The Book That Is Not What the Discourse Says It Is
It Ends With Us is shelved in romance and recommended like a romance, but the novel is fundamentally about a woman coming to understand that she is in an abusive relationship and finding the strength to leave it. Colleen Hoover is honest about the way abuse presents itself: charming and then frightening and then apologetic. The discourse around this book, particularly around the love interest, says something important about how we read stories about harm.
Still thinking about whether the ending is hopeful or just true
"We are products of our upbringing and responsible for what we do with that knowledge.
"Colleen Hoover
Reading It Ends With Us
Impact
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Reading this as a romance where you are meant to choose between the love interests is a misreading. It is a book about the cost and the necessity of leaving.