«And as hard as this choice is, we break the pattern before the pattern breaks us. »
Before I’ve read this book, I was kinda scared. That it wouldn’t life up to its hype. That it’s a bad portrayal of abusive relationships. That it wouldn’t take the trauma, which abusive relationships brings with it, quite seriously enough. But boyyyy, was I wrong.
“It ends with us” is a story about two young people, Atlas and Lily. They both grew up in abusive families, though they are quite different. Atlas’ family is poor, and his mom is all by herself, with a few occasional “guests”. On the contrary, Lily’s family is middle class, her dad has a good job, her mom is around, and Lily can go to school. They meet, when Altlas is kicked out of his house and is homeless. They fall in love, it doesn’t end well, they loose touch. Years later, Lily is married and a florist, Atlas successfully runs two restaurants. That’s where they meet again. Lily gets abused by her new husband and Atlas tries to help her. Anyways, I won’t tell you more because I might spoiler you and who wants that? Even though I came late to the trend and most of you have already read it.
Me, bawling my eyes out, alone, in a café in the middle of Amsterdam. Yes, this is how this book has left me. Quite destroyed. And I have so many thoughts, I won’t even be able to communicate all of them to you. To answer my own question, I don’t really think it’s overhyped. It might not be the biggest literary success to have ever been created, but what makes this book so good is the story and the way it makes you feel about the characters. Because after the first one, I was not able to hate Ryle, even though I really wanted to. It really gives you something to think about. Even though I’m currently not able to understand, and I hope it will stay that way, I see all the reasons victims of abuse would stay with their abusers. And I think this book showed us all the different aspects and views. For my part, I really think this was the reason Colleen Hoover wrote this book. Not to make us feel love or whatever, like her other books, but to make us understand. And I loved the fact that Colleen’s Mom has lived to something similar, because that makes the story more realistic and fact-based. More of a biography than a love-story.
«Shouldn’t there be more distaste in our mouths for the abusers than for those who continue to love the abusers? »
