It Starts and Ends With Us

The ongoing Colleen Hoover book craze

Satvika Nitya / Contributor / The USD Vista

Six years after its publication, Colleen Hoover’s novel “It Ends With Us” became a viral must-have book. After its original release in August 2016, the book achieved good reviews and praise. 

However, the recent surge in the book’s popularity is credited to Hoover’s fans and attention from the BookTok community on TikTok. Videos about Hoover’s work went viral in 2021, garnering more than a million views on each video.

This led to a sudden increase in the overall popularity of Hoover’s books, specifically propelling “It Ends With Us” to debut at No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list in January 2022. The book continues its 67th week on the list as the release date for its sequel “It Starts With Us” nears, leading fans to excitedly mark Oct. 18 on their calendars. 

The synopsis of “It Ends With Us” describes the book as a contemporary romance, following 23-year-old Lily Bloom and her two love interests: Ryle Kincaid and Atlas Corrigan. However, Hoover’s inclusion of plot twists in the story changes the premise of the whole book, diving into serious topics of domestic violence, toxic generational cycles and emotional and sexual abuse, which came as a shock to many readers. 

USD first-year and avid book reader Chloe Obeyesekere expressed her feelings to the story’s surprising turn of events. 

“I was on BookTok a lot, and people were raving about how ‘It Ends With Us’ is really good but kind of sad,” Obeyesekere said. “But I didn’t think they were talking about this kind of sadness. I went into it thinking it’s gonna be a cute little love story, and that’s not what it really was. The majority of the book deals with abuse, and I was shocked when I read that because it’s not the direction I thought the story was gonna go in. But I really enjoyed reading it.”

After the introduction of the theme of abuse, the book focuses on the effects and the journey of breaking generational cycles of domestic violence. The story ends on a hopeful note of finding the strength to get out of abusive relationships. However, in true Hoover plot-twist fashion, the epilogue introduced cliffhangers and left fans eagerly awaiting the release of the sequel since its announcement in February. 

The release of “It Starts With Us” also falls in the middle of October, the month dedicated to Domestic Violence Awareness, fueling fan speculation about the possibility of a continuing theme of relationship abuse in the sequel. 

USD sophomore Lauren Williams has joined the bandwagon of anticipating fans. 

“I’m very excited for the sequel to come out because I want to see what happens next in the story,” Williams said. “Without spoiling anything, I’m excited to see whether the survivor finds the love they deserve and how they try to recover from the trauma of abuse. The ending of the last book left us with so many unanswered questions and gists of what we can look forward to, so I’m just super pumped for Oct. 18.”

While there are readers looking forward to the new book, there are others who do not like Hoover’s style of storytelling. Critics on several social media platforms are calling her stories “trauma porn,” suggesting that she overly romanticizes aggressive and predatory behavior. 

Among these criticisms, allegations that Hoover knowingly dismissed a teenager who reached out to her about being sexually harassed by the writer’s son have recently surfaced. This information has taken over platforms such as Twitter, TikTok and Reddit, with people going as far as saying that Hoover used her son as an inspiration behind the story of “It Ends With Us.” 

USD sophomore Soniya Malla reacted to these critiques. 

“I think it would be extremely ironic if the rumors about her and her son are true,” Malla said. “But there is no evidence yet, and I don’t wanna assume something based on gossip. What I do know for sure is that ‘It Ends With Us’ was based on Colleen’s parents’ relationship. And I don’t think I ever felt like the domestic violence or abuse shown in the book was glamorized. But having read other Colleen Hoover books, I do think romanticizing toxic assertiveness and actions when you find someone attractive is a common trend in her books.”

Regardless of personal opinions on Hoover and her work, “It Starts With Us” is a highly anticipated fall read coming out on Oct. 18, with reviews, speculations, comments and critiques storming all social media platforms.