after that book. i've never cried that hard over a book or have felt that conflicted over a book EVER. colleen did an amazing job putting her readers into the story. whatever lily felt, so did we. when certain betrayals happened, we felt that too. truly the most heart-wrenching book ive read, but also one of the best and most well-written ones. 183738/10 stars!! the only thing i know for sure is "naked truth": atlas has my heart. everyone needs to read this book! (tw: domestic violence, abuse, rape, slight mention of murder??)
I read this because I had to figure out what the deal was with Colleen Hoover. So many people loved her books, so many people hated her books, what the heck was going on? I've never seen an author so polarizing. Well, after reading one of her most famous works, I can finally say that I...fall squarely into the "meh" camp.
It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Although I don't typically enjoy romance, some of the scenes were cute. I was way more invested in her business and her relationships with her mom and her BF's sister than I was with the main guy. He creeped me out right off the bat, but a lot of guys in woman-written romances do,
As for this book romanticizing abuse, it didn't really seem to be the author's intention, but I do think she was a little noncommittal on addressing the severity of the situation. And he definitely should not have gotten visitation with her baby at the end. Or been at the birth. Ew.
All in all I don't think it's a bad book, but it's not really my thing, and I do think her handling of the book's themes was a little too blasé. 2.5/5 for me.
It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Although I don't typically enjoy romance, some of the scenes were cute. I was way more invested in her business and her relationships with her mom and her BF's sister than I was with the main guy. He creeped me out right off the bat, but a lot of guys in woman-written romances do,
Spoiler
so when he actually turned out to be as disturbed as he seemed I actually felt a bit validated.As for this book romanticizing abuse, it didn't really seem to be the author's intention, but I do think she was a little noncommittal on addressing the severity of the situation. And he definitely should not have gotten visitation with her baby at the end. Or been at the birth. Ew.
All in all I don't think it's a bad book, but it's not really my thing, and I do think her handling of the book's themes was a little too blasé. 2.5/5 for me.
For some reason I thought this would be fun bad, like ridiculously bad, but it's not. It's just dull. My opinion after this book can be best described as: I feel dumber for having read (well, listened to) it. I swear it's written at like a 3rd grade reading level and everything is just spoonfed to the reader and you never have to use your brain.
This gets 1.5 stars rounded up to 2 because there are three distinct little parts that I remember because I liked them (as opposed to all the parts I remember because I didn't). I guess these are kind of spoilers but honestly this book is so lame who cares:
1. Alisa (sp?) telling Lily that as Ryle's sister she wished Lily could forgive him, but as Lily's friend she would never speak to her again if she took him back. Thought that was nice little character development moment for her (but of course that was the extent of the depth we got from Alisa!)
2. It was sweet when Lily said she "craved weakness" when she was gearing up to open up to her mother. Was a nice little moment, but of course CoHo can't leave good enough alone and needs to repeat the same thing in a million different phrasings so it immediately lost its weight.
3. I liked Lily asking Ryle what he would do if their daughter told him about a theoretical partner treating her the way Ryle treated Lily. Probably my favorite part.
And that's it, those are the parts I liked.
I know this book gets a lot of criticism for its portrayal of domestic violence, but I don't really take much issue with that to be honest because it is just so dumb. The writing is so lackluster and boring that THAT is what's offensive to me. Atlas is also a walking red flag in my opinion, everyone who isn't Lily/Ryle/Atlas feels like a sitcom character, and the letters to Ellen thing could've actually been a way more fun plot device instead of being a surface level way of recounting Lily's teenage years. Also naming a child Emerson Dory Bloom-Kincaid is a villain origin story.
This gets 1.5 stars rounded up to 2 because there are three distinct little parts that I remember because I liked them (as opposed to all the parts I remember because I didn't). I guess these are kind of spoilers but honestly this book is so lame who cares:
1. Alisa (sp?) telling Lily that as Ryle's sister she wished Lily could forgive him, but as Lily's friend she would never speak to her again if she took him back. Thought that was nice little character development moment for her (but of course that was the extent of the depth we got from Alisa!)
2. It was sweet when Lily said she "craved weakness" when she was gearing up to open up to her mother. Was a nice little moment, but of course CoHo can't leave good enough alone and needs to repeat the same thing in a million different phrasings so it immediately lost its weight.
3. I liked Lily asking Ryle what he would do if their daughter told him about a theoretical partner treating her the way Ryle treated Lily. Probably my favorite part.
And that's it, those are the parts I liked.
I know this book gets a lot of criticism for its portrayal of domestic violence, but I don't really take much issue with that to be honest because it is just so dumb. The writing is so lackluster and boring that THAT is what's offensive to me. Atlas is also a walking red flag in my opinion, everyone who isn't Lily/Ryle/Atlas feels like a sitcom character, and the letters to Ellen thing could've actually been a way more fun plot device instead of being a surface level way of recounting Lily's teenage years. Also naming a child Emerson Dory Bloom-Kincaid is a villain origin story.