It Ends With Us Controversy

By Leslie Urena ('24)

On January 26, 2023, author Colleen Hoover announced on her Instagram who would be starring in the live-action adaptation of her famous novel It Ends With Us. While only the actors for the two main characters have been announced so far, it already seems to be star-studded. Blake Lively, best known as Serena Van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl, and Justin Baldoni, who played the beloved character of Rafael Solano on Jane the Virgin, are the two main stars. The announcement created excitement amongst fans of the book, and dread among its critics. 

But where love goes, hate follows. A big critique of Hoover and her work is that oftentimes, the characters and their stories seem to feel empty and devoid of full development. Critics argue that they always seem to follow main characters with traumatic pasts being the object of both affection and anger of toxic love interests whose equally, if not more severe, traumatic past serves as a reasoning for their actions. They go on to follow these two and their love story as they develop into better people together. It’s argued that since these characters aren’t fully fleshed out, it creates a situation in which one can insert themselves into the story and go on their own journey of “fixing” these tortured people.

There are many reasons that this book is beloved by readers all over the world. Many see it as a realistic depiction of how people get trapped in abusive cycles of hurt and forgiveness. They resonate with the perspective offered into why victims make the choice to stay in these struggling relationships. Both its main character and its reader go on a journey of falling in love with a person believed to be genuine and the feelings of confusion, betrayal, and conflict that arise when you witness their true nature. There is also the element of generational trauma and the cruel irony of finding yourself in the same cycle you once scorned, even sometimes blamed, someone else for being stuck in. 

It Ends With Us offers a possible answer as to why these cycles exist and persevere, with Hoover stating that, “Sometimes it seems easier to just keep running in the same familiar circles, rather than facing the fear of jumping and possibly not landing on your feet.”

However, there is also the reality that this book was not entirely truthful in what it was going to be about. There were many who went into it expecting what the blurb on the back of it offered: a story about making a decision between two people you love. Many were not expecting the graphic depictions of physical abuse, emotional abuse, and manipulation hidden between the pages of a pretty pink cover. While this almost deceptive marketing can serve to speak volumes about how people don’t go into relationships expecting abuse, the same way the reader didn’t go into the novel expecting heavy themes, it doesn’t entirely make up for the reactions one might have to reading such graphic and abusive violence.