A review by umarshahzad
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

challenging dark emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

it baffles me how CoHo comes out with a banger every single time. From the start we are gripped with Lily Bloom’s life as she attempts suicide but when she sees a man name RYLE she sees all good in him. But constantly we see throughout the book how he abuses her, and then apologises for it. He is a violent character and this mirrors towards the author’s mother who and to go through the same trauma with Colleen’s father. It also deals with a lot of heavy and violent themes such as gaslighting, trauma, sexual violence and abuse. Ryle is the primary antagonist and we often see him and his flaws which make up for him being so violent towards Lily. We also have Lil’s childhood friend/boyfriend Atlas who is Lily’s hope towards the future but they drift apart after she moved to Boston. She is married with Ryle but often reminisces about her time with Atlas showing us how she is a character that often reflects on her good times. A huge motif throughout It Ends With Us is the form of abuse. We see it in the book with Lily’s father raping her mother, and we see it being symmetrical towards Lily and Ryle’s toxic relationship. Other than that I rated this a 5.5 stars and it definitely is an emotional book.
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