A complete history on my feud with Colleen Hoover

It is here. The "final" chapter in the Colleen Hoover saga.
Join the Colleen Hoover hate club:
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[@mxryam3764]

the fact that a 16 YEAR OLD BOY was able to recognize problematic and abusive shit in a book written by an ADULT WOMAN. 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

[@victor-kafka]

CoHo is very much aware that her books are abusive. Most of them dont really have a strong plot, either. So i feel like she writes abuse because she knows it sells

[@mxryam3764]

@@victor-kafka yeahh could be. she probably knows that vulnerable teens who don't know any better tend to idealize abusive shit as romantic. they can be manipulated

[@Hello-hello-hello456]

@@victor-kafkahonestly, twilight was waaayyy better. Cheesy, yes. Kinda toxic, yes. Stupid, yes. But definitely not this harmful.

[@pran7063]

LONG RANT AHEAD cause I need to get this out of my system u don't have to read lol I also feel like she knows very well that the """romance""" in her books is plain abuse. But sadly abusive relationships are so romanticized by young women who don't know any better because they have never experienced it on their skin. Think about how many teenage girls/young women fantasize about an "older boyfriend who is super jealous and controlling and dominating and gets what he wants when he wants and you can't say no" or "mafia/gang boss who kidnaps you and uses you as his sex doll and spoils you with stuff" like these are pure abuse, yet they attract girls SO MUCH. It's not entirely their fault tho, we live in a society where we are taught that violence ( physical, sexual, emotional) on women from men is excusable and somehow good since women are "inferior" and shoul be "put in their place". So girls subconsciously believe it's ok and even fantasize about it. Colleen knows this vey well so she adds this shit in her books because she KNOWS it will sell. In my opinion it's very wrong from her part, as women we should fight these narratives that put our fellow sisters in actual danger since they will inevitably start viewing abusive behavior as romantic after filling their head with this crap. But people would sell their own mother for money and fame so I can't say i am surprised.

[@thesmellofbooks0]

@@pran7063 this I agree with this so much

[@namitadubey2103]

The fact there are ACTUAL Wattpad stories out there which have better plotline and stories than her book is honestly shocking.

[@namelessdoesthings]

literally, even this one fanfic i once started writing had a good storyline for a 11 year old writing it

[@Taemtiddies]

​@@namelessdoesthingswhat was it about?

[@ru_chi_0003]

Bro wattpad book like "we were meant to be" is the best one I have ever read..that author is the best

[@lindaasiamah1410]

​@@ru_chi_0003Who's it by? One of my favorite authors is avaleon. Their greatest books imo are, i can't eat love and i refuse to be a main character

[@ru_chi_0003]

@@lindaasiamah1410 the author is Anya jayvyn and trust me her every male characters are just phenomenal but Aiden Klein is my favourite...trust me you will fall for him

[@r0b0b0t8]

Aside from her books being just terrible, Colleen Hoover has a problem with naming her characters the weirdest things. Benton, Atlas, Verity, Lily Blossom Bloom? Like bro 💀

[@saturn6563]

Alyssa, I mean it’s a normal name, but at the same time, I don’t know.. Just feels off..

[@froggyplant0455]

Nah because verity is my middle name and I’ve always hated it 💀

[@justyourlocalautisticteen]

@@froggyplant0455 I am sorry if it seems like i am coming against you saying this, but Verity is auctally a great name bc (at least to me) it fells deep. Going back to Colleen Hoover's book, the only other name I like is Atlas, it's not bad, to me its auctally a pretty GOOD name, buth the others? NO. Just no. Not even parent would give these names to their kids bc THOSE NAMES FEELS SO FAKE IT FEELS LIKE SHE INVENTED THEM THINKING ABT THEM FOR 10 MINUTES AND JUST PUTTING THEM I THE BOOK I CANNOT-

[@froggyplant0455]

@@justyourlocalautisticteen you’re not coming against me it’s kinda refreshing to see someone not make fun of my middle name honestly :)

[@pizzaamane]

verity is a nice name ngl

[@Pinaaasher]

Tip for writers; you can write problematic stuff, just for the love of god don't advertise it as unproblematic because that's a bald faced lie that can and will get readers hurt

[@Sqwiggy]

CH doesn’t seem to have the writing style or ability to appropriately approach these topics. Her writing style is so limited and it really doesn’t work well with these traumatizing topics. I’d argue you can have toxicity and problematic content work in writing and be glorified by the narrator if it is made clear through the authors writing that this is wrong. Aka horror fiction that is written that way to disturb the reader intentionally.

[@QueenIrene4382]

THANK YOU! I’ve read a number of books with this subject matter/ content but the wayyyy It’s discussed makes such a big difference. Esp when the author’s note acknowledges that the subject matter is problematic and harmful

[@lucasmiller877]

Attack on Titan is peak fiction for me. We have Eren and against him is the alliance

[@fefefefefer]

OR USE IT TO SELL! one of the main problems with this woman is that she knows that problematic love stories SELLS and she has no filter in doing it for MONEY pretending is a learning story!!!!!!!

[@KryCaNe]

And then there’s style and substance and decent sentence structure.

[@oliviaringle9577]

Colleen Hover book lovers are people who didn’t read when they were younger and are now going through their wattpad phase at age 20

[@selinkorkmaz1019]

THISDSSSS

[@vanvuong999]

Exactly.

[@katragaddaalekhya4811]

+1

[@justagirl36]

No but THIS!!!! I was telling this to my friends (also CoHo haters lol) the other day about how you can tell IMMEDIATELY that people who love and adore her books are people that are just getting into reading lmao because no way a "seasoned" reader actually enjoys her books

[@yessirde]

FACTS

[@m.r.9215]

The fact that Colleen Hoover was paid real money for Lily Blossom Bloom but no one ever saw a PENNY for Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way

[@teo7255]

THATS WHAT IM SAYING

[@radioactivebeverage]

This😭

[@shivers.ID_]

FRRR ONG

[@iHATEcaravans]

precisely 😫

[@tallulahmoon6943]

facts

[@yomamma7999]

Her whole career is just romanticising abusive men and using trauma as an excuse

[@maffieduran]

No wonder why she protects her son who is an actual abuser

[@saumyavig8964]

@@maffieduran what he do??

[@junebugsjukebox]

@@saumyavig8964 he sa’ed someone and colleen helped him cover it up and silence her so her reputation wouldn’t be ruined (it already is ruined, she just doesn’t know)

[@laeticiapalmyre7869]

but in it ends with us didnt she show that Ryle who was abusive was indeed an asshole? like i would like to know how she romanticise abusive men since i didnt read her other books

[@junebugsjukebox]

@@laeticiapalmyre7869 she does have a lot of her other characters be abusive to the MC and the woman just goes back to them and it ends happily ever after like an abuser can just…stop being an abuser. even if it isn’t blatantly defending abuse, you can tell there’s abuser sympathizer undertones in most of her books

[@metanoia2647]

when we were 13, my best friend read Ugly Love. She read it in about 2 days, and told me it was the worst book she ever read. Literally, she read me the quotes, and I thought she was reading a wattpad fanfiction. I told her Colleen has more books, and she almost cried. like, tearing up

[@electricdischarge7233]

😭😭😭😭

[@Skye-xv5tk]

Girl was traumatized 😭

[@lucasmiller877]

I am just like your best friend, but a man

[@NarutoOrganisation13]

Hysterical

[@sean1000-7]

I read it when I borrowed it from a classmate and yeah I agree. It is the worst book i've ever read. The only thing that interested me in it was the title and that's it.

[@okaypearl]

i’ve read better books written by 15 year old ao3 authors than anything colleen hoover has ever made

[@zamjed8057]

right!! 15 yr old on ao3 are writing characters who leave their toxic partners even though they love them bc theyre not good for each other...

[@dokkae6423]

PLEASE OMG

[@angie3160]

ong😭💀

[@usernamenotfound6515]

@@zamjed8057 i've read some truely heard-wrenching fanfics that are like that, and honestly i think they really helped stop 13 to 15 year old me not normalise the whole "they're a bad person and i'm unhappy but i love them so Ill stay" thing. and I hope that it helps many other young teens, and potentially breaks up some bad relationships.

[@aliceangel262]

Right like a03 writers have a better grip on reality than this woman

[@insectgarden8171]

colleens son abused a girl and when that girl came to colleen through messages to tell her colleen blocked her.. im not apologizing to colleen

[@audreybea4013]

What! Omg that's terrible

[@shush.......]

Im not going to defend her but colleen supposedly came foward on her private fb account she said her son was talking to a girl and he asked something that made her uncomfortable which was for a picture and the girl came foward to her and colleen never saw the message.

[@izabqlla]

what?! i only knew her mom was abused which is also horrible but then she decided to romanticize it. she’s horrible

[@wafabatoolshah9754]

Really?

[@sydneygracex]

@@shush....... thank you, people spread so much lies and bullshit online istfg

[@Sora-e3u]

I’m convinced that all Colleen Hoover fans are teen girls going through a wattpad phase and want a 6 feet tall hot mafia man to kidnap them treat them like a princess

[@Yoru4496]

😭😭😭😭I am one of those people UNFORTUNATELY 😭😭😭😭

[@k.kozume]

@@Yoru4496 bestie you're not alone, I'm gonna turn 18 and I still have those dreams 💀😭

[@alchemy3368]

@@k.kozume girl... that ain’t cute

[@k.kozume]

@@alchemy3368 it ain't, but it ain't hurting none of y'all so wtv 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@mahrajabokwoam]

very 365 days of them

[@synodicseason]

as a former 13yo wattpad writer (who was ironically born on november 9) the weird body swap au i started writing & never finished was better than this

[@pralines]

New achievement 🤣

[@mellow_mallow]

Every single one of my paragraph-long premise outlines for Team Fortress 2 fics is better than CoHo's books

[@ecr-ge7lz]

ayy same bday 🌚

[@lxuv]

If her books are the standard of writing, then I could win the Newbery award.

[@dangermouse3671]

november 9th babies rise

[@bunmooon]

i’d feel so uncomfortable writing about my own mothers assault and abuse, then profiting off of it and turning it into a movie without her actually doing it with her own words. that’s just me though..

[@backupfarheen5042]

and then marketing it as a romance...

[@NathasyaStellaHermanus]

I don't know why, but I feel that's pretty shameful.

[@lozzyr]

then having it pass off as a romance and making a sequel 😭😭😭

[@bunmooon]

@@lozzyr now if the mother allowed her to write HER OWN pov i’d be fine with that but it is so fucking nasty to write this romance novel out of it in the mothers pov with such boring characters. she’s a very odd person

[@hadiyaiqbal4284]

And make a colouring book too...

[@AllisonMiller30]

Imagine having such power that you can literally call your character Lily Blossom Bloom and nobody fucking stops you. I want that much power

[@jacquelinelugo5518]

I never read any of her books but are you serious she names one of her characters that 😂. What in the Wattpad name is that lol

[@AllisonMiller30]

@@jacquelinelugo5518 no idea. A joke she’s playing on her editor and her fan base maybe.

