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A review by sweetrosegirl76
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
4.0
This book is about domestic violence and domestic abuse. I wish that I was warned prior to reading it because I really don't think I would have picked it up. That being said I am glad that I saw it to the end. I feel like I learned from this book and I understand DV situations just a hair more than I did before.
I feel like objectively this book is a 5 out of 5, I finished it so quickly; it does make you want to keep reading, it's well written I feel, and it made you want to see it to the end, but it was also really frustrating and upsetting to read. I kept imagining myself in that situation and I guess what I learned from this book is that you really can't. It's so easy to say what you'll do but you never know until you're in that situation as much as you can talk when you're not. If I'm going with vibes, imma say 4.5 so 4.
Spoiler ish begins below:
In the 1st instance I found myself almost justifying the situation just like Lily did. My immediate reaction was no absolutely not this is not okay bc how it happened was not an accident. But then I started to see how he reacted and I'm like OK well maybe he feels genuine remorse, but obviously as an avid book reader I knew where this was heading so I knew that was a bad call, but I could see myself feeling the way that Lily did. I could see why the first time she set it aside. The situation reminded me of how I met your mother the episode where Lily talks about wanting to get a gun and Marshall says I accidentally hurt you all the time and now you want to bring a gun into this house? And it shows scenes of Marshall accidentally hurting her. One example was that she was wearing a gorilla suit and scared him and he had no idea it was her and in his reaction he punched her in the face. Fight or flight is real and this was just his body's instinct and reaction to fight something that feared him so that definitely was an accident because he didn't even know it was her. Another instance was he opened the refrigerator didn't know she was behind it and slammed it into her. And so I started to see the 1st instance and comparing it to that show where yes he hurt her but he had no idea and he was so remorseful and sorry and felt awful about it. So I was like OK maybe we can let bygones be guided by guns because it was an accident. But from the way that Ryle reacted, when the first words out of his mouth were not an apology, that alone showed me that this wasn't okay. He started to justify first AND THEN apologized. But when he cut his hand and said "I don't care about my hand, how are you?" I thought hm ok maybe he is genuinely so sorry, it was an accident. We thought it was bc he was worried about his hands but then his hand goes through something worse and he is only checking on her to see if she's okay. I was like Lily. I might have believed it too if I was in that situation. And when I thought he told his sister the truth I was like oh wow ok that's great, he's not hiding what happened and he's genuinely sorry, it was an accident for real. But then he had told her a lie and that didn't sit well with me and I knew I was wrong. I think the book did a good job of showing what it's like to be in the situation. It made me think, it made me question, it made ME confused and conflicted. And so bc of that, I want to give it a 5 for writing. But I would never reread this. I wish I knew there was a 2nd book that took place immediately after though bc I would have waited to read both at once.
I feel like objectively this book is a 5 out of 5, I finished it so quickly; it does make you want to keep reading, it's well written I feel, and it made you want to see it to the end, but it was also really frustrating and upsetting to read. I kept imagining myself in that situation and I guess what I learned from this book is that you really can't. It's so easy to say what you'll do but you never know until you're in that situation as much as you can talk when you're not. If I'm going with vibes, imma say 4.5 so 4.
Spoiler ish begins below:
In the 1st instance I found myself almost justifying the situation just like Lily did. My immediate reaction was no absolutely not this is not okay bc how it happened was not an accident. But then I started to see how he reacted and I'm like OK well maybe he feels genuine remorse, but obviously as an avid book reader I knew where this was heading so I knew that was a bad call, but I could see myself feeling the way that Lily did. I could see why the first time she set it aside. The situation reminded me of how I met your mother the episode where Lily talks about wanting to get a gun and Marshall says I accidentally hurt you all the time and now you want to bring a gun into this house? And it shows scenes of Marshall accidentally hurting her. One example was that she was wearing a gorilla suit and scared him and he had no idea it was her and in his reaction he punched her in the face. Fight or flight is real and this was just his body's instinct and reaction to fight something that feared him so that definitely was an accident because he didn't even know it was her. Another instance was he opened the refrigerator didn't know she was behind it and slammed it into her. And so I started to see the 1st instance and comparing it to that show where yes he hurt her but he had no idea and he was so remorseful and sorry and felt awful about it. So I was like OK maybe we can let bygones be guided by guns because it was an accident. But from the way that Ryle reacted, when the first words out of his mouth were not an apology, that alone showed me that this wasn't okay. He started to justify first AND THEN apologized. But when he cut his hand and said "I don't care about my hand, how are you?" I thought hm ok maybe he is genuinely so sorry, it was an accident. We thought it was bc he was worried about his hands but then his hand goes through something worse and he is only checking on her to see if she's okay. I was like Lily. I might have believed it too if I was in that situation. And when I thought he told his sister the truth I was like oh wow ok that's great, he's not hiding what happened and he's genuinely sorry, it was an accident for real. But then he had told her a lie and that didn't sit well with me and I knew I was wrong. I think the book did a good job of showing what it's like to be in the situation. It made me think, it made me question, it made ME confused and conflicted. And so bc of that, I want to give it a 5 for writing. But I would never reread this. I wish I knew there was a 2nd book that took place immediately after though bc I would have waited to read both at once.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault