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In this article, Averie takes on the challenge of exposing beloved romance author Colleen Hoover and her horrible book, November 9.
Book Review: November 9
Book Review: November 9
By Averie Black
By Averie Black
*Content Warning* This article contains major spoilers for November 9 by Colleen Hoover, as well as brief mentions of suicide, domestic abuse, sexual assault, and bad writing.
*Content Warning* This article contains major spoilers for November 9 by Colleen Hoover, as well as brief mentions of suicide, domestic abuse, sexual assault, and bad writing.
Colleen Hoover has an extremely loyal fanbase. Her book It Ends with Us sold over four million copies in 43 languages, topping The New York Times list. Hoover writes young adult romance, and there is no other way to say this other than it is really bad. Her fanbase often does not grasp how unhealthy these relationships are and, considering most of her fans are 12 to 25-year-old women, she is not setting a very good example.
November 9 follows the main characters Fallon O’Neil and Benton (Ben) James Kessler. Fallon is an ex-child actor whose career ended due to third-degree burns from a house fire. She is now living with scars covering the whole left side of her body and low self-esteem, as she plans to move from Los Angeles to New York. Meanwhile, Ben is an aspiring writer with a secret. When the two have a meet-cute at a diner, which will be discussed more thoroughly later, they decide to meet every day on November 9th without interacting throughout the year. This spans over the course of seven, painful years.
Right off the bat, the writing was not good. It was a lot of stuff like, ‘She did this. Then she did this. She thought this. She did this.’ On the plus side, it made the book super easy to read. Exactly zero reading comprehension or analysis skills are required to read November 9. That being said, it is an easy book to fly through and took two halfhearted weeks to read. The negative side of things is that it got so repetitive and boring. Someone who enjoys descriptive, flowy writing with unique words would not like Hoover’s writing style. So if the writing is not good, why are there so many people obsessed with her books? It must be the plot right? The relationship between Fallon and Ben? This is a romance book after all, but no. The romance is tragic but without the Shakespearean charm.
,Fallon is spineless, Ben is a criminal, and their relationship is a codependent disaster. Their “meet cute” in the beginning was just Ben white-knighting Fallon when her father was calling her ugly. He pretended to be her boyfriend, and after her father left, he went on a full monologue of five paragraphs telling her how, the first time he saw her, all he could think about was her underwear. For five paragraphs. That is a full Scroll article worth of underwear. Anyway, it is absolutely disturbing and really sets the tone for the rest of their relationship. Their dynamic is composed of three main traits.
Image by sammydavisdog on Flickr
The first trait is Ben bossing around Fallon and her doing whatever he says. A mere hour or two after they meet, they decide to go on a dinner date. Ben tells her to wear a certain revealing outfit that Fallon is uncomfortable with, and she suggests a different dress that will better cover her scars. Then:
"[Ben's] eyes fall to the dress he initially picked out and he pulls it off the hanger and shoves it at me.
'But I want you to wear this one.'
I shove the dress back at him. 'I don’t want to wear that, I want to wear this.'
'No,' he says. 'I’m paying for dinner, so I get to choose what to stare at while we eat.'"
Foul, foul, foul. Absolutely disgusting. Does this even need an explanation as to why it is so icky? He is acting like an actual toddler. Unfortunately, Fallon does not think so and puts on the dress and puts her hair up like he demanded of her.
Image of woman with scars by Ron Lach on Pexels
The second trait of their relationship is the cycle of Fallon being insecure about her burn scars and Ben going on for pages about how beautiful she is, which usually leads to them making out or something. There is not anything inherently wrong with feeling insecure and your partner hyping you up. That would normally be a sign of a healthy relationship. However, the entirety of Fallon’s confidence rests in the hands of Ben. Of course, the leading woman in a romance novel must seek approval of her appearance from her man. She feels insecure, Ben says she’s pretty, and now she is fine. Fallon has no self-confidence because there is no sense of self in it. It only comes when a man says he is still attracted to her despite her deformity.
The third trait is a strangely intense relationship from the first time they meet. It is one thing to have chemistry with someone, but to have such a strangely intense relationship with no foundation just comes off creepy. Throughout the whole novel, they are codependent on one another. During the third act conflict, Fallon and Ben have a bit of a breakup because Ben wants Fallon to stay with him, but he got a book deal writing about their November 9s and Fallon wants him to be able to finish the book. However, the next year, the audience finds out Fallon moved from New York back to Los Angeles in hopes of getting back together with Ben. Granted, this is not her only reason for moving back to L.A., but she does think, “And most important, how do I bring up the fact that I moved back to Los Angeles just for him? Well, not exactly just for him.” That is weird. Especially considering both of her parents and best friend live in Los Angeles, and they only got an off-handed mention about them being a factor in her decision.