[@mars_ffs]

@@jacquelinelugo5518 it's giving Ebony darkness dementia raven way vibes fr

[@limerance9922]

@@mars_ffs LMAO

[@jacquelinelugo5518]

@@AllisonMiller30 No that would be the Cast authors (if we can call them that) with their house of Night series. To this day, I have no idea why they stopped using editors after the 4th book. But Colleen Hoover is just cringe

[@jemimahlikesfood5792]

Abuse? Gaslighting? Sexual Assault? Yes. All the great qualities of a romance novel.

[@cotccsummers]

I love your profile picture

[@jemimahlikesfood5792]

@@cotccsummers Thank you!!!🥰

[@emptygraph3688]

Twist me by Anna Zaires is even worse There is kidnapping ,Stockholm Syndrome, rape and not to mention the mc was only 18 when she kidnapped. If anyone has read this book pls let me c

[@rienn8559]

to be fair i dont think its a romance novel

[@daisymae6]

@@rienn8559 It’s labelled as a romance novel

[@charlottewang4674]

to be honest, my biggest ick w colleen hoover is her writing style, she writes abt these suuper emotional things but her sentences are too simple and when you're reading abt her being pushed down the stairs its hard to really emote and feel for her because its like: I walk out of the door. Ryle follows me. What are you doing ryle? i ask. he pushes me. I fall. i am down the stairs (or smth like that i read the book a while ago) and its like how am i supposed to feel for her when these sentences are like 5 words long at most.

[@lilicake4208]

Yes!! I found it so difficult to feel the emotions the book was trying to portray, it utterly lacked empathy for its own characters

[@mrseskasi]

This 👏 I have read a few paragraphs and the English level was that of an “ugly” first draft…it’s horrendously awful. After that I was … nope, life is too short to waste on crappy books.

[@acoelomate2984]

Man i remember reading The Namesake by jhumpa Lahiri and thinking that exact same thing. Like this is a Pulitzer Prize winning author… what am I missing?

[@soggyshrimp]

personally my problem with it is a lot of the time they do it to make the man look good like he hasn’t been an irredeemable asshole. they show no effect of the assault most of the time, either

[@presleyjoyce7315]

literally, i feel like she skips over the most important parts of the story, and it’s hard to understand what the characters are feeling

[@marianamauricio]

okay but the fact that caleb was just a young boy and had more awareness than all the adults in the book community bullying him for disliking colleen hoover.....

[@amberwingtundrawing776]

Its really gross how many adults are ready to attack children for (rightfully) not liking media like this on the the internet

[@naastyaaaaaaaaa]

@@amberwingtundrawing776 precisely! Gross and terrifying.

[@entreterilendo]

thiiiiis

[@BunzieCakes]

Most likely these disgusting adults are all part of some sort of toxic relationship and relates to Colleen hoover. They mad caleb be calling them out

[@drunkgeek3035]

I never liked the fame around the Colleen Hoover books, but I was curious about her Ugly Love book and It ends with us. So I read it and yeah I didn't like those books because of the vibes they gave me. They all look like cheap wattpad novels filled with grammar errors. It's sad to see people like her being famous for glorifying bad things on Booktok (where people put trigger warnings for everything).

[@Becca-cs5cb]

I’ve never read her books but after seeing the “we laugh at our son’s big balls” quote, I don’t think I ever will

[@elenazanna5475]

You made me look it up so now you gotta pay for my eye bleach, okay?

[@pig3292]

Yeah, that's really a line you can't unhear

[@leighhauserman9549]

What 😂 and people like her

[@EM-mn3nz]

omg what....

[@mollymay7760]

why did you make me relive this

[@artnunymiss2530]

You don't come across as a misogynist at all. In fact it's rare for a man to stand up against the internalized misogyny represented in Colleen Hoover's books. Hoover writes for hetero women with low standards and expectations. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, it's all too clear to me. You just have better decency.

[@Author.Noelle.Alexandria]

I was a kid of the 80’s, and I’m sick to my stomach still about the shit I used to read and think was romantic because it was sold to me AS ROMANCE. I stayed in an abusive relationship because it was like the ROMANCE books I read, and nearly ended up dead for it. There aren’t strong enough words to describe how much it upsets me that abuse is STILL portrayed as romance, and even when we can openly talk about it, we’re supposed to hand-wave it as “just fantasy” while selling it to teens and kids, the people who are the most impressionable and the least likely to have rational adults to talk to about any of it.

[@the_sky_is_blue_and_so_am_I]

@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria Thank you for sharing your story. I will learn from your story.

[@korvadae9465]

@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria Right??? I've seen young girls wave off abusive, sometimes downright criminal behavior (in fiction) if the guy is good looking and is like protective sometimes.

[@minirth.maggie]

I was a teen in the late 80s and I am shocked now by how graphic and r*pey historical romance was (is it still?). Bertrice Small was my crack, and every book featured multiple SAs, often by the heroine's current, former, or future love interest. It was so much worse than I can convey on youtube.

[@scheherazade2291]

The biggest problems is that the books are labeled romance instead of just contemporary. Having a book about demotic abuse and toxic relationships is fine, but portraying it as romantic isn’t.

[@Sqwiggy]

100% With such vile and distressing topics you’d think we are reading some sort of strange horror/thriller. It’s fine if the toxic relationship prevails in the end but don’t frame it as something we should idolize/romanticize.

[@vivineon]

@@Sqwiggyright? like i think in the end of verity, jeremy and lowen staying together is fine, i just wish it was written better. instead of lowen being fine with their relationship and jeremy's violent tendencies, it would have been a better ending-- both more realistic and more fitting of the thriller genre-- to have her now terrified of jeremy after witnessing what he can do, and scared to try to leave the relationship and feeling trapped with him. but instead, lowen is happy with their relationship and everything's dandy at the end of book

[@giraffewhiskers2045]

I’m sorry but when women get into an abuisve relationship.. what’s the first thing they think about it.. oh yeah “I love him”

[@SabrinaRene4565]

Totally agree with you, books can totally have problematic characters and behavior when they are clearly labeled that way and it’s addressed as bad not cute and sexy

[@annanorth9306]

Before I knew about Colleen Hoover and her crimes against literature, I was convinced by a booktok girly to buy one of her books at Barnes and Noble. i will neither forgive nor forget, SARAH.

[@Kelser0ni]

Damn, B&N is EXPENSIVE too 😬

[@crustycryptid5553]

I would go ballistic

[@lawrencemakoare-z7p]

this comment is so funny

[@hannahrepollo]

HELPP

[@yowieyahoo]

of course her name was sarah

[@j.essoliver]

god bless the hoover hater community bc we truly are constantly in the trenches against the booktok girlies

[@efflorescentcrystal]

My cousin unfortunately is a booktok girlie and her books are....

[@annieee___1301]

We shall persevere frfr

[@Myselfni123]

All the basic bitches who never read a book love coho

[@annetteg4510]

im a booktok hoover hater

[@Jo-sv9io]

anything to fight the booktok girlies

[@asherwitney697]

I thought Colleen Hoover was like 19… I was shocked to find out she was a middle-aged woman with a son. Like, these bad books are written by someone who is middle-aged?!?!?!

[@guggelguggel7491]

Some people just dont grow up huh

[@art3mis677]

She's very kinky

[@larredderral6177]

I was scrolling comments and I just read one comment that quotes one line of her book saying” we laughed at our son’s huge balls” and I now I know she has a son💀💀💀💀

[@AstarionWifey]

She used to be a teacher too 😂😂😂

[@katlamb4606]

She knows what sells.

[@StarrChild.]

It’s sad that she’s been very open about the fact her mother was in an abusive situation and then writes characters in that situation but spins it as love. I honestly think she’s got trauma and dealing with it in one of the worst ways

[@Caralluin]

She needs therapy to address her issues and heal. Romanticizing abuse on mass scale through published books is harmful for the youth and society as a whole because it makes people tolerant about abuse and it kind of normalizes it.

[@giraffewhiskers2045]

Okay, but do you know personally what it’s like to be in a abuisve relationship? Because I don’t think you do I’ve only been sexually assaulted and emotionally abused/ verbally abused… and I can tell you I was willing to marry these men because I was holding on to them and who I thought they were, what I thought they could be.. if we don’t understand abuse outside of the relationship than shouldnt we understand abuse inside the relationship for us to understand?

[@gh0ul213]

@@giraffewhiskers2045 Ok, and as a victim of sexual assault and abuse , that's not the argument here at all...the point is that actively talking about abuse is fine , but advertising it and writing it as ROMANCE is vile. Imagine someone reading that depiction and just taking for granted that abusing, stalking , or pushing your partner's boundaries is fine because it's advertised as "love" ?? Like , honestly if it was narrated as a psychology book ,it would make sense , it would interesting , it would be educational. But it is not written to be a warning ; Collen Hoover casually write scenes of ASSAULT , gaslighting and abuse like it's something to look for in a relationship , something romantic or that should be forgiven. TL;DR : not the point , she still romanticize vile behavior (also your point doesn't make a lot of sense, or maybe I misinterpreted it because I don't get what you mean ?? if you don't understand something even in appearance , you sure as hell won't understand the psychological behavior behind it??)

[@ultravioletpisces3666]

@@giraffewhiskers2045I do

[@emilyh5987]

When Lily Blossom Bloom named her daughter after Dory (the fish) I knew I could not trust Booktok ever again

[@Volcanic_torchlight.]

For real ?

[@idkwhatimdoinghere222]

I mean. She's literally named Lily Blossom Bloom coz shes a florist. What can we even expect from this woman 🧍🏽‍♀️

[@nashitad8822]

emmerson dory ffs

[@episkey-amour]

@@idkwhatimdoinghere222 LITERALLY

[@Allie.Caskie]

emmerson ellen was right there 😭

[@sof338]

hating colleen hoover is the biggest green flag ever

[@lizzie4471]

Ikr🤣

[@redvelvetsexpiredicecream8455]

thank youuu

[@KJ-wl8lh]

Yess omg thank you!

[@grunge_raspberries]

Fr absolutely

[@deadcorpse69]

i found my people

[@kaylee-l3y]

most colleen’s hoovers male love interest remind me of andrew tate 😭. like it’s ok to make a character terrible, but you need to acknowledge that they are bad and not to romanticize their toxic and abusive behavior.

[@elyssarosen8835]

STOP you’re so right

[@payt00n]

NO YOU MADE IT EVEN WORSE NOW NOT ANDREW T- 🤢 ANDREW TA- 🤢 ANDRE- 🤮 I CANT IM SORRY 😭

[@razikboston3414]

@@payt00n who is this person? I keep hearing about them

[@payt00n]

@@razikboston3414 trust me it's way too much to put into 1 comment but pls cover ur drink and avoid people who try to defend him. I'd say look up commentry videos about him on yt. Illuminaughty did a good video on that pyscho I recommend.

