Second book review on the blog! This time we're tackling It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover.
I cannot remember the last time I cried this much during the last half of a book. Like, I think it's been many years. Everything about this book was so well done. It was vulnerable, and honest, and still managed to be witty and light in areas as well. The topics that it deals with--teen homelessness, domestic violence, an abusive household--are presented in a way that causes deep reflection. For me, personally, I thought that Hoover did an exceptional job of taking a question that I know is whispered often: "Why doesn't she just leave him?" and answers the question so subtly that you don't realize the question was answered until you've finished the last sentence.
I don't want to give spoilers, and I will do my best not to. But a big topic of this novel is physical abuse within romantic relationships and marriages. It shows the perspectives of so many people in these relationships: the abuser themselves, the victim of the abuse who stays with their partner despite everything, the child who has to live under the roof of the abuser and the victim, wanting nothing more than to disappear and leave them both behind. But if there is one thing I want to praise about this book over everything else, it's this: there was no disbelief. When someone finally admitted what they had been through? They weren't told they were crazy. They weren't told that they were imagining things. They were believed.
It Ends With Us gets five stars from me. Beautiful writing and delicate handling of topics that not many are willing to touch. If you've ever looked at an abusive relationship from the outside and wondered, "why doesn't she just leave him?" I would recommend this book--it sheds a much-needed light on why leaving isn't as simple as it sounds.
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