There are a total of seven November 9s throughout the book. The last two got a little complicated because Ben crashed Fallon’s date and locked her in a closet like a child, which will be discussed again later, and the last one was super short because it was basically them being reunited. It feels unnecessary to count the last two Novembers into their time spent together because Fallon did not want him crashing her date, and the last one lasted like an hour. This all being said, during their fifth November, Fallon says: ‘“So technically, we’ve only spent about twenty-eight total hours together…”’ That is insane. 28 hours together does not warrant ignoring all of the red flags. 28 hours together does not warrant the extreme codependency they have one another, and those 28 hours do not warrant Fallon forgiving Ben for burning her house down which caused her burn scarring and for her to lose her career.
Image of a red flag by Wikimedia
After Ben found out his mother had committed suicide, he was very understandably grieving. People do all sorts of ‘unusual’ things when they are grieving, and most of the time they get a pass because they are going through unimaginable mourning. However, Ben dug through his mother's messages and came to the conclusion that she had committed suicide because her boyfriend broke up with her. This was maybe a few hours after he had found her, so he was still in shock. Ben decided to find the boyfriend’s address and go to his house. This boyfriend happened to be Fallon’s father. Ben then jumped the fence and set Fallon’s dad’s car on fire. The fire spread to the house, and the rest is history. Everyone mourns in different ways, but that does not mean he should get a get-out-of-jail-free card for setting someone's house on fire. Ben is extremely manipulative. The entire time he was saying how beautiful her scars were and trying to build her confidence, he was the cause of her scars in the first place. It turns what was supposed to be a nice, supportive partner into a creepy guy trying to build her confidence so he does not have to feel as guilty about being the one who caused her insecurity.
Accurate Image of Ben After Burning Down his Girlfriend's House and Lying About it for Six Years by Pexels
When Fallon first finds out about this, she is understandably upset and decides to cut him out of her life. Yes queen, slay. However, after finding out what happened with his mother, and her own mother telling her, ‘“I’m not going to pretend that I know what you’ve gone through. But after reading those pages, I can assure you that you aren’t the only one who was scarred in that fire. Just because he chose not to show you his scars doesn’t mean they don’t exist.” Fallon folds and decides she is actually the one in the wrong, as opposed to the man who set her house on fire and lied about it for six years who should be taking the blame. She then proceeds to apologize to him for cutting him out of her life, and Ben so graciously tells her she has nothing to apologize for.
There are honestly more troubling scenes and dialogue in this novel than can be fully discussed, so here is a ridiculously long, unorganized list of Hoover’s literary sins:
Ben says, “‘But It’s your own fault people feel uncomfortable looking at you”’ to a girl with facial disfigurements, which he caused.
They regularly refer to one another as Ben the Writer and Fallon the Transit.
There was a gay joke about Ben not dressing good enough to be queer.
Ben dates his dead brother’s widow and raises his child despite admitting he does not love her.
When Fallon and him get back together Fallon supposedly will become like a step-mother for her boyfriend’s dead brother’s baby.
Ben locks Fallon in a closet with him.
Ben crashes her date and pretends to be a journalism student asking questions to couples.
Ben seemingly never intended to tell Fallon about the fire.
Fallon realizes it was actually her fault that she does not have a better relationship with her unsupportive and jerky father.
Fallon feels like she could never leave Ben because their connection is just so strong after they have intercourse for the first time.
Ben forcibly and without consent takes off Fallon's clothes.
Ben constantly refers to the fact that he's "not an alpha".
Ben tries to force himself into a car with her as Fallon tries to escape him.
Ben says suicide is the most selfish thing a person can do.
Fallon gets a restraining order against Ben.
Ben breaks the restraining order multiple times.
Ben tells Fallon's date that she's his and Fallon is like "ok".
All of Ben's actions are excused on account of his love for Fallon or his trauma.
Probably much more.