[@amemelia]

@@razikboston3414 basically a misogynistic man who is becomming popular especially with teenage boys and men. Blames r*people victims, apparent sex trafficker, moved countries because the one who moved to has less punishment for female abuse/ violence, general misogynist

[@_vee]

It’s crazy how both most known Colleens are problematic 💀💀

[@Muffinn_Cakes]

I swear, I know ONE _good_ Colleen in real life, and she is an absolute angel 😭

[@obsidian4844]

The toxic booktok train

[@_vee]

@@obsidian4844 HAHAHAHAHA IM DEAD

[@-..Charlie..-]

real.

[@cobaltorchid6962]

Uh oh i was thinking the same thing 😭

[@ellawright5344]

Biggest flex is i have never picked up a Colleen Hoover book

[@MIKABL99D]

I wish i was u

[@zvezdoblyat]

Never even heard of her until this video lmao. The only thing close to romance I've read is the sookie stackhouse series by charlaine harris

[@RamonaGelosi]

Sameeeee

[@i33y_m4y]

same, always got bad vibes ever since i got the gist of the book and they blew up. weird n wrong books lol

[@mimirants7935]

Same

[@izbuel]

colleen hoover loves to throw the most traumatizing themes at this young audience and teach them “oh no no no! if he’s good at sex and is hot- who cares if he SA’d and abused you? you’re so dramatic. forgive him!🥳” and people continue to eat it up and now are taught to WANT this kind of relationship. absolutely not.

[@carnuatus]

I would like to say that people who SA are NOT good at sex. So her logic is flawed from the start.

[@the_goddess_1859]

​@@carnuatus And that the goddamned truth

[@saturn6563]

I saw a KZbin video about Colleen Hoover and I saw a comment that said that they got manipulated and that she genuinely wanted Lily to give Ryle a second chance. And everyone in the replies were agreeing 😭

[@janieceng2153]

like if this was a dark romance it’s still acceptable but nooooooo

[@livingdeadgaybutimalive9973]

It feels like it's cnc fetish content that, wanted a bigger audience it's weirs

[@someonee8250]

What didn’t set right with me was the fact that colleen was living in an abusive household and then grow up to writing books about romanticize abusive and problematic relationships , like are u ok?

[@Corerayyyy]

RIGHT😭 LIKE GIRL…

[@axkaxk7762]

A lot of people who face abuse, and don't get help, end up falling into the same cycle of abuse. It's not surprising she romanticizes abuse, it's probably all she has known as love.

[@Doodles-es1ep]

reads like the abusive parents favorite kid wrote a book. which by some of the things she’s said in acknowledgments seems correct

[@lorenachas3738]

THISSSSSSS. My parents had an abusive relationship and the way she writes about it in her books confuses me a lot. Like she doesn't condemn it? I don't want to say she likes it...

[@someonee8250]

@@lorenachas3738 it’s really weird, i had the same situation so i got triggered and really uncomfortable reading her books, I don’t wanna say that she saw her parents relationship and thought….

[@kitty0chan444]

My problem with it ends with us is that people always advertise it as a silly romance book or “books to read for hot girl summer” and I genuinely had no idea it was about domestic abuse

[@alicehellstrom7616]

Me neither and as a sexual abuse victim I just felt so frustrated reading this book bc there was no heads-up in the beginning warning abuse victims like myself that such elements would be brought up. I should have been able to decide for myself whether I would get flashbacks of my abuse or not instead it was just thrown at me out of nowhere. And this is one of the reasons why I have a problem with her as a person and not only her books

[@salmamoalim6656]

Yes I did not either, I was 16 when I read this book and I did not bother researching about this book. I just went into it blind thinking it was a nice love story only to read about domestic abuse.

[@brightbluezeniths]

RIGHT like i have no problem if this was advertised as it is: a book about the portrayal of abuse but since a lot of people apparently read this as a romance... ughhh

[@ettaetta439]

Yeah, it's so manipulative how she and her publishing company marketed it as a romance just because her romances are more likely to sell. So disgusting

[@silent_bag2350]

Finally a safe space to be a hoover hater I can believe that people are comparing her to Jane Austen Edit: You guys its been a year since I commented this I just heard someone say 'Fyodor Dostoevsky was the Colleen Hoover of his time' Im so fucking done I thought there were more Hoover haters these days but apparently not.

[@arminarlert6011]

No fucking way

[@plutoisaplanet5243]

They should not be disrespecting miss Jane Austen like that.

[@silent_bag2350]

I’m deadass telling the truth I swear on my life 💀✋🏽

[@silent_bag2350]

@@plutoisaplanet5243 she’s rolling him her grave

[@Gravve01]

PLEASE that’s the equivalent of spitting on Jane Austen’s gravestone 😭

[@BasicGeometry]

"Colleen experienced abuse as a child", "Colleen romanticizes abuse" Freud is laughing from hell right now.

[@athenaa239]

Crying

[@looolzah2049]

I like that freud is in hell

[@miserableprodigy]

LMFAOO

[@orteney.]

STOP I JUST FINISHED REVISING PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH

[@vannessagarcia4158]

as a psych major i'm screaming

[@goldennpothos]

misogyny runs so deep that even adult women think that abusive behavior in Hoover's books is cute and quirky - like ladies, let's have some self respect and boot these boys, not romanticize them!! You deserve better!!

[@EatTheRich848]

Preach sister 😔✊

[@ah4866]

Wait , honest question. Do you think this is a responsibility on men or women? Who's fault is it that the best selling books for women almost always have an unbalanced power dynamic where powerful men rule over the female protagonist? It's mostly written, read and praised by women in my opinion so I don't know if misogyny is the culprit here, more the exploitation of a bygone caricature of a man, used to get money from insecure young readers.

[@kulacute]

@@ah4866 women can be misogynistic too by accepting and propagating misogynistic sentiments, ie internalized misogyny

[@marinak4452]

it's not a issue of self-respect, it's an issue of the expectations women have been taught to have surrounding love since a young age. Through media, previous relationships, parental relationship, among other influences. You're right, internalized misogyny is real, but it's not just women "lacking self-respect". They need to begin a journey of essentially rewiring their minds to learn and recognize what real love is.

[@Suited_Nat]

Say it louder for the people in the back!!

[@randomthoughts0829]

this video is why i never go with the public opinion on things. Caleb was super perceptive with his initial review of Colleen hoover books and yet no one took him seriously because he was some nobody. Meanwhile, it was only when someone much more popular than him made the exact same points that the criticism towards her actually had some merit. I felt the exact same way with Sarah J Maas' stuff because while everyone was super enchanted by the fantasy world and cool action, i couldn't get over the less savory stuff people completely brushed over. It pissed me off.

[@sincerelykokomo852]

She's still so idolised and it makes me feel uncomfortable

[@i.roro11]

I want to hear your thoughts on Sarah J Maas. I'm contemplating whether I should read her books or not, because of the hype over it

[@swasti8875]

@@i.roro11 I read them before the hype, and they did have some problematic stuff, but its been a while since I read them and they're fine as far as I remember. You should try starting with the throne of glass series

[@randomthoughts0829]

@@i.roro11 late response, but i read the books when I was a teenager. I loved the first two throne of glass books. Truly. But as they went on, i thought something was off about them. The mc's new love interest constantly belittled and physically abused her. Even sexually assaulting her to a degree. And yet all of that is brushed under the rug because he was twamatized and needed a widdle hug :(. Soon enough all her male characters (sans chaol because he became disabled) sort of became that macho manly alpha stereotype. And not to mention making one of the most lesbian-coded characters (giving her a deep relationship with another female character + making her outright state "I only see men as food") into a submissive housewife for another man. Not to mention killing off the only two black women in the series to further the arcs of the white characters. The lore also doesn't make too much sense and aelin has a bit too much of main character syndrome. Most famous assassin (btw doesnt that defeat the point of being an assassin? Taking to the shadows and all?), missing heir to the throne. Literally named a god killer. And in order to win, only gave up her human form and some of her power. It could have been great. I haven't read her other series but plenty of people have gone into depth as to why that story sucks.

[@justjukka]

A good friend of mine recently told me that she doesn't care for Maas, and she is boggled by her popularity. I'm glad I missed out, but now I can assure her that she isn't alone!

[@anotheralaina]

As a teen girl, I’m disappointed that my peers have such poor taste and feed into a culture that primes us for toxic relationships.

[@witch4255]

I went to a local bookstore today (in Germany, which is where I live, keep that in mind) and they had not ONE, but three German Colleen Hover sections, plus a English section for her as well. Two of them where labeled with her name (the others just, you know clusters of her books) and like, her section was bigger than the Tolkien section, lord of the rings only being represented with two of three books in the English section, and if that is not a crime I do not know what is... I was so appalled... I was just staring angrily the entire time and complaining to my friend (who only reads manga), who almost laughed their head off XD

[@Aedon__]

yk what my biggest dissapointing moment is? I started getting really into books because of a childhood friend like 6 years ago. Infact I have bought a few famous booktok book and so on but My taste has rather been different. And now two girls from my class and my best friends read books. Sadly they all enjoy coleen hoover💀 I am not trying to gatekeep but especially now it feels like they just started reading the „popular“ hyped books and dont even consider criticising or looking between the lines. Those books are not literature, they are wattpad stories written by a 30 year old women on a 13 year old niveau for other 13 year olds. It is honestly so dissapointing.

[@Aedon__]

@@witch4255 Same. I also live in germany (hallo erstmal) and in Rossmann. ROSSMANN. There were 4 german colleen hoover books. Im like „bish“- no.

[@Yoru4496]

Oof.. The first book i started reading was colleen's November 9..i didn't know she was this bad..

[@witch4255]

@@Aedon__ Hallo! Wait for it, they will have them in Müller soon haha

[@asiasias]

People have tried to gaslight me that “It Ends With Us” is a great book because she wrote it based on her mother’s trauma but I’ve never read something more horrid, triggering, and romanticizing very real, very dangerous issues of the world, like that book does. It’s not cute, it triggering. Lily’s husband and Atlas are BOTH equally bad. And yes, Atlas did wait for Lily to turn 16 to have sex with her. It’s gross, stop romanticizing DV, assault, and manipulation. Even Wattpad writers write better than this!

[@DsRelaxingSounds]

I'm pretty sure that's not what gaslighting means. I'm sure you're right about the book though, haven't read it and don't feel compelled to either.

[@asiasias]

@@DsRelaxingSounds that is literally what it means, and how would you know better about my experience than me? Don’t read the book, it romanticizes DV and I don’t understand how people are still supporting her

[@DsRelaxingSounds]

@@asiasias But when people say that, are they questioning your perception or sanity? As far as I know that’s what gaslighting means, so the term confused me in this context.

[@asiasias]

@@DsRelaxingSounds “Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which the abuser attempts to sow self-doubt and confusion in their victim's mind. Typically, gaslighters are seeking to gain power and control over the other person, by distorting reality and forcing them to question their own judgment and intuition.” This is what gaslighting means, it’s generally questioning someone’s perception to invalidate their response (aka sanity) to exert their own power (in this case beliefs).

