Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

To put it simply, Colleen Hoover makes Jennifer Weiner look like Jennifer Egan. It Ends WIth Us is Hoover's "social impact" book, and the only one of her 20 or so titles that has its own wikipedia page. It's a story of domestic abuse modeled on Hoover's mother's experience with her biological father. Ok, I'll start with the redemptive features. There isn't a lot of fat on this book. It moves fast. The language is clear. It is completely devoid of any pretensions, literary, moral or otherwise. And I think those are all meaningful positive features. The biggest problem with Colleen Hoover is that her characters appear to be drawn from the imagination of a 13 year old girl imagining how adults think and live. *All* of hoovers characters are shallow, stupid, pointlessly and casually dishonest and expect the others to be pointlessly and casually dishonest in the same pointless and stupid ways, and have the emotional maturity and foresight of a 13 year old. Adult characters that act and think like children include: a marine, a neurosurgeon, a battered woman (who survived abuse for 20 years), a successful retail entrepreneur, and a gazillionaire app developer. And of course our weak female lead. Reading this book you might be tempted to think that Hoover: Has never spoken to a doctor. Has never spoken to someone who has graduated from college. Has never spoken with a man. Has never spoken with anyone who has started a business. Has never spoken with someone who has a net worth over $10,000. Has never been to Boston (where the book is set). Hoover has presumably done some or all of these things, but the book does not provide convincing evidence thereof. Plot developments often proceed based on implausible events and implausible lies, like avoiding telling your mother you're 7 months pregnant for no particular reason; lying to your husband about why you have a particular tattoo for no particular reason; keeping a phone number on the inside of your cellphone case on a scrap of paper instead of entering that number into your phone for no particular reason; and on and on and on. Perhaps the most damning thing is Hoover's attempts to emotionally complicate the abuse dynamic in the primary romantic relationship and make it seem plausible that our weak female lead is staying with a man who gives her concussions and throws her down the stairs for reasons other than being a total pushover. Even introducing some financial strain into the picture would have gone a long ways toward giving our protagonist a plausible reason to stay with this creep, but instead we're asked to just believe in the power of her love for her creepy, manipulative abusive husband, which is never credibly established. One last thing which is neither good nor bad in itself. Similar to the Twilight series, It Ends With Us has our weak female lead become the love interest of accomplished, wealthy, attractive men who fall wildly, uncontrollably in love with her. Our weak female lead, however, seems to have no attractive qualities of any kind. The commercial viability of this trope tells me a lot about how American women feel and what they want: great men who will love them unconditionally, without regard to their wit, charm, intelligence, wealth, attractiveness or accomplishment. I don't think there is an exact equivalent male fantasy. If there is one like it, it's that a man becomes so accomplished or powerful that he can have his pick of any woman and/or have all women. Which is equally implausible but doesn't rest on the premise that you can be a sack of potatoes and still be a magnet for the opposite sex, so the male version feels somehow healthier to me. Anyway, this book is terrible. I would absolutely be embarrassed to have written it. I hope Ms. Hoover laughs all the way to the bank.