Look, this book sucks, and this is not just a personal opinion. Going on Youtube and searching up November 9, with an account with no history so it does not interfere with the results, some of the first videos that come up are as follows; Incel Fantasy: A Book Review of November 9, A deep dive into NOVEMBER 9 by Colleen Hoover (it's scarier than Verity), we read the WORST Colleen Hoover book so that u don’t have to, and Colleen Hoover Is A Joke. Although there are some videos that are in support of Hoover, most of them seem neutral or strongly against her books. If everyone dislikes her writing so much, then how does November 9 have an insanely high 4.18 rating on Goodreads? 46% of the 929,643 reviews on Goodreads are five stars, so here is a peek into what the other perspective says. Aestas Book Blog states, “This book was unique, unexpected, gripping, addictive, a lot of fun, but angsty at times, and also totally swoon-filled and beautiful because the truth is that no person is perfect and even the best of us make mistakes. What counts is whether we learn from them, and how we repair the damage…” HE BURNT HER HOUSE DOWN AND RUINED HER DREAM CAREER. THAT MAN SHOULD BE IN JAIL. JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE GRIEVING DOES NOT MEAN YOU LACK ALL COMMON SENSE AND BASIC HUMAN EMPATHY TO NOT SET A CAR RIGHT NEXT TO A HOUSE ON FIRE. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
One of the most interesting parts of this debate around Colleen Hoover is the split between YouTube and TikTok. While scrolling through the top November 9 tiktoks, the majority of people were in support of Hoover, which is in contrast to the majority vote on Youtube. So why is there this divide between the book communities? In a nonprofessional and non-thoroughly researched opinion: it has to do with age and analysis. Some of the most popular booktubers are people in their 30s and, while they do have fun rant reviews, they also have thorough analysis skills and insight into literature. So while they are dissecting the toxic relationship between these two characters and using fancy words, 15-year-old TikTok girls are geeking out over their new, fun romance novel.
Image of a Heart Page by PickPik
So comes the discussion around misogyny and romance novels. The romance genre is often associated with women because they tend to be the main demographic, and where there are women, there are men who want to tear them down. Romance novels are often scrutinized for being cheesy, fluffy, and stupid, which they sometimes are, but it is hard to ignore the men hopping on the hate train as an excuse to make fun of young women’s hobbies. This is not meant to be a review about how romance novels are cheesy and horrible. These critiques are not meant to be centered around romance cliches or the genre at all. If women find joy in Hoover's books, then good for them. Colleen Hoover is just not a good author and she does not write healthy relationships. When reviewing romance novels, please be vigilant about what you are critiquing them on, and be aware of any underlying misogyny or hate seeping through.
The last, and most gut-punching, issue of this book is the marketing. As the reviews show, it is mostly young women reading this book, and November 9 is a young adult romance. According to MasterClass, “Young adult fiction (also referred to as “YA fiction” for short) describes works written for readers between the ages 12 and 18.” This means the target audience for this book is women as young as 12 years old. At that age, they do not have a strong sense of right and wrong within a romantic relationship, and here comes Hoover placing November 9 in their hands, saying that this codependent, bordering domestic abuse relationship is the romantic ideal. Adults at least have the common sense to recognize that this is toxic, and not applicable to real-life relationships. Books are a safe place to explore ideas that would not be possible, or sane, in real life. There is a reason why dark romance is so popular, but unlike dark romance, November 9 is promoting this as a healthy relationship to young people.
A toxic romance is nowhere near November 9’s first crime, though. When November 9 was first published, Hoover was facing major backlash regarding the scene between Fallon and Ben in the closet during the party. In this since-deleted scene, Ben sexually assaults Fallon. Obviously, this is extremely problematic to promote in any book, but especially a young adult book. Although it is hard to track down any original text regarding this scene or statements from Hoover, there are reviews on Goodreads and Reddit that discuss the deleted scene. Hoover seemingly released a Facebook statement that has hence been deleted or removed. Whitney Atkinson on Goodreads stated, “The ebook and the next printing of November 9 (if one will happen) will have a major edit to update the scene where Ben is touching Fallon without her consent. I'm incredibly grateful for this.” Atkinson also included a link to Hoover’s Facebook statement, which is no longer available. This should have never been written, period. However, it is no longer included in any of the books, and this version of it is hard to track down. Many authors are hard-headed and would not have admitted to making such a mistake and especially would have not acted so quickly on it. So if Hoover did well on one thing, it was fixing that huge mistake quickly, even if it was just to save her own butt.
Image by Gregory P. Smith on Flickr
November 9 by Colleen Hoover is a romance book that should not even be considered a romance book. The troubling dynamics between the main characters are concerning and the author does not deserve the fame and money this book has given her. That being said, hop on Goodreads and take November 9 off of the ol’ TBR pile.
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