Written by Tracy Shirvill
“We all have a limit. What we’re willing to put up with before we break. When I married your father, I knew exactly what my limit was. But slowly . . . with every incident . . . my limit was pushed a little more. And a little more.”
TW: DV, IPV, sexual violence
It Ends With Us is the first of two books by Colleen Hoover which follows the lives of Lilly Bloom and Atlas Corrigan. When Lilly meets Atlas she is 15 years old and living with her parents. We see her father’s abuse of both Lilly and her mother through Lilly’s eyes. Atlas is 18 and in his final year of high school, living in an abandoned home behind Lilly’s. In contrast to her father, Atlas is kind and vulnerable. The chapters flip between the past and the present, as we watch Lilly’s relationship with the charismatic Ryle Kincaid unfold.
“Fifteen seconds. That’s all it takes to completely change everything about a person. Fifteen.”
Colleen does a great job of showing the cycle of power and control through this novel. We are introduced to the violence in Lilly’s childhood home early in the story. Because of her experiences, Lilly believes that she has her eyes open and won’t make the same mistakes her mother made. What Lilly doesn’t recognise is where that violence began. Her relationship with Ryle is tense from the moment they meet. He tests her boundaries and backs off, creating more tension each time. He says he’s not available for a relationship then love bombs. It’s not until Lilly is completely emotionally involved and their lives are intertwined that Ryle’s behaviour escalates.
Normally I would not read a novel whose central themes are domestic and intimate partner violence but this book was recommended to me. This is an easy read in that it’s quite easy to follow, I didn’t notice lose ends. The writing style was relaxed considering the heavy themes. It’s not an easy read though if you are someone who can relate to the story. I especially enjoyed the conversation between Lilly and her mother near the end of the book. These are the stories that need to be shared.
There are a lot of reviews for this novel. Most of them are five stars, it’s clear to me that Colleen Hoover has a dedicated fan base. There are some one star reviews that I read which I think may have misunderstood the plot of this story. This is not a romance novel. The characters are complex and both likeable and not, just like real people. Just like real life, it is sometimes easy to see the red flags from the outside, not so much when you are the one in the relationship. Colleen has said that this story was influenced by real life experiences, which I can see through her depictions of both Lilly’s father and Ryle. Neither are ultimately portrayed as monsters, nor are they completely forgiven. While some see Atlas as the hero character he is also not perfect.
When done well fiction can be both entertaining and educational. It can also be therapeutic, for both the writer and reader. This is the gift that Colleen Hoover has given us with It Ends With Us.