[@DsRelaxingSounds]

@@asiasias Yeah I know what it means thank you. 🙃 I just said that. I was just struggling to see how that fits into the context of people talking about why liked a book. Unless they went like: 'you're crazy for not liking this, you just didn't understand it!' or something like that.

[@ReneeLariviere]

And no offence to you but why can a 16 year old boy identify toxic relationships more than a 25 year old woman reading this? the fact that women are reading these books as romance is messed up! Thank you for speaking out.

[@dearrationals]

You have some westerners pushing violence as "sexy" in some contexts, even in their relationships so it's not that surprising..

[@indigo903]

I never liked Colleen Hoover because I knew she had a problematic target audience but after learning the contents of November 9th, I don't feel any remorse on hating this woman. I was burned as a baby and I've lived with scars my whole life and seeing this written in such a popular book that (mainly 13-year-old) teenagers are reading and romanticizing is absolutely boiling my blood. I don't see her "apologizing" for the assault scene as caring for her fans and readers because if she did, she would have removed that horrid book from her shelves in the first place, addressed more than one issue with the story, and, I don't know, write a proper romance where the MC isn't a burn victim in love with the man who ruined her life and almost burned her alive.

[@miadoesmanythings]

I am so sorry that this happened to you. It’s disappointing and disgusting what Hoover is doing. Ben ruined Fallon’s life and she fell in love with that b-? “Awww, so cute” my foot. I really hate Colleen and I feel like she doesn’t understand what actual victims of what she writes abt in her books actually feel (like what u said abt being a victim of a bad situation). I hope you are doing well now.

[@h0td0gwater]

Thank you for sharing your perspective. Trauma is tricky, I hope you're doing okay these days

[@todo_touya]

i’m a bookseller at barnes & noble and i have lost count of the amount of times me and my coworkers diss CoHo and the people who obsess over her (ESPECIALLY ugly love. “we both laugh at our son’s big balls.” WHAT WAS THAT PART)

[@mymeatyballs]

OUR SONS BIG BALLS??? GLAD I NEVER BOUGHT ANY OF HER BOOKS LMFAO

[@hbombfreak]

I’m just finding out about her and HUH???? 💀💀

[@strudelh]

BRO WHAT ??😨

[@gimmefeedback]

How often would you say people check out her books?

[@todo_touya]

@@gimmefeedback literally every day. we have a display just for her, and when she releases a new book people wait in a line outside the door before opening just to get it.

[@ellie5560]

thank you for creating a safe space to hate on Colleen Hoover books😌 the majority of social media will come at you with pitchforks the moment you try to voice your dislike of any of her work.

[@edmontonboy99]

Hoover fans: **comes at him with pitchforks** Scooby-Doo: Ruh roh!

[@enjajajajaja]

There’s been a sudden wave of Colleen Hoover haters, have you checked twitter

[@ellie5560]

@@enjajajajaja no i haven’t actually- i have her name muted on all social media because if i see her name or any of her books on my tl one more time im gonna gouge my eyeballs out with a spork, tbh.

[@mykenziemasters2793]

I was banned from a Facebook book group for this reason lol

[@ellie5560]

@@mykenziemasters2793 ahahaha im wheezing stop. you’re an icon.

[@sydg9388]

What an author writes about is literally their whole career and she writes about assaulting and disrespecting women and idolizing this kind of horrible, hurtful, damaging behavior.

[@herb_rolls]

We should also cast our gaze to Stephen King who despite writing org1es with 11 year olds and including many equally off putting misogny, is getting movies. Murakami is worshipped for his writing but writes of r4pe dreams and dismisses women. We need to pass tighter restrictions on editing and what can be written about and what gets idolized in the writing community.

[@elliottdowis9934]

@@herb_rolls Stephen King gets quite a bit of criticism in a lot of circles for reasons like that. And for the way he writes women ogling themselves all the time, and more. I've mostly seen it on Reddit but I'd love any booktubers that have something to say about him! Besides the misogyny, I think he's just not the best at writing anyway and so much of the praise he gets is not warranted.

[@cookiemonster59263]

it's wild because I've avoided CH's work due to the pregnancy tropes - I didn't even know about the SA and the rampant misogyny, guess I dodged a bullet on that one

[@azde4042]

honestly that's most hetero romance novels at this point

[@abibas3050]

@@herb_rolls yeah I don't like king but I hate the idea of stricter editing restrictions more tbh

[@irenekatona7856]

Nah. I have zero guilt. She’s influencing all these young girls into thinking abuse is sexy

[@ajakakakak]

Her books aren’t for 10 year olds they are for adults and at the youngest being older teens. I’m pretty sure atp they can can grasp fiction vs reality. You can enjoy something in fiction and not condone it irl. And this is coming from someone who hates her books

[@irenekatona7856]

@@ajakakakak The audience is still young and impressionable my original point still stands. An adult can discern fiction from reality but a young woman and teenager it is much more difficult and therefore more damning considering her amateur writing style and marketing strategy is directly targeted to the afore mentioned age group above.

[@ajakakakak]

@@irenekatona7856 how is it towards teens? Most of her audience is young adult woman, they are more than capable of understanding fiction vs reality. I’m 18 and if I read her books I’m not suddenly gonna find them hot. Most if not every person who find her books sexy already found this genre attractive beforehand or was going to eventually. It’s mostly up to parents to make sure kids too young aren’t reading her books, most have smut in them I’m pretty sure. Unless I’m missing something and she does actually market her stuff towards kids but I haven’t seen anything like that so far

[@irenekatona7856]

@@ajakakakak have you ever been to a bookstore? I visit mine weekly. They are always place under “booktok” books, an app mostly young girls use, the videos or posts I see of her books are always recommended by teens young girls, the facebook fangroup of hers is mostly made up of… teens and young girls, and why would you be defending a book that romanticizes abuse as a self proclaimed hater yourself? Parents responsibility or maybe writing abuse smut and once again, marketing it towards kids on multiple social media platforms with a large number of young girls on it is problematic in itself?

[@irenekatona7856]

@@ajakakakak have you ever been to a bookstore? I visit mine weekly. Her books are always placed directly under a bootok sign an app used mostly by teens and young girls, the videos I see of anyone liking her books are made by teens and young girls her fan Facebook account is mostly made up of? Teens and young girls. Exactly you made an excellent point. The girls who have already been abused or have a pension for it will now find it and instead of realizing their abuse healing from their abuse they will be taught to romanticize it instead. And for someone who hates her books so much you sure love defending the glorification of abuse? The parents fault or maybe writing books about young women romanticizing abusive partners and then directly marketing to them young teenagers and girls on social media apps they 100% already use is problematic in itself.

[@ava_marie_v]

It is so depressing that Colleen Hoover spent her writing career romanticizing abusive men to the point that there is a subsection of her own fans who romanticize the dude she based off of her own mother's abuser. And all of this is with no major reflection on College's part about why the romances she's written about are problematic.

[@starsgalaxy3113]

Imagine messing up your readers so much that they romantize the character based off of your mothers abuser. I can not imagine that she doesn’t see a problem with that… like how does not make you feel a disgusted and reflect on your previous works?

[@ava_marie_v]

@@starsgalaxy3113 I would be horrified and questioning my whole career, but then again I also don't find ultra toxicly masculine men attractive so I don't write romance with them in it. So I have no clue what the mindset of people who enjoy that is like.

[@chocolatte6977]

Which character?

[@rvenclaws]

@@chocolatte6977 ryle

[@gdaym8y]

I would be so upset if I were her mom...like he abuses me but somehow becomes the good guy that ppl love?? I would be pissed and feel so betrayed by my daughter.

[@emilied5517]

I work in a bookstore, and let me tell you it makes me SO uncomfortable every time i see 12-15 year old girls buy Colleen Hoover or any other adult romance/fantasy books because of TikTok. that app is truly so dangerous for the kids nowadays it's not even funny

[@jcon2060]

Right now, I know exactly what younger and older girls read because of socmed. Do you have any insights as to the current trends targetting men? Do they go into bookstores still? I heard it was non-fiction and war memoirs about a decade ago, and high fantasy and science fiction for the younger (?) audiences. Is that still true? (Uh detailed disclaimer if it appears that I am sexist. My tastes angle towards non-fiction, economics and tech, so I naturally end up reading more male authors than not, but I definitely do not care about the gender of the author and that is the last thing that I care about. Hell, I have read everything written by ayn rand irrespective of whether I agree with her views or not.)

[@emilied5517]

@@jcon2060 Adult men are still skewing towards the non-fic side, but in terms of fiction: mystery, horror, and sci-fi/fantasy are the subgenres men tend to shop more. For teen boys it's definitely manga.

[@laramorgan7779]

This!! I had 11 year old Girls ask for her books.. When there's an adult or Parent with them I always tell that these books are not for children. It's Kind of disturbing to See all these Young Girls Reading about toxic relationships being romanticised..

[@emilied5517]

@@laramorgan7779 I had a mother and her daughter come in and ask me for "this Teen Fantasy book The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue" and I had to have like a 20min discussion with them about how it was an adult fantasy book and that TikTok was not a reliable source for age-appropriate book recommendations

[@wintrysnowflake3385]

I read a Sarah J Maas book and 50 Shades at the wee age of 12 and I was never the same lol 🙂 (thankfully I didn't act weirdly after that though I was pretty much scarred and confused as hell). So yeah, as much as I know and insist that problematic fiction always have a place (though it needed to be said that people should learn how to separate fiction from reality because if not it's gonna lead to some harmful things and assumptions---), it's best that you put some restrictions as to what kids can read because they can't really separate fiction from reality. I mean, that's why ratings and librarians exist lol.

[@thereallofigirl]

I got banned in her Facebook group for criticizing her writing all I said was “it wasn’t my favorite the writing definitely could be better” 💀

[@smilesface3741]

That aint a bad critic. They should be concerned by the contexts in her “books”

[@growmory]

I got restricted from Instagram🤦‍♀️

[@animelovergirl8461]

That sounded like she only accepts praises and not including constructive critisms as part of writing development too.

[@growmory]

@@animelovergirl8461 yup🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

[@starfire4539]

Every time (not every time obviously) middle aged women write romance stories, they always write the weakest female leads and problematic male leads, and I just wanna hit my head against a wall. Like the amount of erotica’s written by middle aged women where the female lead is a barely legal adult and the guys are always like 30-40 year olds, it’s creepy, and I will never stop writing harsh reviews on goodreads lol

[@RuthMadisonAuthor]

I promise it’s not all us middle aged women 😂 Okay I’ll admit my first book that I published in my 20s is problematic (but not this bad!) Now in my 40s I like to write about healthy adults falling in love ❤

[@0ndljk]

those are women who ended up in failed marriages and now write self insert teenage porm stories to compensate

[@CANINETHEROPY]

@@RuthMadisonAuthor how sweet 💘

[@Hello-hello-hello456]

It's their internalized misogyny that comes out through their writing.

[@MaxDoll]

This was very common in the 1980s. It's depressing that a part of the romance community (authors and readers) still feed into this stuff.

