It Ends With us

     Lily, after presenting a eulogy at her own father's funeral, with whom she shared a salty relationship, is sitting on the verge of a twelve-story roof, thinking nothing but about suicide. Not expecting anyone to disturb her, a man is climbing up the stairs. Raged with fury, the man starts to kick a chair lying on the roof repeatedly. Lily, not amused by such intrusion of her peace is irritated.

PLOT

After examing the man she starts to question him about his anger. During the conversation, Lily opened up and told about her father, who was very abusive, not to her but towards her mother, and much she hated him. Indulging in further converse they both start exchanging thoughts. Wherein, it is revealed that they both share completely different opinions about dating and relationships. Rlye Kincaid, the man, has a "no dating" rule, to which Lily is contradicting. Receiving an important phone call, Ryle left just after snapping a picture of Lily.

With a dream of owning a floral shop, Lily hires a lady for helping her with setting up the shop. Unknowing to Lily, the lady 'Alyssa' was Ryle's sister, but she's more of a best friend to Lily now. During the setting up, two heavy boxes fell over Lily which resulted in a sprained ankle. Alyssa immediately calls Ryle. Lily, after returning home starts reading the journals which she wrote when she was mere sixteen.

A few days later, out of nowhere, Ryle knocks on Lily's door. Begging to have a hookup with her, to which Lily agrees.

Two months later, on the day of the opening of the floral shop, Ryle walks in as the first customer. After this Lily and Ryle start to see each other and got married as the story follows. 

Once the couple was drunk and Ryle abused Lily by hitting and pushing her. This was the first instance of aggressiveness between them. Things eventually got better yet they were not. after months Rlye again went physical With Lily, but this was it was very hard. He raped her, went aggressive with her, head-blew her, and made her forehead bleed which caused her to get six stitches.

CLIMAX

During all this, Lily was pregnant. On the day of delivery, she told Ryle to split up and get a proper divorce. Ryle while shedding tears, begs Lily not to do such a thing and promises that he will never lay hands on her ever again. Lily, underconfident by his promise and afraid that he, in the future, can lay his hands on her daughter, repudiates and sets her heart as a stone and is on firm ground to get divorced.

COMMENTARY

'It Ends With Us' by Colleen Hoover is no doubt a gem. The development of character as well as the plot both emerges as an exceptional beauty of storytelling. The incongruous opening scene of the book fills the reader with curiosity and the outlandish behaviour of 'Ryle' makes the opening interesting.

The climax is very painful yet it was nonetheless expected.

This book is the perfect mix of dark, funny, and romantic. As for the book structurally: impeccable. It transitions between events in past and present really smoothly and moves the story along nicely. The dynamics between the characters were really enjoyable as well. I absolutely adored 'Alyssa' and 'Lily's' friendship, and Marshall was also a really great addition to that sort-of friend group thing they had going on. I also love how Colleen Hoover vaguely hints about random details we don't think much of as readers, but then that specific detail turns out to link to a huge turning point in the plot like WHOAH. Hoover really is a fantastic storyteller like that. Her use of motifs is just so page-turning. It's like everything in the novel is done so deliberately. Everything is mentioned for a reason. Another thing that was so entertaining was the frequency of plot twists and turns and big reveals. It didn't feel like the characters just existed to fall in love with each other, like in most romances. The plot felt very character-driven and the characters didn't feel two-dimensional or flat. It really focused on each of the character's flaws and personality traits. 'It Ends With Us' was literally raved about everywhere, and I can definitely see why. This book just lives rent-free in my head, and I think it always will. As someone who couldn't relate to 'Lily's' trauma whatsoever, I can still say it was an impactful read. It really sort of opened my eyes to the reality of abuse and how it should be portrayed within books and movies and whatever. Hoover is such a gifted writer, and I am so excited for the highly anticipated sequel: It Starts With Us.