Note: This is part of a series on BookTok and the books it features by my fall intern Kaitlin “Kait” Carmichael. We hope you enjoy it.
Okay, I’m back from shoving my heart back into my chest after reading It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. This story pulls on your heartstrings and makes you think about life and love in a different light. The book deals with a lot of dark themes that may upset some readers. I will flag major-trigger warnings for suicide, domestic abuse, and rape. Please only read this blog/book if you are comfortable. Remember to take care of yourselves.
It Ends With Us starts by introducing our main character, Lily, after her father’s funeral. At first, we believe that she is heartbroken over the loss of her father, though this is not the case. After her speech at the funeral, she worries about her mother’s reaction, but there was none.
Lily hated her father for his treatment of her mother. Lily runs to the top of a roof and sits on the ledge, imagining the moments before death. That’s when she hears the door open, and a man joins her on the roof. Ryle. He is beyond angry. More anger flowed through him than Lily thought a person could feel. They notice each other and begin talking. They hit it off but want two different things; Lily wants a relationship, and Ryle is only interested in a one-night stand. They don’t see the other for six months.
Through a series of journal entries to the one and only Ellen DeGeneres, we learn about Lily’s life from the age of 15. Her home life was in shambles, and the one person who made it better was her first love, Atlas. Lily cared for Atlas, but he had to move to Boston.
Lily has big dreams of opening a successful flower shop and honing her passion for gardening. She buys a building to open Lily Bloom. When Lily is talking to her mother, a woman walks in looking for a job. Alyssa is hired, and the two women clean and plan how they will brand Lily Bloom. Then disaster strikes, and Lily needs a doctor after falling off of a stack of crates. Luckily, one comes to her call: Ryle.
From this point on, we follow this love story between Ryle and Lily with an entanglement of a third person.
This story was absolutely amazing, groundbreaking, and fantastic. Personally, there were some parts of this story that made me uncomfortable and extremely sad and angry due to some actions of the characters, however, I applaud the author for bringing awareness to dark topics like suicide, abuse, and rape. Hoover brings up many themes to raise awareness about domestic trauma to show there is hope and always a way out.
I would give this book a 9/10. This story captivates you and leaves you wanting to keep reading.
I hope you are ready to run, lie, cheat, and steal because next week I will be writing about perhaps the most requested/recommended story on Booktok: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.
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