[@ellendaniels8715]

Colleen rlly out here romanticizing concepts that literally get women killed 🙌🏻🥵

[@cry-piddawg]

IK🤯 like if that scene where she’s leaving him was realistic, she’d be murdered!

[@butterflyindisguise3838]

Wildest part is that ik people who ADMIT that her books romanticize abuse and still like to read her books

[@jamesy8217]

I missread that as romantising corpses and was like wait what she wrote about necrophillia

[@sully42O]

@@jamesy8217honestly i would not even be surprised

[@whippedtm8145]

Booktok is just a cesspool of terrible recommendations. They validate the most problematic things or the cringiest sex scenes known to man.

[@nemesis5807]

Girl, even torture, ped0phel!a, SA and all other fvcked up stuff are recommended there like wtf

[@franci54]

right?? it happened for me with the book a little life...

[@whippedtm8145]

@@franci54 isnt that just trauma porn?

[@aileengamez6454]

And the majority of the time their book recommendations are all from white authors

[@theprettypaw4615]

Agreed. The only thing guaranteed from booktok recommendations is that the book is typically addicting but overall very fluffy and not of much actual substance.

[@mariam19554]

I think the reason some people like her books is because they didn't read bad fanfiction as teens so now they can't discern between a well written romance and a badly written one. "It Ends With Us" reads as such an edgy Wattpad fanfiction at times, and I picked up on that immediately. Like everyone in that book is super successful and rich and they live in a penthouse?? That's such a fanfiction thing

[@casswashwash1070]

I loved that book. Everyone entitled to their opinion though. But I got that it was in the perspective of an unreliable narrator who is not seeing through the abuse/toxic relationship shes in until further in the story. I can see where ppl dont like when books in those perspectives but i always get it but thats just me

[@stormsandsaints]

This is so true!! The first (and only) book I read was Verity and I had to force myself to finish it. I was hoping it would get better but it’s literally bad fanfiction. Not only her writing but the scenes were so cliche, I genuinely don’t understand what’s the hype about her books.

[@dreamingofthemoon]

Thiss!!

[@silvia6790]

I think you might be right. I’ve got 2 friends who read Colleen Hoover and both of them love her work. One of them reads still reads Wattpad, and I think that’s why she still likes them. The other one hasn’t read Wattpad ever. And I’m well past my Wattpad era. At times, when I read her works, it was just throwback after throwback: they’re all rich for some reason (except Slammed, and even there in the end it turns out they still are), there’s the bubbly best friend, then the high school sweetheart shows up randomly, he’s got a dark and mysterious past, etc, etc. And all of her love interests have a lot of red flags, which you can pick up on quite easily as a fellow Wattpad reader. The only book where the MC makes the right choice and dumps his toxic butt is It Ends with Us, and I fear that Colleen might ruin it in her upcoming novel.

[@mariam19554]

@@silvia6790 Soooo true, I've only read "It Ends With Us" but the first half of the book was entirely a bad fanfiction. There were so many clichés that it seemed ridiculous, like of course a girl that just stumbled into your new shop happens to be insanely rich but also the sister of the guy you "can't stop thinking about" that you met a year ago or something. Life is stranger than fiction of course but this was just too many coincidence and conveniences that it was a very predictable read.

[@kristincorley97]

I read a super messed up book when I was young and its always been in the back of my mind. Tried looking up "girl who was sa'd by dad when she was a kid and finally remembers because of boyfriend", "girl tries to have sex but can't bc of past trauma" etc and I kid you not, after years of searching, I just found out it was a damn Colleen Hoover book!!!! Completely makes sense. It was 'Hopeless'

[@ryanwrites]

Sounds also like the plot of Gerald's game.

[@mizer2667]

@@ryanwrites Ah now don't compare Geralds Game to that trash, Geralds Game is at least written with delicacy and respect.

[@ryanwrites]

@@mizer2667 I was just talking about the similar plot point of childhood SA effecting her adult life. Not the writing.

[@mizer2667]

@@ryanwrites Ahh, sorry then, I thought you were just comparing the two stories in general.

[@julia1493]

Oh my god I was looking for this comment - this was oy one Collin hoover book I have ever read It was SO UNCONFORTABLE I can't forget this bc the dude was like 'I NEED IT NOW' when the girl tried to stop

[@viviengoldammer6570]

i hate how her books romanticizes toxic relationships and how young girls start to think that it’s cUtE & how relationships are supposed to work and it completely messes with their perception of love but no one’s willing to talk about it

[@RebeccaBane]

I've only read It Ends With Us, but this is exactly how I feel. I really thought I was going to read a nice romance and then I ended up having nightmares because the guy was a horrifying s*xual abuser.

[@shslsomething8195]

yeah like, as bad as it is, i dont think i would hate it so much it it wasnt aimed at teen girls. it would be just another bad book on ny list. But sseing ao many young people thinking the relationship is goals concerns me a lot

[@EM-mn3nz]

it's bizarre to me that this is what she does when she literally came from an abusive home

[@saumyavig8964]

@@EM-mn3nz dont say that lmao, the arm chair psychologists are gonna start to attack you for this lol🤭, saying shit like "its a coping mechanism" or whateva, gross-

[@Romantixeditz]

It's fiction, if people can't learn to separate fiction from reality that's not colleen's issue... I love a good toxic romance novel, but I would never allow that to happen to myself or anyone else in real life.....

[@clarisselarue151]

the hate pepople had for a boy at the time for pointing out ABUSE and assault is insane...

[@leileyaravencroft]

It’s insane to normal people. But some people don’t care about age… they will drag someone who would DARE talk bad about someone they like.

[@horrorghoul]

He embarrassed people which made people get defensive because they never noticed that it was a toxic relationship. Research has shown that defensiveness in response to wrongdoing is exacerbated by making the wrong doer feel like they're an outcast. Defensive behaviours are common responses when people feel personally attacked but can undermine our ability to identify problems and find solutions.

[@NathasyaStellaHermanus]

My man was pointing out about the concerning amount of romanticized abusive behavior in those books when no one noticed them and he got thrashed because of that.

[@mw5218]

In my opinion, something really problematic about her writing is, that every book, she uses trauma as a plottwist. She doesn't use it to go in depth on the trauma itself, she doesn't write about it to shine light on awful situations and expierneces some people have to go through. The sole purpose for the traumatic stuff happening in her book is, that the reader is shocked. That the reader gets to say 'I didn't see that one coming' . And that's so wrong. It shows no care for the victims of such situations and even worse, it exploits their trauma. I personally found hope forever to be especially awful and demeaning, considering the sole purpose of the girls tragic background story is, so she has a plot line that gets her with the male lead... Just awful.

[@zkkitty2436]

People who are traumatized have their trauma reduced to a plotpoint or an instigator AND can also be triggered by the book itself. As someone w ptsd I have to be very careful about the media I consume and do research into the plot of anything I’m interested in, bc if I’m not careful I can end up w insomnia and flashbacks for days over some shitty book. To use other peoples trauma to make up for bad writing and then to make the book itself completely inaccessible to them (without harming themselves). This is literally what appropriation is.

[@michellemarie1197]

That technically isn't really a bad thing, readers can look at the summary of the books and can choose to take stories with a grain of salt not every story that has trauma is meant to shine light on it, it's meant to shock you and it's solely meant for entertainment

[@deliri0um]

one book that has used trauma as plot twist sooo well is firekeepers daughter by angelina boulley, you can tell she deeply cares about the community and people shes writing about even if the characters are fake. its nuanced and educational and amazing

[@mariettthhh]

@@michellemarie1197 every book has a right to exist, but the difference is that the books that use trauma as a plot developer only are bad. Authors aren’t smart, or acknowledged, they can’t really work with tough topics and have poor understanding of any hard experience. It’s not enough to make book entertaining.

[@mw5218]

@@michellemarie1197 it's true that there is and should be book that are only there for enrertainment. I just think that a good author is able to write a book that's only supposed to entertain without having to dip into the trauma people have actually suffered through and use it to make up for the fact that they have no ideas for a plot

[@LESTR97]

"Obama chuckled. 'You mean the Chaos Emeralds?" is a more compelling line than anything CoHo has ever written

[@abih147]

People who enjoy her books clearly have never experienced emotional/sexual abuse. Victims of abuse find it disgusting and uncomfortable Edit: I can’t speak for every victim of abuse. Nonetheless, romanticizing abuse is not healthy. Many of us find it concerning and harmful.

[@Bootystank99659]

REAL I could not stop cringing and had to even turn the volume off for a bit while he was reading the assault scene from November 9th how do people even enjoy this unironically

[@carnuatus]

The scary part is I have a coworker whose friend was abused by a partner and she finds it "empowering."

[@the_goddess_1859]

​@@carnuatus I don't mean this in a mean way, but I'm assuming those are women who either A. Haven't healed or B. Are still caught in the mindset of when they were abused. Because there's nothing empowering about feeling like an ant in a man's hand 24/7

[@NOT_ain]

@@carnuatus you didn’t get the essence of the book then yeah it was empowering in a way that it reflects the thought process of victims of Domestic Violence

[@Peaches2456]

This is so crazy because the only book I had read was Where the Crawdads Sing and I really loved it. I can’t believe the same person who wrote that wrote THAT.

[@cuddlewuffle]

people get way too defensive when u say that its clear the only reason shes so big on booktok is bc all the ppl who love her books are the same ppl who haven't read anything since like 5th grade and it might seem mean but im sorry it's true,, they're literally going through the awkward weird book phase that most ppl go through in their teens but like, at 29

[@martina-dd6vb]

Couldn’t have said this better myself lol

[@kaikai16122]

Omg that’s such a good point

[@Enhallbarbokmal]

I understand but I actually do think this is mean to shame peoples reading taste. I enjoy colleen hoover and after is nostalgia for me but I like other things to like classics, fantasy or historical fiction like the bookthief is a favourite too. I can sometimes read just for entertainment as well. I do see that parts of it can be problematic but I do think it is dangerous to cancel authors because of free speech however critisism is also free speech and I think we should have more of age restrictions on those books who have abusive themes. I am sorry for my English I live in Sweden so English is not my first language.

[@sarasthoughts]

@@Enhallbarbokmal no, honey. No. People need to be held accountable for their shitty actions, and spreading harmful ideas through books is included. Her books are awful, they have awful morals and they can be actively harmful.

[@GraveyardShift-tl6ri]

this is true for people who also read NOTHING but YA

[@claudiadrake56]

she doesn’t need to apologize she just needs to stop writing LOL

[@tomatowthief4458]

First of all, she should go to therapy. dont care if she writes after she figured her shit out.

[@emotionaldamage9894]

she needs therapy badly she think she copes by writing about sexual traumas and shit by she is just suffering more.

[@Merakireads]

Ikr... I read a few of her books, and there's no significance in the plot. It's about two heartbroken lovers and sex. That's all.

