In just the year 2022, Colleen Hoover sold over 20 million copies of her books, outselling Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and even the Holy Bible. Teenagers from all over the world can't get enough of Colleen Hoover's books. Even my own bookcase has been infiltrated by her fiction, from the infamous It Starts With Us to her lesser-known novels, like Heart Bones and November 9. For those of you who haven't hopped on the Colleen Hoover bandwagon, she is infamous for writing explicit young adult romance that involves abuse, neglect, and many other forms of havoc. Imagine a happy-go-lucky story, a wholesome romance that makes someone smile while reading. Colleen Hoover's books tend to have the opposite effect on the average reader. This explains why the age-rating for most of her books are 17+, and can even reach 21+ in a few extreme cases. Many readers, however, don't reach this targeted demographic. Despite the erratic plots and characters, adolescents are obsessed with her books. I've seen my own friends who have never picked up a book in their entire existence clinging to a copy of Ugly Love or It Ends With Us in the middle of a class. One article from The Times adresses this issue, stating that "anecdotally her readers tend to be aged 15 to 30 and are mainly women". Like many other teenagers, my obsession with her novels started on TikTok, when several people were posting and obsessing over It Ends With Us. #ColleenHoover and #itendswithus each have over three billion views on TikTok, and her novel It Ends With Us has become so popular that they're even producing a movie for the bestseller in February of 2024.
Although I am familiar with her romance novels, I'll admit that reading her books as a teenager causes more harm than good. Similarly to how I described the effect of the show Euphoria in another other blog, Colleen Hoover's books portray toxic relationships that are often romanticized. To be specific, I'll use her most popular book, It Ends With Us, as an example. Hoover writes about the relationship between a girl named Lily, a compassionate young adult who's preparing to begin her life after college,
and an older man named Ryle, an attractive neurosurgeon she randomly stumbles upon and immediately falls for. As the story progresses, the couple falls deeply in love, and Lily even gets pregnant later on. Although their relationship seems tender at first, Ryle begins to act abusive and violent due to his traumatic childhood. He threatens her multiple times, almost rapes her, and constantly shoves or hits her due to feeling jealous about Lily's relationship with another man (Atlas). Ryle becomes extremely possessive in multiple ways, saying things like: "‘You’re mine, Lily. You belong to me’".
Despite the recurring events of abuse that Lily faces, she excuses his behavior and claims that he is still "worthy of forgiveness". In this way, Hoover portrays Ryle as a handsome, troubled man who can be "fixed" rather than someone who's straight-up abusive and vicious. Rather than instantly standing up for herself or leaving the relationship, Lily illustrates Ryle's abuse as being protective and jealous over her, ultimately romanticizing and justifying his actions to the audience. One infamous quote that demonstrates this justification is “There is no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things.” And for the individuals who claim that Hoover is simply trying to be realistic since many women in real life excuse the behavior of their abusive partners, don't forget that the main audience for It Ends With Us consists of young teenage girls, who aren't amazing at discerning the difference between an abusive partner and a hot guy who is charmingly obsessed with you.
Should a book that portrays an abusive relationship as something that can be repaired be read by young 15-year-old girls? Through reading fiction like It Ends With Us, young girls may begin to replicate Lily's actions, ultimately mistaking love for physical and emotional abuse. Instead of looking at Lily as a role model, adolescents should be reading books that encourage healthy relationships, not "oh he/she/they can be a little toxic, but it's kinda cute." Some teenagers on TikTok even claim that Ryle deserves a redemption due to his attractiveness. In some ways, this reminds me of what I talked about in my blog about Euphoria: when an attractive person, like Rue (played by Zendaya), is seen partaking in harmful activities like drug use, teenagers might be influenced to mirror her actions. If you want to witness young women defending and romanticizing Ryle yourself, watch these: TikTok #1, Tiktok #2, Tiktok #3.Similarly, when teenagers read about Ryle (a handsome, older neurosurgeon) continuously abusing his partner, they might normalize or possibly romanticize his actions. It's clear that no matter how enticing her dark romance is, no teenage girl should be taking any relationship advice from Colleen Hoover. If you have a different opinion on her books, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message!
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