Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - It Ends with Us

The book is very inspiring, like it is for the every women who is suffering with their husband or anyone. This book is about women Power and what women can do, if they are determined. Every women should be brave like lily and Every men should be like atlas in my opinion. I highly recommend to read this. Loved it so much!

Content Warnings

haley_cross's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

Content Warnings

camillarossi's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad tense 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

2.0

Content Warnings

bonitalalax217's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

2.0

so, the controversial book of booktok/bookstagram indeed
i wanted to read this book because i don't like hating/criticising things just for the sake of & saying that there is nothing worthy of note in contents i haven't read
that being said, there is one thing i can give credit to in this and that's lily, not all components of her character but the feeling written of always feeling at fault & absolving, the ryle party in these cases, of blame felt right in an understood way. as well as the fact that the story is modelled around the author's experience, this facet imo was clear to see that it wasn't fabricated from a secondary source, but despite the connection of the author, the jump of transforming experience into storytelling for this is not something that can be done easily & sometimes there is simply just bad writing.

that being said, the rest

Character Words:
lily/alysa - i said the most i wanted to say about lily above but i think her relationship with alysa was also actually decent and while not the focus of development so lacked in it, issa standing by her instead of her brother becuase of the sake of family or the incident was a good example of friendship
didn't give a shit about marshal couldn't tell you a thing about him other than the fact that he felt more so like a pre-teen pretending to be a grown-up & his friendship with ryle was a bit weird in that he never really was shown to care about any of ryle's behaviour?? his best friend??? unlike issa?? perspective was lacking there and it did make quite a few moments feel a lot more hollow

spaces to break up the actual massive word vomit of atlas & ryle character words

atlas - i didn't pay attention to a lot of hype but it did make him seem like the main character so more social media confusion than book confusion more on him later however. [point 2 of Weird Things] + they were 'in love' from their teenage years whihc other than [point 2] could've been good, the final like get together for them was just so kinda like, put together last minute-y like here's a happy ending there you go. not that i want the perpetuated abuse stories sad ending, it's just again felt hollow
ryle - from the FIRST PLACE ryle was not a good love interest, the commentary meant between his relationship and lily of the cycle of abuse COULD have been good, HOWEVER, he never had the charming appeal that the way he's presented wants you to see him as. he's literally an asshole/weridly sexual harrass-y from the start in not a cute way, which if it was that she's falling into the cycle her mother did would be in-line with the meant-commentary, but the way that it's written it's just not? like it's that you ARE meant to find it attractive??? the knocking on apartment doors and then the just like yas i wanna fuck you, just no it's not the example of the 'good fascade' it's just not & it is written like it's meant to be regardless of purpose that is the portrayal - and that is the loose thread that pulls the rest of the message apart because ryle was never good to begin with & everything else about him feels hollow, even with the accident with emerson that is discussed in a singular page, there is no depth to it. there's just not a lot of depth in ryle at all, in terms of you can see there was an attempt but it just falls through like it misses the target it was trying to hit

WEIRD SHIT I WANNA COMPLAIN ABOUT BECAUSE I DIDN'T LIKE IT, im gonna have to add line breaks because oof words

1. RYLE'S WEIRD ENTIRE CHAPTER ON ABOUT HOW MUCH HE WANTS TO HAVE SEX WITH HER, he is overly insistent & this is meant to be the beginning so the "good" Ryle, it is literlaly sexual harrassment atp like i spent the entire time reading that like wtf is this wtf is going on ?? why is lily further attracted to this man let alone letting him in and showering and preparing for him, it is the start of anything physical contact wise they have & it immediately misses their relationship of any solid grounding because it's just fucking WEIRD. there was NOTHING about it that should've made Lily go, oh yaur this the man for mee, in terms of normal 1-1 human interactions, including lily's past with her parents it doesn't fit that explaination at ALL and i FUCKING HATED IT

2. ATLAS & LILY'S COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY AGE GAP. Right getting into the whys of Atlas' age, his background of the abusive home & then the entry Marine timeline being the part of his character yes good explaination for his age. LILY, DID NOT, NEED, TO, BE, FIFTEEN. IN BED WITH AN EIGHTEEN YEAR OLD. SHE COULD HAVE BEEN 17 AND IT NOT MAKE A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE. the fact that their 'first time' is on her 16th birthday while he is mere months from 19 is honestly just gross and it should not have been a love story regardless of the fact that she saved him. their relationship from the past could have actually been a good thing in the book but that detail just again pulls it apart like a loose thread. also when they're in bed together and he, an 18 y/o, just asks her, oh Lillers when dya turn SIXTEEN xx and then he turns 19 about almost as equally soon like fuck off 💀

3. therapy is only mentioned once in this book why the fuck are none of these people properly in therapy not even a mention of couples counseling nope

also, like storytelling regardless, like in verity, coho's writing style just simply feels born of Wattpad, like quality aside cause there are better wattpad books probs, it just does feel like it'd belong straight at home on the Wattpad scene not even ao3 LMAO

overall, the message & character study in this book could've been so much more but in the end it fell hollow.

