Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - It Ends with Us

Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

422 reviews

lyssie03's review against another edition

challenging medium-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

0.5

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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zayzay2's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.0

first Colleen hoover book, heard her books all over TikTok wanted to give it ago and this was the most talked about. I was confused when I read it and didn't get the hype personally. I didn't like the book but firstly let me talk about the things I enjoyed. The writing style was easy to read so it was perfect as I was getting into reading again and didn't know where to start, I got through it quickly and annotated it which now I don't do so I have notes and tabs on my books. I liked that it was a real life experience from the author which is why I gave give some slack and rated it a 2/5. Now what I didn't like, firstly the names what is going on?. I knew Ryle was a red flag from the start with him being already too clingy running in her apartment block as he didn't know her door, who goes through that much effort to find someone a weirdo. People made it romantic but I thought immediately it was strange and if someone did that to me I would be keeping an eye on them, he then posted a picture of her on a wall for people to see in art gallery without her consent and I thought that was creepy and another red-flag how is that normal?. When the first incident of abuse occurred I didn't really see it coming and was quite taken back, but with the writing style the fm character is telling us it wasn't abuse and it was a mistake and he didn't mean it. Later he was normal so I believed it but still felt something weird was going to happen, then it happened again and then again. It got worse which is usually what happens with abuse, the gaslighting of they didn't mean it that they love you was done very well and the confusing of the fm was one very well as it was realistic for victims of abuse. The last incident of abuse shocked as he nearly raped her if I'm remembering this correctly, it was shocking as even thought I knew he was a read flag I was hoping it wouldn't get to that. I didn't like how the fm's mother tried to excuse her husbands abuse when she found out young, this leads individuals to think abuse can be worked on and be excused which it can't and can lead to death. The age gap between the fm class and atlas was weird for me too this opinion is controversial as a lot of people don't care for the age gap(15-18), I see that as a child with an adult who can drink, drive, and has a lot more life experience and maturity than a 15 year old child. Nevertheless I didn't really care for their relationship I wasn't rooting for them either as I wanted her to end up alone and taking care of her child and focus on herself rather than switch partners, the Ellen diaries I couldn't take serious it actually gave me the ick like really?. I just didn't understand the ending how are you going to co-parent with Ryle who blacks out when he's angry, it's a child when they cry and won't stop, or make a mess like children do what then? he will black out and do god knows what. That pissed me off as he will be with the child on he's own at times and he hasn't learnt to regulate he's emotions, if he did go therapy that should have been mentioned as a way to say he did the work and go therapy but we are ONLY co-parenting. Overall due to it being a real life story I gave grace and gave it a 2/5 but if it wasn't a real life story I would have said 1/5, I don't like how the fandom romanticise a lot of colleen hoovers male leads like ? they are abusive, manipulators and generally horrible partners or may I say humans.

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munachireads's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I put Medium pace as it started to kick in around 9 or so chapters in. There were a lot of quotables towards the end of Part Two.

I enjoyed the complexity of the characters and how realistic the protagonists reactions and developments were however I felt at times there were some overly opportunistic moments to inject romance. I was also wondering if there was more counsel on how a 15 year old would actually write in a diary, it felt more reflective than from that position (little spelling/grammatical mistakes, hyper-mature language, etc). It’s expected the writing age was much older considering the author wasn’t a teenager but it could’ve added something

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daybreakreads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

I have not read any other Colleen Hoover books and wasn’t sure what to expect with this because I also don’t read romance and thought it was going to be some sort of potential “50 Shades of Grey” sort of thing. I was pleasantly surprised at being wrong.

I had alarm bells going off immediately with the abusive character, but I love the depth the author eventually added to *all* of the characters, including the abusive one. When you find out the reasons why he is the way he is, it’s hard to not feel some level of sympathy for him, regardless of the fact that he’s just words on paper. Imagine him as a real human that charms you and makes you feel loved, and the story makes even more sense.

I personally would not recommend this one to anyone who is *currently* struggling with *any* mental illness issues, regardless of what they are, because it’s an in-depth look at flawed thought patterns across multiple characters and how they led to and enabled violence. That said, I was able to make it through it okay despite a prior PTSD diagnosis (among other things) related to something similar, and I really value and appreciate this for what it is. You’re an adult who can choose to do what you would like, but as someone who’s been there and managed to get better, I’d strongly and compassionately advise against it. That goes for anyone even with anxiety or depression who isn’t necessarily at risk for DV. Just my thoughts; keep it on your TBR to look forward to for when you’re doing better :)

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