The quote on the cover of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, It Ends With Us, claims, “Every person with a heartbeat should read this book.” It was the sixth best-selling book of 2021, BookTok is going nuts over it and USA Today called it “the kind of book that gets handed down.” Its much-anticipated sequel, It Starts with Us, is set to be released next month.
The novel centers on the relationship between Lily and Ryle, a young newlywed couple who live in Boston. Lily is a successful entrepreneur, and Ryle is a gifted neurosurgeon. Both had traumatic childhoods: Lily grew up witnessing her father physically and sexually abuse her mother and was eventually victimized by him herself; when Ryle was 6 years old, he accidentally shot and killed his beloved older brother with a gun that should never have been accessible. Both halves of the couple are, understandably, haunted by their pasts.
Early in their marriage, Ryle begins to physically abuse Lily. Hoover offers a compelling perspective on how the violation and blurring of boundaries over time creates a dynamic in which victims lose the ability to see their situations clearly. Readers who ask, “Why would she stay with him?” may find some insight in this book.
It's an odd trope. It pre-exists Hoover by about fifty or sixty years? Rosemary Rodgers kind of created it, along with other writers in the 1960s and 70s, in their contemporary novels. Judith McNaught was rather infamous for it. And I saw a lot of it coming up again in the early 00s, kind of a reaction to the romances that didn't go down that road, and had nice people in them. I have read a few of this trope - I don't recommend. I found them disturbing and unsettling. Also, more horror story than romance. But it is a popular romantic trope.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2023-07-21 12:46 am (UTC)The quote on the cover of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, It Ends With Us, claims, “Every person with a heartbeat should read this book.” It was the sixth best-selling book of 2021, BookTok is going nuts over it and USA Today called it “the kind of book that gets handed down.” Its much-anticipated sequel, It Starts with Us, is set to be released next month.
The novel centers on the relationship between Lily and Ryle, a young newlywed couple who live in Boston. Lily is a successful entrepreneur, and Ryle is a gifted neurosurgeon. Both had traumatic childhoods: Lily grew up witnessing her father physically and sexually abuse her mother and was eventually victimized by him herself; when Ryle was 6 years old, he accidentally shot and killed his beloved older brother with a gun that should never have been accessible. Both halves of the couple are, understandably, haunted by their pasts.
Early in their marriage, Ryle begins to physically abuse Lily. Hoover offers a compelling perspective on how the violation and blurring of boundaries over time creates a dynamic in which victims lose the ability to see their situations clearly. Readers who ask, “Why would she stay with him?” may find some insight in this book.
It's an odd trope. It pre-exists Hoover by about fifty or sixty years? Rosemary Rodgers kind of created it, along with other writers in the 1960s and 70s, in their contemporary novels. Judith McNaught was rather infamous for it. And I saw a lot of it coming up again in the early 00s, kind of a reaction to the romances that didn't go down that road, and had nice people in them.
I have read a few of this trope - I don't recommend. I found them disturbing and unsettling.
Also, more horror story than romance. But it is a popular romantic trope.