[@wilthomas]

u can't tell ppl not to write. if u don't like it just don't read it thanks

[@aswespeak165]

@@wilthomas lmaooooo what is this 😭😭

[@queensarah9183]

Hoover is a bigggg no. The way all of her female characters CANNOT speak for themselves and how they just forgive and then GET PREGNANT!? It’s like her saying that women can’t be happy unless they’re pregnant or in a relationship. Yikes

[@ead0132]

I will never forgive booktok for the tiktokification of books 😭 every book they recommend make me want to rip my eyes out

[@kisskamm6631]

i got recommended “the selection”, and i have to say it has one of the worst finales ever

[@adoroselatte]

​@@kisskamm6631thank goodness I never liked the books 🗿

[@swiftboo8120]

Not all the books are bad. Only if you haven't tried the twisted series.

[@OliverStarfall]

I live in fear every day my favorite book series will be found by tiktok. I just KNOW they’d fetishize the mlm relationships and point out the trans masc character talking about their curves as “gross” or something. Then again tiktok wouldn’t dare even look at a book with a non-white protagonist so I’m most likely safe

[@Pendragon_Snail.]

​@@OliverStarfall oh! As a queer person looking for representation and diversity, can i ask the name of the series, please?

[@abeth-zuppa]

It sucks that "It Ends With Us" is an autobiographical experience based on seeing her mother going through the cycle of abuse, and that is traumatic for anyone to go through. What hurts me the most is that supposedly Colleen Hoover worked as a social worker prior to becoming an author. She would've seen people going through similar abusive relationships, talked them through it, and/or help them get out of there safely, as well as processing and helping victims on the path to healing. But her books don't reflect that - they only focus on the relationship being "ugly" and how we should feel bad for the male love interest because he's sad and can only express his emotions through anger and control. Even a disclaimer for the relationship being toxic or providing resources for readers who are or know somebody in an abusive relationship would be better than nothing.

[@littlebearfanpage]

wow i did NOT know that abt colleen hoover…. extremely disappointing that instead of putting out literature that helps readers recognize and break the cycle of abuse, she only perpetuates it and clearly finds it attractive herself. it feels very disingenuous for her as an author to paint herself as someone who reveals the truth behind abusive relationships in it ends with us while she promotes abusive relationships in all the rest of her books……

[@nishthagupta1357]

Finally someone said it! 😂💗🙌🏻

[@bearcelest7519]

She was a social worker?!?! I remember reading the author’s note because the ending made me extremely mad. In the author’s note she talked about how her father abused her mother and eventually her mother let her father be involved in raising their child together AFTER they divorced and he got help. The ending made more sense to me after that because I thought that was her only experience with abuse.

[@kirstydepaor547]

I wonder if her writing is her reimagining the horrible scenarios to give the abusers some weird redemption in a way they can’t in real life. I mean it’s just a theory but hmmmm.

[@lemonywater2979]

*step out of the house

[@jihnah]

There is page on Ugly Love by her. It says ‘’We laugh at our sons big balls.’’ That’s when I was done. Like I never felt so uncomfortable while reading a book.

[@muffinator1239]

Thank you. I got the book but never read it, and now I’m gonna burn it.

[@purplecat1691]

what's the context?? In what situation would someone say that lmaoo

[@alwaysrunning234]

I'm sorry WHAT?

[@shemonti4374]

@@purplecat1691 their baby just got born and they were driving back home and that's when main character said this line

[@lapissalem9478]

ik damn well

[@Al3xArtz]

Im sorry but i just find it INSANE how FALLON APOLOGIZES TO BEN FOR RIGHTLY LEAVING HIM AFTER FINDING OUT THE TRUTH OF HIM RUINING HER LIFE. And then when her mother reads the menuscript of the book and instead of being infuriated with the man who ruined her daughter's self esteem and almost got her killed. SHE DEFENDED HIM AND SAID THAT FALLON SHOULD REREAD THE MANUSCRIPT AND SEE FROM HIS POINT OF VIEW AND HIS PAIN. Hello?! He committed arson and almost murdered her over the fact of not reading his mother's suicide note and actually knowing the real reason, and jumping to conclusion that it was Fallon's dad.

[@gnuchuu]

THIS! I was extremely shocked by the same things

[@roachramen8441]

Colleen Hoover is the QUEEN of boy moms

[@miadoesmanythings]

@@roachramen8441yeah, thankfully she doesn’t have a daughter istg

[@mothgirlz]

omg colleen hoover is one of the reasons the tiktokification of literature has become more common. i can't believe a successful professional really discouraged listening and learning from negative criticism especially to new writers wtf??? I'm crying so many new books coming out lately are so bad we gotta get rid of tiktok

[@mothgirlz]

tbh i dont think criticizing this book/writer is misogynistic or anything. i think it's important to speak about genuinely problematic things that are influencing readers and young people who will romanticize the relationships in her books. her books are incredibly popular and obviously influence many people. negative criticism is necessary. it wasn't like you were criticizing her for petty and weak reasons, they were genuine concerns about abuse being portrayed as sexy and then have a book where this man is abusive and does some of the exact things her other male leads have done. i feel like her books seem to lack a lot of self-awareness, and I hope she realizes the criticism is valid and her next books improve. i think it's also important to note that colleen hoover is a rich white woman with incredible privilege and in a position to accept criticism. often white writers like her gain super popularity and go viral when other writers who are poc and black do not receive this same recognition or even have trouble getting into the industry when it is clear the quality of their work is much greater. I'm a first time viewer and just subscribed, but as long as your scathing reviews are not focused solely on attacking women and their books for the sole purpose of the fact they are popular, I don't see anything wrong with criticizing colleen hoover.

[@absolutew33b]

I stopped trusting booktok after they kept recommending me the same shitty LGBTQ+ books (however some of them are good). Maybe the books that they recommend isn't for someone like me because I crave books that delve into things more deeper than just presenting surface level issues. However, the fact that an LGBTQ+ kids book that I found was somehow more entertaining than all the books they kept recommending also already says a lot. Also, I hate how BookTok just presents Coleen Hoover like some kind of book god when all she did was write books about toxic male love interest, basically wattpad stuff (which is probably where most of her readers come from).

[@captainjacksparrow...]

yesss. booktok books are all alike. the girl meets the love interest. they hook up. they break up after something that the love interest did. then they get back together because they "love" each other. aggghhh. choose a new plot. i wanna write a book from the mans perspective and they get together but then the GIRL cheats. not the boy. and then they stay broken up forever because that's realistic.

[@moongirl8807]

I swear people on TikTok are so dumb. The videos are too short to contain any information, sources are nowhere to be found, and the comments are a mess bc there's no system to how they appear and they can only be like one sentence long. Also the audience is mostly really young. I don't wanna say kids are dumb but...teenagers definitely are😳(coming from someone who just grew out of that phase). Some of the comments are so dumb I just wanna die. Funnily enough KZbin goes into the opposite direction, with long format content getting more and more popular, and the quality being as high as never before.

[@flowersforyouu]

Colleen Hoover was so popular so I decided to read iewu because everyone loved it. At first, I felt weird for hating it and just assumed it was bc I’m a queer south asian girl and couldn’t relate to it at all. But then I realised that everyone else was stupid and I was correct because the whole book was just lily (lily blossom bloom the emo florist 💀💀) being ‘stop it this isn’t you! 🥺’ and pulling every man while having no personality but trauma. And oml the fact she wrote to Ellen and named her kid after finding dory makes me wanna drop dead. I’ve been more emotional and inspired by reading 15 year old ao3 authors who start the fic with ‘sorry english isn’t my first language’ also merry christmas

[@tzunamie]

also a queer south asian girl, completely agree. That book was absolutely disgusting. the wattpad writing, “quirky” female mc w handsome secretly abusive male lead, the way that he didnt even own up to his actions? no. Why is she being paid for this 😭

[@aurelia1083]

@@ella1854 coming from a queer european girl (lmao, sorry for breaking the chain) I can't describe how much i hated iewu. The Atlas spin off was awful as well

[@TPNsBiggestFan]

some fanfics ive read are actually pretty good, but even the okay or bad ones sound better than her books … thats bad

[@tzunamie]

@@ella1854 fr i understand if people want something easier to read but theres like no life in the characters at all ?? its like a bunch of npcs

[@Yoru4496]

@@TPNsBiggestFan I can relate😭

[@gramarmaster3216]

She lives in my town so shes practically worshiped here. You can’t say one bad thing about her without being attacked. She has so many valid criticisms about her and her books. And personally, some of her books are so unnerving to me. She normalizes all of the abuse in her books and it can be genuinely harmful. A lot of people who read her book are teens and highly impressionable. She should so much more responsible about the things in her books because of the age group that she writes for.

[@WhaleManMan]

Nobody has to be responsible for what children do just because of what they read or saw

[@troy511]

@@WhaleManMan thats not the point. try thinking critically for once

[@folkloricmoon]

@@WhaleManMan You missed the point massively. Coho’s books are marketed toward teens, a marketing decision by her enabling team of agents, publicists, and editors. Teens are impressionable and their minds aren’t fully developed, her books glorify things that no teen should see in a glorified manner. They don’t always understand the magnitude of these topics. So yes, she and her team SHOULD be held responsible. Querying and marketing as adult instead of YA WASN’T a hard call.

[@WhaleManMan]

@@folkloricmoon No I understand the point which is that you mistook the word "teenagers" are "toddlers"

[@folkloricmoon]

@@WhaleManMan So you’re saying we shouldn’t try to protect teens whose frontal lobes literally are not developed in the slightest, and should instead protect the literal ADULTS perpetuating an agenda that romanticizes negative and toxic relationships ships? They are completely responsible for this, and if you say otherwise, you’re blinded to the facts themselves. Teenagers need to be protected, because most are fckn dense. I say that as a teen. Seriously, so many of my peers could read Coho books and see that as the blueprint for a perfect relationship. Absolutely not. Grow some brain cells, please

[@theduskqueen]

Who is here after the It Ends With Us movie drama? 🙋‍♀️

[@SolCareMimi]

Been looking for this comment !! Present 😊✋🏾

[@INC408]

Meeeeeeee

[@hennamontana222]

In the author’s note for It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover mentions that Ryle was inspired by her father. She mentions her father did unforgiveable things even despite having good qualities such as being smart. I think she doesn’t fully want to villainize Ryle because it means villanizing her father. And seeing that toxic relationships are all she writes about, I think she seriously needs help but hasn’t come to terms with that realization. I think there’s some serious trauma she holds on to and needs to heal from. And this is why she’s so defensive and won’t accept criticism. Update: I just read It Starts With Us (the sequel) and she does the same thing at the end. SPOILER WARNING: So she’s still trying to deal with Ryle in her life while pursuing a relationship with Atlas. And Ryle sends her threatening messages, pushes her against a wall, and Lily’s finally had enough. Yes girl! Finally. Take his ass to court. But no. Her and Ryle’s family stage an intervention and tell Ryle to start going to anger management classes at the end of the book. Again. Colleen Hoover doesn’t wanna villanize her father, so Ryle doesn’t go to prison, get sued or lose his medical license. I just don’t believe anger management classes hold him fully accountable for his behavior. EDIT: Wow, this got tons of engagement/likes. But my stance on this whole thing CoHo is traumatized AF. She probably became a social worker first bc she wanted to heal herself. And tbh she should go seek therapy instead of writing these books and romanticizing trauma.

