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A review by bluebeardswife
Hopeless by Colleen Hoover
1.0
what the fuck was that???
edit: i read this 2 days ago and i still don’t know how to properly put into words how much i disliked this book.
it’s a known fact i don’t like colleen hoover books, although i remember having read 1 (maybe 2) of her books and liking the writing, but this year i made a friend who likes her stories and wanted to buddy read one of the books with me. it’d been years since i read one of her books (ugly love, ew) so i said yes. BIG mistake.
usually i stick to what i know i like and don’t really try new genres of books because i know what works for me. fantasy? great! science fiction? too much. and hopeless is in too categories i don’t really like: romance and new adult.
maybe reading this (if you care) you’re thinking “so why did you???” and there are two answers for that:
1) my friend asked and i wanted to read something she liked
2) never say never. i don’t usually like NA or romance but who knows? maybe some day i will. maybe some day i’ll find an awesome book that falls into that category. and even though this is very unlikely, i’m not going to discard the possibility.
that being said, let’s talk about the book.
the plot is weak and the more you get into the book, the worse it gets and the more disgusting the things happening are if you take a second to think about it. the things that later on was supposed to be a “big reveal” and even “plot twists” were so obvious that it felt stupid and we, as readers, don’t actually feel surprised. at least i didn’t and my friend who actually likes the book also didn’t.
oh, and suicide and bullying are used as plot devices. so nice, huh?
the characters are weird and just bad overall.
sky, the protagonist, was written to be a different type of “not like other girls” and more relatable but every. single. time. she was talking about how she *wasn’t a slut*. ok girl, we get it, now please talk about something else.
her traumas were something that could’ve been handled well and started important conversations in the book about mental health, but noooo. of course not.
colleen hoover uses the abuse sky suffered and the lasting affects of them in her life to bring the mc and her love interest closer together; her trauma is used to make holder more dreamy and a hero. there is not even an attempt to take her to therapy! more than that: it was meant to be a plot twist. so so SO disgusting. mental illness, sexual assault or any other kind of trauma should NEVER be used as plot twist, but this is exactly what happened.
the last thing about sky’s character is that there isn’t any development. she finds out many things about her past and why she is the she is but in the end of the book she is the *same* person she was at the beginning. and that makes no sense.
holder holder holder... he was, for a lack of better word, hot garbage. colleen hoover must’ve been insane if she thought dean holder was a good love interest because what. the. fuck.
we meet him at the supermarket were both him and sky are paying for the food. he then proceeds to stare at her and sky is obviously weirded out by this. he then proceeds to FOLLOW SKY BACK TO HER CAR, DEMANDS HER NAME, which she tells and to prove that’s really her name (because i guess she owes him that???? what?!), she shows holder her driving license.
so many red flags, this is RIDICULOUS. i don’t know what coho problem is but she is a woman like me and i highly doubt that she would consider this normal in a real life situation. more than than, i doubt she would be intrigued and *wanting to kiss this stranger*, like sky is, if this happened to her. what. the fuck.
besides a total creep holder has a bizarre behavior. as we sadly continue to read this book, we realize, by sky flashbacks, that he not only already knew her as a kid but also was somewhat obsessed with her. what???
but obviously he can’t be a total creep and still be the love interest so what does hoover do? she makes him “so romantic” by inventing a word that more than “i care about you” and less than “i love you”: i live you. yeah, you read this right.
why is this dreamy? who knows.
i’m not the best to talk about writing since i’m not native english speaker, but given that i liked colleen hoovers writing before, this was disappointing. it felt flat and just not right.
just one more thing: people that have traumas don’t all suffer from repressed memories and this memories surely aren’t revealed at the exactly right moment. people with bipolar disorder are not crazy and they don’t have countless personalities that exist completely separated and are there only to sabotage the other.
this book was awful, irresponsible and offensive. i won’t be reading coho books for a very long time.
edit: i read this 2 days ago and i still don’t know how to properly put into words how much i disliked this book.
it’s a known fact i don’t like colleen hoover books, although i remember having read 1 (maybe 2) of her books and liking the writing, but this year i made a friend who likes her stories and wanted to buddy read one of the books with me. it’d been years since i read one of her books (ugly love, ew) so i said yes. BIG mistake.
usually i stick to what i know i like and don’t really try new genres of books because i know what works for me. fantasy? great! science fiction? too much. and hopeless is in too categories i don’t really like: romance and new adult.
maybe reading this (if you care) you’re thinking “so why did you???” and there are two answers for that:
1) my friend asked and i wanted to read something she liked
2) never say never. i don’t usually like NA or romance but who knows? maybe some day i will. maybe some day i’ll find an awesome book that falls into that category. and even though this is very unlikely, i’m not going to discard the possibility.
that being said, let’s talk about the book.
the plot is weak and the more you get into the book, the worse it gets and the more disgusting the things happening are if you take a second to think about it. the things that later on was supposed to be a “big reveal” and even “plot twists” were so obvious that it felt stupid and we, as readers, don’t actually feel surprised. at least i didn’t and my friend who actually likes the book also didn’t.
oh, and suicide and bullying are used as plot devices. so nice, huh?
the characters are weird and just bad overall.
sky, the protagonist, was written to be a different type of “not like other girls” and more relatable but every. single. time. she was talking about how she *wasn’t a slut*. ok girl, we get it, now please talk about something else.
her traumas were something that could’ve been handled well and started important conversations in the book about mental health, but noooo. of course not.
colleen hoover uses the abuse sky suffered and the lasting affects of them in her life to bring the mc and her love interest closer together; her trauma is used to make holder more dreamy and a hero. there is not even an attempt to take her to therapy! more than that: it was meant to be a plot twist. so so SO disgusting. mental illness, sexual assault or any other kind of trauma should NEVER be used as plot twist, but this is exactly what happened.
the last thing about sky’s character is that there isn’t any development. she finds out many things about her past and why she is the she is but in the end of the book she is the *same* person she was at the beginning. and that makes no sense.
holder holder holder... he was, for a lack of better word, hot garbage. colleen hoover must’ve been insane if she thought dean holder was a good love interest because what. the. fuck.
we meet him at the supermarket were both him and sky are paying for the food. he then proceeds to stare at her and sky is obviously weirded out by this. he then proceeds to FOLLOW SKY BACK TO HER CAR, DEMANDS HER NAME, which she tells and to prove that’s really her name (because i guess she owes him that???? what?!), she shows holder her driving license.
so many red flags, this is RIDICULOUS. i don’t know what coho problem is but she is a woman like me and i highly doubt that she would consider this normal in a real life situation. more than than, i doubt she would be intrigued and *wanting to kiss this stranger*, like sky is, if this happened to her. what. the fuck.
besides a total creep holder has a bizarre behavior. as we sadly continue to read this book, we realize, by sky flashbacks, that he not only already knew her as a kid but also was somewhat obsessed with her. what???
but obviously he can’t be a total creep and still be the love interest so what does hoover do? she makes him “so romantic” by inventing a word that more than “i care about you” and less than “i love you”: i live you. yeah, you read this right.
why is this dreamy? who knows.
i’m not the best to talk about writing since i’m not native english speaker, but given that i liked colleen hoovers writing before, this was disappointing. it felt flat and just not right.
just one more thing: people that have traumas don’t all suffer from repressed memories and this memories surely aren’t revealed at the exactly right moment. people with bipolar disorder are not crazy and they don’t have countless personalities that exist completely separated and are there only to sabotage the other.
this book was awful, irresponsible and offensive. i won’t be reading coho books for a very long time.