Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
Ugh. This may be my new fave CoHo. As someone who has always struggled with mental health but has never wanted to and has been in denial more often than not this book felt so close to home in all the right places. Xx with jordan ❤️
“Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.”
E pronto. Li em pouco mais de 24 horas. Tinhas tantas saudades de ler um livro da Colleen Hoover que ninguem imagina. Sempre adorei os livros dela e este não for exceção. Without Merit é, sem dúvida, um livro bastante diferente do que a Colleen nos tinha habituado, mas eu adorei completamente esta história. Durante a leitura ficamos a conhecer uma familia de loucos, bastante disfuncional mas adorei completamente cada personagem. colleen hoover <3333
E pronto. Li em pouco mais de 24 horas. Tinhas tantas saudades de ler um livro da Colleen Hoover que ninguem imagina. Sempre adorei os livros dela e este não for exceção. Without Merit é, sem dúvida, um livro bastante diferente do que a Colleen nos tinha habituado, mas eu adorei completamente esta história. Durante a leitura ficamos a conhecer uma familia de loucos, bastante disfuncional mas adorei completamente cada personagem. colleen hoover <3333
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is the first book I've read this year that I didn't really like! Considering I'm 10 books in, that's pretty amazing.
Also, I see most everyone else enjoyed this so I guess I'll go air out my Corner of Shame and make myself at home. It's been so long since I've hung out there.
First, I need to ask two questions.
1) Why is this billed as a Romance? It won Goodread's Reader's Choice for the Romance category. I wouldn't have put it in that genre at all.
2) Why is this billed as adult fiction? This is young adult fiction. There is absolutely nothing about this that is outside the norm for standard YA fare. How come no one seems to know that? Seriously, guys, this is a typical YA novel.
Let's meet the seventeen-year-old high school dropout narrator of the story, Merit Voss.
Only blonde.
She's awkward and boy crazy.
Actually, I think I should go into spoiler mode from here on out.
This is Merit's twin, Honor Voss.
She's the pretty twin, the first one born, the popular one, the one who wears contacts, the one who is going to head off with her mega scholarship to college in about six months. Also, she only dates boys who are dying.
I should mention, Honor and Merit actually look something more like this:
because of course they do.
Does this not already sound like a young adult novel?
No? Well...there's more.
Honor and Merit aren't really on speaking terms anymore because there's been a rift that we'll sort of learn about later.
They live in Dollar Voss, a refurbished church purchased out of spite by their father, Barnaby Voss. It's called Dollar Voss because 1) quirky! and 2) it's made of 4 quarters. As in, the church-cum-house is divided into four distinct quadrants.
So quirky!
You're still not getting the YA vibe here?
Ok. Let's talk about this a bit more.
It begins with Merit who is busy buying a trophy at the antique store and skipping school for the most mundane of reasons when she feels the glance of a dark and handsome boy, a boy with olive skin, jet-black hair, and surprising blue eyes.
(pretend he has the most unique kind of light blue eyes you've ever seen)
His name is Sagan.
(no, not that Sagan, though he totally wishes it were that Sagan)
Sagan catches up with Merit outside of the antique shop, asks some questions, and then delivers upon her the most heart-fluttering, knee-melting, passionate kiss she's ever received (I think she's kissed one other guy).
We don't know that she has a twin at this point. We think maybe she's in some Tina Belcher dream sequence but with fewer butts and zombies.
Then Honor calls Sagan and Sagan is confused and the day after that, he moves into Dollar Voss with the Voss family. You know what happens from there: miscommunication, dreamy thoughts, teenage "depth", and general stupidity, which, I guess, is how the whole Romance thing comes into play, since that's generally the Romance formula.
Only there's more than that to this story!
Like the Voss family, for instance.
There's Dad Barnaby, who, as mentioned earlier, bought the church out of spite and turned it into a house. Their old house, which he still owns, is behind the Dollar Voss.
He's a used car salesman. He's also a hands-off sort of parent.
There's Barnaby's wife, Victoria, the nurse who was in charge of caring for Barnaby's ex while she
was sick with cancer.
You know this story already.
There's the oldest Voss child, Utah.
He's 11 months older than his twin sisters and they're all in their senior year of high school together because the Voss parents thought it would be a good idea to enroll them all in school at the same time.
You've met Honor and Merit and now there's Moby, named after the whale, not the musician, who is the four-year-old child of Barnaby and Victoria. He's also the cutest four-year-old ever, according to Merit, but, then, she knows that means nothing because everyone loves a four-year-old. They are universally adored. Did I mention he's four? Because that gets mentioned a lot.
In the basement, also known as the fourth quarter...or maybe it was quarter four. You'd think I would remember since the house quarters are always called by their quarterly names. OH well. Mama Voss lives in the basement. You know, Barnaby's ex-wife. Her name is Victoria.
That's not a typo. I didn't make a mistake. Both wives are named Victoria and both of them live in this remodeled church with Barnaby and all his children.