[@sarasthoughts]

And that is the exact reason why her books should have stayed unpublished.

[@dawnnn444]

yea that’s definitely the most concerning thing for me. ofc writing can be an outlet to explore trauma, sure, but romanticizing it, marketing it as romance and selling it to a largely female audience is very concerning to me. normalizing these behaviours as if they’re cute or swoon worthy is doing much more damage than good and i think the success her books have garnered has only solidified the “okayness” of these issues in not only her audiences mind but surely hers as well. she needs genuine help and im sure a lot of her audience does as well and continuing to praise these books just pushes genuine exploration of the problematic issues within them even further aside. just really disappointing.

[@myrakhurana1260]

@@dawnnn444 DUDE. She did not romantasize ryle she tried to show what it's like to be a fucking abuse victim ofc she didnt fully viliainize Ryle because then we won't get why abuse victims don't leave their abusive parenters. Because they see them in the light coleen showed us. Saying that it's romantizing it is bullshit. Lily kept pushing her boundaries because that's exactly what happens in abusive relationships. WHAT THE FUCK WILL BE THE POINT OF THE BOOK if after the first hit lily just leaves ryle and it's a happily ever after??? Not everything can be perfect all the time and at the end of the book lily does divorce him but lets him co parent the child because Ryle is Inspired by her father AND THE REASON WHY HE COULD COPARENT IS THAT Coleen Hoover's father never harmed her after the divorce when he was coparenting with his wife. RYLE HAD ISSUEs but she didn't fucking end up with him THAT WAS LITREALLY THE POINT OF THE BOOK. LEAVE YOUR GODDAMN ABUSE PARenteR godaMIT

[@shauna5738]

This is exactly what I picked up on when I finished the book and read the author's note and I'm so glad that others are seeing this too.

[@saumyavig8964]

So shes trauma dumping and also distorting the perspective of so many young girls and we are supposed to forgive her for that because she is mentally ill?? Mmkay-

[@augustlunaonline]

All of colleen hover’s books should be marketed as horror and tragedy

[@okaypearl]

because it’s a tragedy they were ever published

[@hello-lk6iv]

@@okaypearl LMFAOOOO

[@sin3358]

Truly, they are that, but it's the fans that only focus on the ✨ spice ✨. Istg if you ask them what they liked the most about the books, and they were honest, they'd say the sex scenes. One way to know this is if you ask them what other books they read. You can like spice but if all they like is bad spice, that's a no

[@honey6610]

Slayyyyy

[@ayusreeraha]

Yess dude

[@care23]

the fact that she has a degree in social work and doesn't know any better when writing her stories, damn

[@JhazelAngelie81]

YOURE JOKING RIGHTTTTT😭

[@JhazelAngelie81]

I’m a social worker myself and cannnooot fathom doing anything similar to her work that’s crazy

[@henotic.essence]

​@@JhazelAngelie81she had to have been drunk the entire 4 years 🤣🤣🤣

[@JMcomments]

All social workers are twisted people, no one ever learns

[@lilymarie1765]

The response I always get when complaining about her is "well the book isn't actually promoting that, it's showing what abuse is like and how people are manipulated and choose to be with their abuser." If that's actually the case, WHY is Colleen not more vocal about the fact that her books portray abuse and shouldn't be romantisised??? Why are these books being promoted to CHILDREN as young as 13, 14, 15?? Why does every single book not have trigger warnings printed in it? I could possibly be ok with her if bringing awareness to abuse was actually her goal, but it doesn't actually appear to be. The worst part is her entire fandom has been gaslit into thinking it's okay to recommend these books to young people without trigger warnings or downplaying how horrifying the content is. A ton of my friends like her and it's honestly insane and sad that girls my age think promoting or romantizing these books is ok.

[@maisie9705]

and creating colouring books about her books on abuse

[@LittleMoonpig]

Thank you for addressing the fact that Colleen had the audacity to give her character three names relating to flowers and then make her a FLORIST?! I have never seen anyone else be bothered by this and that alone made me nearly stop It Ends With Us after the first page.

[@missquinberly]

I hope the shop was called Lily's Blooms

[@LittleMoonpig]

@@missquinberly No because it pretty much was! I think she called it Lily Bloom's. An absolute atrocity

[@fx4426m]

@@missquinberly it absolutely was 😭😭😭😭😭

[@Viewer777Cole]

I gasped out loud reading this. It truly is a wattpad fanfic 😅 kind of glad I found this video so I can save the time of reading/buying it myself

[@potato.pancake]

@@LittleMoonpig it’s giving bee movie

[@guizhongs]

Not only is she popular on booktok, she’s popular on bookstagram too. I’m sure most of the people crossover, but it’s so cringe seeing posts of her “romantic” quotes highlighted in pink and with hearts drawn around them like it’s not the most wattpad cringe sentence I’ve ever seen or just straight up toxic

[@BritTheHater]

Exactly. The only good quote, though, is "Just because we're not in the same wave, doesn't mean we're not in the same ocean.".

[@GoldenWreck]

Oh fuck, bookstagram is a thing too?

[@BritTheHater]

@@GoldenWreck Yeah, and it's TERRIBLE.

[@GoldenWreck]

@@BritTheHater I take your word for it.

[@samu-chan]

bookstagram 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

[@marianamauricio]

when the world needed him most, he returned to expose colleen hoover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@3536sbir]

King👑👑👑

[@GhoulBunny]

@BADisRAD ewww

[@keuzl]

@BADisRAD spending money on trash, good for you

[@madabouthollyoaks411]

@BADisRAD you’re not even a good troll lmao

[@esterukesup6850]

@BADisRAD ok not you using emoji's like it's life support 😃. One heart is fine babe

[@corafaith444]

Colleen is the Sam Levinson of authors

[@Kitbb77]

YES!!!

[@enviisyk]

OH MY GOD 💀

[@h0td0gwater]

you're so real for this, thank you

[@hunterriley9154]

I just can’t believe it’s the ENTIRE INTERNET STANNING HER NOW not just booktube 😭

[@BeanLuvsLeon]

They're comparing her to Jane Austen. I hate it hereeeee

[@charles-pn5uf]

@@BeanLuvsLeon THEY’RE WHAT?

[@martina-dd6vb]

@@BeanLuvsLeon please tell me you’re kidding 😫😫

[@BeanLuvsLeon]

@@martina-dd6vb I wish I was

[@anisha2218]

@@BeanLuvsLeon nooooooo

[@noiya.r.n]

I appreciate how you acknowledge the possibility of participating in a culture where art that women enjoy is often criticized, but I definitely think there’s more to it than that. While it’s true that many people probably just read such books for fun, the issue with an author like Colleen Hoover is that she doesn’t exclusively target the ‘dark romance’ audience: adults (mainly women) who are not looking for healthy or aspirational love interests but escapism / fantasy. Instead, her books are written and marketed as typical new adult / adult romance, so there is always a chance that people who are inexperienced in relationships or at impressionable ages can read them and adopt harmful ideas about what romantic love should be.

[@scaryhallway]

exactly this!!!

[@carolyna.3316]

literally if she marketed her books as like romances with darker themes instead of like cute little books it would be a different thing

[@Androgene]

This. This all day. I don't need these books not to exist, but impressionable 16 yos that are not looking for a 'dark romance' should not be able to so easily just stumble into one.

[@iwakeupandboomimarat]

ive legit seen people who know the stuff in this is fucked up but bc its fictional they can enjoy it, so i feel like a large fanbase of hoovers books ARE people who read for escapism/fantasies

[@someperson6475]

wait i had a completely different experience, at least on tiktok, colleen's books were always marketed as "deep" new adult romance books that will make you super emotional and cry at the end... so i dont like her books because i think theyre shallow and badly written lol

[@BeatGoat]

I've known plenty of teens and 20-somethings who believed that constant drama and anxiety were the epitome of romance, while deeming normal, stable relationships "boring". I think that's CH's main demographic. They just don't know any better and equate strong emotional distress with love.

[@Topdoggie7]

It's because a lot of people grow up in abusive households and abusive situations and don't realize that that constant anxiety and stress is not good for them and not normal. For a long time I believed that too until I got out of my abusive situation and now I realize calm and peaceful scenes are some of the most wholesome things ever.

[@codyh1817]

Yea it isn't stable relationships that make the books boring like they think. It's the lack of conflict. Conflict doesn't need to be within the relationship though. It can very much be outside forces at play

[@mikagutierrez4968]

Sadly I was one of those teens until I realize how problematic her writing really is. Thank God I just read around 4 books

[@fabiharahman6329]

If anything love should make you feel comfortable and at ease. Not extreme emotions

[@ribanawal905]

She thought the bad boy trope would sell like hot cakes cuz we all go feral for them right? (Example- choosing Damon over Stefan cuz Stefan stans are boring) Bad marketing strategy honestly

[@Leostrawberry]

one thing skipped over in this video is that it's more than 'her book problematic lets dogpile on her'. As a relationship abuse victim, her bs in books actively contributed to my staying in that relationship and the age of her fans only makes it worse. She is a real person, but criticizing the dangerous views portrayed in her books is not a personal attack on the person. She clearly experienced abuse as a child and there is nothing wrong with acting it out. It's a common trauma response and traumatic events can even become kinks (not a healthy response btw), but they must be acknowledged as such and not romanticized

[@keravg]

Every time I see a Colleen Hoover book I scowl and think about how Caleb would be disappointed in me for even 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 at it.

[@thetiktokpenguin4343]

Preach

[@hibaz5157]

YESSSSS SAME

[@BOOKishbehavior]

Haaah, same. SAME. 🙌

[@ritzcrackee]

how did you do the font?

[@keravg]

@@ritzcrackee its an app that used to be free now there are adds all the time🥲

[@johnlemon1118]

Didn’t her son assault someone and she tried to pay off the victim so she wouldn’t tell the cops…

[@sophitiaofhyrule]

What?

[@wendydlro9199]

YEPPPPP thank you I was looking for this comment

[@miadoesmanythings]

Thank god Colleen doesn’t have a daughter, she would make her life a living hell. I have no remorse for Hoover

[@croissant2882]

​@@miadoesmanythings But as seen here unfortunately she has a son that she taught some nasty stuff, and now someone elses daughters are even less safe :/

[@miadoesmanythings]

@@croissant2882 exactly, I can’t stand women who condone their sons for doing this sh*t

[@lalaland7961]

ALL of her female characters are weak. It’s not just a few sprinkled here and there she only writes weak characters. Trash bag in the wind characters. It is what it is characters. Characters with no CHARACTER characters. I’m so sick of people meat stroking Colleen Hoover, and I know it’s not fair but anytime someone tells me they genuinely LOVE her books I start to think a multitude of things about them as a person . It’s not fair but I literally can’t help it.

