“Just keep swimming” to “We finally reached the shore”, the 2022 bestselling author of the books ‘It Ends With Us and It Starts With Us’, Colleen Hoover, gave a great serve for the readers. Her journey from self-published author to bestselling author brought out many addicting storylines and story-plots. The genre of her books falls into the category of new adult and young adult, with readers ranging from teenagers to young adults to adults.
Her books are known for their thrilling romantic plots with twists and turns filled with heartbreaks, mental health struggles, sexual assaults, trauma, and abusive relationships. Many of the young readers waited for Colleen Hoovers ‘It Starts With Us’ at the beginning of 2023. The sudden surge in sales for ‘It Ends with Us was seen to be influenced by its massive popularity on TikTok, which comes under the #booktok subculture. Soon, the rest of Hoover’s books—Ugly Love, Reminders of Him, All Your Perfects, Verity, November 9, and others—reached fame.
But what is mostly overlooked and not addressed about the books are their features of abuse and sexual assaults without trigger warnings and their depictions of toxic men as romantic and desirable. These methods could be misleading and triggering for many young readers. Soon, other readers and communities started to share cryptic notes and thoughts about Hoover’s books. People found some of it questionable and uncomfortable.
The author’s attempt to release a colouring book based on “It Ends With Us” sparked the controversy. But as it turns out, the book was heavily centred on the content of domestic violence and trauma. The readers rose to address the sensitivity of the situation and criticised Hoover’s approach as be ‘tone-deaf.’ Later, Hoover took the issue to her Instagram and apologised for it.
The movie adaptation of her best-selling book, “It Ends With Us,” which will feature Blake Lively as Lily, was announced late in January 2023. The casting for the movie is also getting its fair share of criticism on Tik Tok and Instagram.
