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A review by emmaemmaemmaemma
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
3.0
I spent the first 48% of this book debating between 3 and 4 stars, the next 42% fully convinced that I couldn’t place it any higher than 2 stars, and in the last 10%, reconciling a 3 star rating with my past self.
This book made me angry. So angry. And I had a lengthy paragraph or two that I composed while reading and intended to place in this review. I don’t want to eat my words though. So instead, I’m going to briefly highlight two quotes that show my feelings from 50% through, and from the last 10%.
“He’s angry. He’s hurt. And he’s not Ryle.”
This line by Lily did, and still leaves me furious because it excuses Ryle’s abuse as that of a separate, less culpable entity than himself. Even with all of the ways that coho counteracted this line later, it still really stuck with me because that one line is the heart of many of the problems we experience with violence.
“People spend so much time wondering why the women don’t leave. Where are all the women wondering why the men are even abusive? Isn’t that where the only blame should be placed?”
And see, then it’s lines like that one that forced me to bump the rating up as this book crawled out of the gutter bit by bit to try and fix every word that came before in defense of Ryle’s actions.
I think what I appreciated about this book, more than Ugly Love (the only other coho book I’ve read) is this: Ugly Love forced me to turn of my feminist critical lens if I wanted to keep reading it. Conversely, It Ends With Us forced me to keep it turned on, which at the end of the day, is something that I can respect about it. I can’t bump my review up any higher, and I don’t know why, but yeah. 3 stars.
(And the thing is, I’m absolutely going to read the stupid sequel to this book because everything that I hate about Ryle, I love about Atlas. Literally Ryle Kincaid can go burn in a dumpster fire with the rest of the trash what a big dumb garbage boy.)
This book made me angry. So angry. And I had a lengthy paragraph or two that I composed while reading and intended to place in this review. I don’t want to eat my words though. So instead, I’m going to briefly highlight two quotes that show my feelings from 50% through, and from the last 10%.
“He’s angry. He’s hurt. And he’s not Ryle.”
This line by Lily did, and still leaves me furious because it excuses Ryle’s abuse as that of a separate, less culpable entity than himself. Even with all of the ways that coho counteracted this line later, it still really stuck with me because that one line is the heart of many of the problems we experience with violence.
“People spend so much time wondering why the women don’t leave. Where are all the women wondering why the men are even abusive? Isn’t that where the only blame should be placed?”
And see, then it’s lines like that one that forced me to bump the rating up as this book crawled out of the gutter bit by bit to try and fix every word that came before in defense of Ryle’s actions.
I think what I appreciated about this book, more than Ugly Love (the only other coho book I’ve read) is this: Ugly Love forced me to turn of my feminist critical lens if I wanted to keep reading it. Conversely, It Ends With Us forced me to keep it turned on, which at the end of the day, is something that I can respect about it. I can’t bump my review up any higher, and I don’t know why, but yeah. 3 stars.
(And the thing is, I’m absolutely going to read the stupid sequel to this book because everything that I hate about Ryle, I love about Atlas. Literally Ryle Kincaid can go burn in a dumpster fire with the rest of the trash what a big dumb garbage boy.)