Ex-wife Victoria is cancer-free but has agoraphobia. However, she dresses nicely every day, complete with hair and makeup and shaved legs, even though she never leaves the house. Ever. She won't even go upstairs. This makes Merit angry because why look nice if there's no one to look nice for?
So we have a quirky family with their quirky names and a lot of needless drama bubbling inside the Dollar Voss.
But wait!
THERE'S MORE!
One day, while Merit is busy skipping school for the most mundane of reasons, she runs into a guy slightly older than she is who is wearing a sports jersey and a kilt and he's so edgy! And he also talks too much. And he has weird accents, several of them.
He asks Merit for a ride to his sister's house and Merit, knowing better, does so because, as Merit likes to point out often, she makes spontaneous decisions. Remember this, it's going to come into play later. And in a stupid way.
Guess the edgy guy's name.
GUESS?
It's Luck.
His name is Luck.
Because why wouldn't it be? We're in quirkytown now, bitches!
But GUESS WHAT ELSE!?
Luck is looking for his sister, right? But he doesn't know where she lives, he only has a picture of her house.
Her house...that looks suspiciously like a church...
Guess what his sister's name is? GUESS?
It's VICTORIA!
Oh, and there's a dog, a black lab named Wolfgang. The dog was the reason Barnaby bought the church in the first place. Also, the dog inadvertently brings the family together in the end because OH MY GOD, you can NOT tell me this is an adult romance!
This is YA, people!
If you can't see that, you need to read more YA!
All these people are together under one roof, secrets spill, the dad, for reasons unknown, doesn't care about anything else that happens in this household but loses his shit when he finds out about a rather common - unpleasant, even horrible, but common nonetheless - situation that happened five years back.
There's drama!
So.
Much.
DRAMA.
And it's stupid.
But entertaining.
OR WOULD BE
if only there had been a few main plot points running through this mofo instead of the many heavy and unnecessary themes of:
-Death and dying and suicide
-Mental Illness
-Depression
-Syrian refugees (and tortured artists with hearts of gold)
-Revenge
-Forgiveness
-Family secrets
-Sexual orientation
-The proper amount of clothing coverage for a female body that will still allow her to be sexy!
-And if you act now, we'll also send you: Stepfamilies! Judgement and perspective! Family love and "love"! Controlling men! Polyamory and fidelity! Females who will give up anything for a cute boy!...and more!
It's like this had to deliver all the powerful messages but needed to do so in the most light-hearted, fun and quirky way. For me, it failed on all counts.
I didn't like it. But I did read it in one day so it's obviously quick and easy.
BECAUSE IT IS A YOUNG ADULT NOVEL!
Also, I see most everyone else enjoyed this so I guess I'll go air out my Corner of Shame and make myself at home. It's been so long since I've hung out there.
First, I need to ask two questions.
1) Why is this billed as a Romance? It won Goodread's Reader's Choice for the Romance category. I wouldn't have put it in that genre at all.
2) Why is this billed as adult fiction? This is young adult fiction. There is absolutely nothing about this that is outside the norm for standard YA fare. How come no one seems to know that? Seriously, guys, this is a typical YA novel.
Let's meet the seventeen-year-old high school dropout narrator of the story, Merit Voss.
Only blonde.
She's awkward and boy crazy.
Actually, I think I should go into spoiler mode from here on out.
Spoiler
This is Merit's twin, Honor Voss.
She's the pretty twin, the first one born, the popular one, the one who wears contacts, the one who is going to head off with her mega scholarship to college in about six months. Also, she only dates boys who are dying.
I should mention, Honor and Merit actually look something more like this:
because of course they do.
Does this not already sound like a young adult novel?
No? Well...there's more.
Honor and Merit aren't really on speaking terms anymore because there's been a rift that we'll sort of learn about later.
They live in Dollar Voss, a refurbished church purchased out of spite by their father, Barnaby Voss. It's called Dollar Voss because 1) quirky! and 2) it's made of 4 quarters. As in, the church-cum-house is divided into four distinct quadrants.
So quirky!
You're still not getting the YA vibe here?
Ok. Let's talk about this a bit more.
It begins with Merit who is busy buying a trophy at the antique store and skipping school for the most mundane of reasons when she feels the glance of a dark and handsome boy, a boy with olive skin, jet-black hair, and surprising blue eyes.
(pretend he has the most unique kind of light blue eyes you've ever seen)
His name is Sagan.
(no, not that Sagan, though he totally wishes it were that Sagan)
Sagan catches up with Merit outside of the antique shop, asks some questions, and then delivers upon her the most heart-fluttering, knee-melting, passionate kiss she's ever received (I think she's kissed one other guy).
We don't know that she has a twin at this point. We think maybe she's in some Tina Belcher dream sequence but with fewer butts and zombies.
Then Honor calls Sagan and Sagan is confused and the day after that, he moves into Dollar Voss with the Voss family. You know what happens from there: miscommunication, dreamy thoughts, teenage "depth", and general stupidity, which, I guess, is how the whole Romance thing comes into play, since that's generally the Romance formula.
Only there's more than that to this story!
Like the Voss family, for instance.
There's Dad Barnaby, who, as mentioned earlier, bought the church out of spite and turned it into a house. Their old house, which he still owns, is behind the Dollar Voss.
He's a used car salesman. He's also a hands-off sort of parent.
There's Barnaby's wife, Victoria, the nurse who was in charge of caring for Barnaby's ex while she
was sick with cancer.
You know this story already.
There's the oldest Voss child, Utah.
He's 11 months older than his twin sisters and they're all in their senior year of high school together because the Voss parents thought it would be a good idea to enroll them all in school at the same time.
You've met Honor and Merit and now there's Moby, named after the whale, not the musician, who is the four-year-old child of Barnaby and Victoria. He's also the cutest four-year-old ever, according to Merit, but, then, she knows that means nothing because everyone loves a four-year-old. They are universally adored. Did I mention he's four? Because that gets mentioned a lot.
In the basement, also known as the fourth quarter...or maybe it was quarter four. You'd think I would remember since the house quarters are always called by their quarterly names. OH well. Mama Voss lives in the basement. You know, Barnaby's ex-wife. Her name is Victoria.
That's not a typo. I didn't make a mistake. Both wives are named Victoria and both of them live in this remodeled church with Barnaby and all his children.
Ex-wife Victoria is cancer-free but has agoraphobia. However, she dresses nicely every day, complete with hair and makeup and shaved legs, even though she never leaves the house. Ever. She won't even go upstairs. This makes Merit angry because why look nice if there's no one to look nice for?
So we have a quirky family with their quirky names and a lot of needless drama bubbling inside the Dollar Voss.
But wait!
THERE'S MORE!
One day, while Merit is busy skipping school for the most mundane of reasons, she runs into a guy slightly older than she is who is wearing a sports jersey and a kilt and he's so edgy! And he also talks too much. And he has weird accents, several of them.
He asks Merit for a ride to his sister's house and Merit, knowing better, does so because, as Merit likes to point out often, she makes spontaneous decisions. Remember this, it's going to come into play later. And in a stupid way.
Guess the edgy guy's name.
GUESS?
It's Luck.
His name is Luck.
Because why wouldn't it be? We're in quirkytown now, bitches!
But GUESS WHAT ELSE!?
Luck is looking for his sister, right? But he doesn't know where she lives, he only has a picture of her house.
Her house...that looks suspiciously like a church...
Guess what his sister's name is? GUESS?
Spoiler
It's VICTORIA!
Oh, and there's a dog, a black lab named Wolfgang. The dog was the reason Barnaby bought the church in the first place. Also, the dog inadvertently brings the family together in the end because OH MY GOD, you can NOT tell me this is an adult romance!
This is YA, people!
If you can't see that, you need to read more YA!
All these people are together under one roof, secrets spill, the dad, for reasons unknown, doesn't care about anything else that happens in this household but loses his shit when he finds out about a rather common - unpleasant, even horrible, but common nonetheless - situation that happened five years back.
There's drama!
So.
Much.
DRAMA.
And it's stupid.
But entertaining.
OR WOULD BE
if only there had been a few main plot points running through this mofo instead of the many heavy and unnecessary themes of:
-Death and dying and suicide
-Mental Illness
-Depression
-Syrian refugees (and tortured artists with hearts of gold)
-Revenge
-Forgiveness
-Family secrets
-Sexual orientation
-The proper amount of clothing coverage for a female body that will still allow her to be sexy!
-And if you act now, we'll also send you: Stepfamilies! Judgement and perspective! Family love and "love"! Controlling men! Polyamory and fidelity! Females who will give up anything for a cute boy!...and more!
It's like this had to deliver all the powerful messages but needed to do so in the most light-hearted, fun and quirky way. For me, it failed on all counts.
I didn't like it. But I did read it in one day so it's obviously quick and easy.
BECAUSE IT IS A YOUNG ADULT NOVEL!
This is the fourth Hoover book I’ve read, and it is not my favorite. Mainly, I’m not a fan of teenage romance novels, and I didn’t realize that’s what it was when I started. I also didn’t feel connected to any of the characters. The family secrets kept this book interesting, but the ending of the book was frustrating and romanticized in my opinion.
Entertaining but not life changing. How I feel about most of Hoover's work and why I keep going back.
I love the book and most importantly Sagan, he has become my newest fictional crush❤❤
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
unfortunately didn’t live up to the HIGH standard i set for Colleen, but that’s not to say it wasn’t good. Just compared with her other books, it fell a bit short.
more of a YA love story unlike some of her more adult books but still discussed hard topics e.g. mental health, sexual assault and infidelity.
more of a YA love story unlike some of her more adult books but still discussed hard topics e.g. mental health, sexual assault and infidelity.