Content Warnings

meirinasoe's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional sad tense 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

1.0

Here goes the rant.

First, I would like to admit that I only read this book because of Blake Lively, who was announced to be cast as Lily in the book. I adore her as an actress, I enjoyed several of her movies and I especially looove her red-carpet dresses.
And I am disappointed that she chose to play in an adaptation of THIS book. Gah, it must be good money.

I am not the first or the last person who says this book is deeply harmful and problematic.
But unlike most discourse I’ve seen around the internet, my issue isn’t with the co-parenting ending being “unrealistic” or not. No, that is very realistic.

It is a fact that for the early 30% of this book, the author tried so hard to portray Ryle as romantic or sexy, while he truly was the epitome of misogyny.
Nothing was ever attractive from Ryle since page 1, and it’s very disturbing to push the readers the other way.

A lot, a lot of women reached out to me in DMs about how they’ve been pursued by a guy in this exact way, and were constantly gaslit, being told that they are overthinking and that they need to lighten up. We were told, even by fellow women that we should just give in and accept him, or that we should instead be grateful for the attention he’s paying us!
They are very thankful that I chose to point out this aspect of the book because they hadn’t dared to do those years before when they read it because this book is so hyped and loved! …partially, also a side-effect of the gaslighting.
They are glad that finally there’s one of us who could amplify all of our voices.

Yet ONE person still had the nerve to say that me pointing out that CoHo trying to paint Ryle’s misogyny as attractive as “victim blaming”.
Hold on, hold that- hold your Political Correctness for a moment.
Let’s see what the author herself said in her notes:

“…I didn’t want Ryle to be who he was going to be because I had fallen in love with him in those first several chapters, just as Lily had fallen in love with him.”

Those first several chapters- the same chapters I’d grown to be so disgusted by him. She never meant those parts as ‘early signs of abuse’, she meant it as literal ROMANCE, just as in all of her other books MMCs have all the red flags- even though they never turned out to be abusers.

You said I “made fun of victims of abuse” because I “said Lily’s weak”??
I was only reciting her lines when she said she didn’t want Allysa to know that she was weak and foolish for falling for Ryle. COHO WROTE THOSE.
Blame Colleen Hoover for those choices of words!

I just told you that many, many women were gaslit into condoning creepy men, and yet here you are rubbing it to our faces that our POVs don’t matter. Again.
Can’t you see that you’re not the only one disadvantaged by the system??
Someone said 1 different POV from the bandwagon and you’re already so mad that I’m not making it all about you.

Did you know that there are certain fan groups with plenty of contents dedicated to defending Ryle, and that Lily should’ve given him another chance??
Maybe you should’ve channelled your negativity at them instead!!
Could you even grasp the connection on why these people are so eager to defend Ryle?? Because CoHo frikkin ROMANTICIZED him! And that’s what I’m trying to expose!

But in any case, CONGRATS, this rant review is dedicated to you, proving my point about how women who spot red flags are being gaslit and continued to be gaslit.
Because we’re not VICTIMIZED enough, right??

Not abused enough. Not battered enough to have an opinion.

Nowadays, you need the victim badge to thrive in this society.

But anyway.
I don’t think the remaining 2/3 of the book is that bad since the abusive situations were being handled pretty much by-the-book, and Ryle’s no longer being romanticized at this point so that’s fine with me.

Contrary to a certain person’s belief, I’ve consumed many many fictional depictions of domestic abuse, and this is the only one that’s very unsettling.

May I direct you to better alternatives like Big Little Lies series on HBO,
and Picture Perfect by Jody Picoult which is a 99999x upgrade of IEWU. Yet it has 3.5 rating and IEWU has 4.3.
I guess Tiktok fame is everything.

Content Warnings

juneharden's review against another edition

Go to review page

it read like a wattpad story, writing was lazy, characters were annoying,
and i found it super cringey. (lilly blossom bloom- and she runs a flower shop??? eww) and the normal colleen hoover criticism- abusive bf (but it’s okay because he’s hot) and romanticizing rape/sa (istg he spends the first 100 pages trying to hook up with her and he ‘won’t take no for an answer’)

Content Warnings

itz_sofia_2022's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

More...