Why Colleen Hoover is damaging the book industry and young girls' minds.
Colleen Hoover is an author who has blown up in popularity over the past year and a half due to TikTok, and the new trending tag #booktok. Her short books offer a quick read for anyone interested in a cheesy romance or cheap thriller novel. Her sweet stories seem to be what her readers love the most with It Ends With Us being one of her top-selling books. But are they really worth all the praise? Are her stories harming young girls' perceptions of relationships?
Amid all her praise and the seemingly endless amount of books she has published, it seems most have overlooked the misogynistic undertones in her writing. “It Ends With Us'', is not inherently classified as just a romance book, but a smaller subgenre called “dark romance.” Dark romance is a subgenre focused on the gothic aspects of literature. Gothic aspects as in the more morally gray characters, trauma, and violence featured in books.
Within her books, Hoover is creating a narrative of weak women and toxic masculinity. In “It Ends With Us,” a book based on a woman, Lily Bloom, who is from an abusive home, is trying not to recreate the abuse she has seen her whole life. Though Hoover tries to create a story on the idea of a young girl overcoming her issues, all she does is reinforce the harmful stereotypes of women being weak and unable to pull themselves from this chain of abuse.
Colleen Hoover recently blew up as more people were looking for a quick and easy read. Her books offer up a decent story with a quick plot of only 80,000-110,000 words per book. The plots are interesting and able to hold the attention of readers as they go through her books. While many have issues with Colleen Hoover's plots and interesting approach to dark topics, many agree they are an easy read with decent plots. For instance, junior Lana Witmer has read “It Ends With Us.” and has said, “I liked the book. I felt it was realistic of what a woman in Lily’s situation would do; it’s difficult to get out of, but in the end, she stands up for herself.”
But how much does Colleen Hoover really care about the messages she's spreading? Is she writing to spread awareness of these issues she writes about? According to an interview with Colleen Hoover done by “TODAY” about “It Ends With Us.”, she was asked about the backlash the book received on the glorification of abusive relationships and what she had to say to the critics. “I don’t write to educate. I write to entertain,” is how Colleen justifies the misogyny within her books. She then goes on to say she focuses on the impact of her fans due to her books, as evidenced by the amount of emails she gets in regards to “It Ends With Us.”
By: Maddie Lancon All images from Google