[@isa-jw8tw]

YES!!! She purposely puts down her female characters so a man (a toxic one at that) can just swoop in and take advantage of her, then play it off as if he were rescuing her.

[@gdaym8y]

Me too. If you like hoover then I don't trust your opinions on pretty much anything else. Tho I think it's legit for us to react that way, bc if they think that's healthy then they're not a healthy person.

[@sarathompson3068]

omfg this

[@sin3358]

Same. I know a lot of people who do that. Not just collen hoover lovers, but of other toxic fandoms too. The moment I see "romance" as the main description on a person's Tik tok, I deadass start reporting them. I won't hesitate because, idec why you love it, your opinion sucks. Even twilight fans make more sense now

[@aliceangel262]

You can write “weak” women, but when you write too many it’s concerning

[@Chinchilla2310]

All of her books could be called “Are The Straights OK???”

[@caleismfollower746]

my thoughts fr 😭

[@percivalyracanth1528]

"Are the straight women* okay" ftfy

[@adeleaslan8182]

I heard of Colleen Hoover from Booktok and everyone made her out to be this really skilled author who writes the most heartbreaking books ever and I was in the mood for a little heartbreak so I started looking into her books. I stopped that when the first book of hers I found was a teacher student romance

[@ailsa7471]

omg what book is it?? 😭

[@adeleaslan8182]

@@ailsa7471 slammed

[@lucikka3674]

@@adeleaslan8182 the name gives me flashbacks to “Jungkook SLAMS you against the wall”

[@jezza_belle4867]

@@lucikka3674 Please don't. Those Wattpad books give me PTSD flashback-

[@yvettewantstoknowyourlocat4852]

@@jezza_belle4867 Bro i used to be a big fan of them years and years ago and it's so much worse💀 i watch those POV vids😭

[@joanilysmartin527]

I FREAKING LOVE YOU. I start to read “It ends with us” and the fact that she WRITES LETTERS TO ELLEN it was the final straw like WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT?!?!?

[@ollieollieoxenfree3246]

right? such a random quirky girl thing to do 😭

[@mmmh4737]

EXACTLY 😭😭

[@user-id5yg9fc9k]

And the fact atlas had sex with a minor

[@capucinefd365]

PLEASE ME TOO, everything about that book is just bizarre

[@arissaabiahaquee]

dont judge, everyone has their own way to cope bro.

[@claryy8]

You know what? I’ll take Edward Cullen‘s creepy, obsessive stalkery behaviour over any of these supposed romantic leads any day. Like, at least Edward never did any (intimate) stuff against Bella‘s will and cared about keeping her humanity intact. You know the bar is low if Twilight IS indeed the better love story 😂 (Not saying that Twilight is great, it has some glaring red flags itself … )

[@meherjanurmee9566]

Tell me about the red flags please

[@tarusaki-sama6739]

I don't think Twilight is much of a red flag. Just feels like a girly teenager dream vibes. Might've missed some stuff though

[@claryy8]

idk, Bella and Edward‘s relationship always seemed very co-dependent to me; then there‘s Jacob kissing Bella against her will and imprinting on a newborn baby etc.

[@athenajaxon2397]

He's also a vampire and I feel like the same rules don't apply to him rather than some random regular guy😂

[@_Oh_Well_]

It's basically a triangle love story revolving around an awkward 17 year old, a 100 year old vampire and a werewolf

[@Terryterryterryterryterry]

32:27 that's basically all her books. She writes about the most toxic, manipulative, controlling, abusive, illegal things but makes it ✨sexy✨ and all her young, impressionable fans and even immature, mentally underdeveloped adult fans romanticize it 🤮

[@Datura981]

The problem with this sort of stuff is that the meta-narrative supports the abuser. You can write some effed up, toxic relationships, but the majority of your characters should recognize this behavior for what it is. You can write the victim as unaware, manipulated, or even cooperating freely with their abuser... but there needs to be some awareness represented in the story that the behavior isn't acceptable. That this is a tale of a toxic relationship, not a healthy romance.

[@animelovergirl8461]

Yeah, I feel like there isn't a lot of the romance stories about that topic leaning towards awareness, but instead it leans towards "sexy."

[@thetiredworm2100]

Yes!!

[@M.H.I.A.F.T.]

The author is under no obligation to condemn. That is the reader's job. If anything the narrative reflects how society normalises that kind of relationship, not necessarily condoning it.

[@alwaysrunning234]

THIS

[@lapissalem9478]

@@M.H.I.A.F.T. um

[@starstuckanvas6400]

i read 'it ends with us' because everyone was like, it's a beautiful, heartwrenching book (even reviewers i trusted) and istg, i've never hate read a book, never hate reviewed a book, but that shit got me so fucking angry that i never trusted those reviewers again, i don't trust anybody who likes coho and i hate, hate, HATE how her audience are primarily young girls who'll not realise they're abusive fucking relationships and will end up romanticising that shit. [saw a guy post a picture of him reading that book on tiktok and many women said they wanna date him and all, like ARE YOU OKAY???💀]

[@Iamthelizardqueenddaddy]

I SAW THAT TIKTOK LIKE ITS CRINGEY ENOUGH THAT SEEING A GUY SIMPLY READING MAKES GIRLS GO CRAZY BUT IT ENDS WITH US!?!?!? EWWW

[@emogoesboom]

I swear this book totally traumatized me and also it gave me so much second hand embarrassment

[@p1kkuma]

I’ve never read her books but I’ve seen her name around and I swear I’ve seen people call “It Ends With Us” a heartwrenching book??? And a good read??? I’m so concerned 😭

[@ishikasingh5909]

BRO this is literally me, I screamed in absolute rage while reading that fucking book and then went on a rant and had a reading slump for MONTHS because wtf is that shit. Never picking up any of her books ever and maintaining a safe distance from people who love her work.

[@j.d8219]

YES! I fell into the tiktok reviews and I just could not finish it! I kid you not, it literally put me off reading for a few months! I read reminders of him by colleen before and it was not that bad, but it ends with us was just horrible. The hype of this book reminds me of the fifty shades of grey obsession back years ago lol!

[@MizukiUkitake]

November 9 still has 4.3 stars on GoodReads, and only 1% of reviews are 1 star. There are people giving her 3 stars and simply saying "I love these books, though some of the things Ben did/said were not okay". And she's still getting 5 star reviews today. Someone gave her 5 stars last July and wrote paragraphs about how amazing Colleen is. This woman says, and I quote: "Every girl deserves a Ben!"

[@asiamourr]

never understood how ppl could like ben

[@animelovergirl8461]

I feel like, the author herself could of deleted the one star reviews from before and that's why there are more positive ratings. I said that because I know that there was an author who did that and I had witnessed it. By the way, what I'm saying is just some assumption, so I'm not sure on how the real situation is.

[@catdadtenlee1472]

💀💀

[@flamingaish]

what the fuck

[@ava-rh2go]

part of the 1 star club 😍😍😝😝

[@nnacz5746]

Had the book been marketed as a dark romance, there wouldn’t be this backlash (I think). We were given the impression that it was a “cute” romance when there were supposed to be trigger warnings (something that darkrom authors are very transparent about).

[@LeylaKaratas]

i, too, am a passionate Hoover Hater. her writing is mediocre, her characters are bland, one dimensional and unlikeable and in every book of hers i've read at least one of the main characters was cheating on their partner. and it wasn't condemned in the story at all. like, you want me to root for the mcs but they cheat, lie and assault their loved ones? no, honey.

[@turn45up23]

plus her books lack SO MUCH diversity like i’m convinced she doesn’t know anyone or have any friends that’s are POC or apart of the lgbtqia+ community 😭😭💀

[@princessjoe834]

I think the book was called maybe someday and I was baffled how it wasn't criticized at all the MCs found their happily ever after despite the guy cheating on his girlfriend who was actually good to him

[@LeylaKaratas]

@@princessjoe834 yup, it feels like colleen hoover does this in almost all of her books... spoilers for layla and verity !!! in verity, the main guy gets together with the main girl while his wife, who is in a kind of vegetative state, literally lives in the same house as them. they get a hea in the end. in layla, the dude cheats on his girlfriend with a ghost girl, but it's totally fine since the ghost turns out to be his actual gf who kinda did a body swap with the ghost. mind you, he doesn't know this until the end, so it's absolutely still cheating. none of these characters face any repercussions and their behaviour isn't portrayed as bad.

[@princessjoe834]

@@LeylaKaratas I haven't read many books but I definitely do know this isn't the type of books that should be applauded and recommended to young adults , this is such a let down since I feel like this confuses/influences teenagers to think cheating and occasional abuse is okay in a romantic relationship as long as the guy is handsome with blue eyes or whatever

[@pascal1964]

This describes Verity all too well. Honestly, lowen and Jeremy are so BAD. Verity is the first book that I just had to stop reading because of how uncomfortable it made me. Yes, it’s a romance, but not after every 4 pages has to be a sex scene. It’s just bad writing, and the ending was terrible. I wanted lowen and jeremy to suffer the same fate as verity--

[@TheAbigailDee]

When I saw people say "Verity is Hoover's first foray into horror" I had to LAUGH like they're all full of scary men!!

[@guiltyonsundays]

Verity is the only one considered a horror story because the toxic abusive character is a woman

[@the_sky_is_blue_and_so_am_I]

@@guiltyonsundays YES!

[@arthgh-p5h]

Her male love interests are the Andrew Tates of the book community

[@sophiaa5092]

@@guiltyonsundays omg I never thought ab it this way

[@lilaboxx]

Verity was the book that I had on my want to read list for a while because I thought it would be different than her other books (which I haven't read either) but now idk if I wanna read it, I think her books just aren't for me

[@dustedpinstripes]

I find that judging books by their cover is very useful for the romance genre

[@clairoswife]

yes

[@subahzareenkhanam7125]

Totes. I don' read books but manga tho~~

[@jjj8940]

I will say that her son has been accused of SA and she defends him and that leaves a sour taste in my mouth with her being an “abuse advocate”

[@xlifeintoartx]

Ok, I read It Ends with Us a couple years ago, but I swear to god the Atlas relationship is a lot creepier. I remember him disappearing or something, and then coming back to visit… on Lily’s 18th birthday and that’s when they sleep together for the first time. I remember this vividly because I ranted about it to my friends. He came back as soon as it was legal to sleep with her.

[@snowbird7254]

Ok that is gross .. another reason for me to never read a book of hers

[@CURTAINS_]

THANK YOU Finally someone else who noticed this! I thought the atlas arc was going to reveal her trauma from being groomed by atlas . . . I did some googling and he was a day away from statutory r*** in that one scene. There’s also a weird power dynamic I felt going on with them in the flashbacks as well.

[@chubbiturtles9818]

that ain't romantic

[@bunnywavyxx9524]

I don't think it was like that. They were around the same age, the age of consent is 16 or 17 in most states so it would've been legal & I don't see how he was grooming her

[@alyiahshirley9421]

It was actually her 16th birthday😭 They met when she was a 15 year old sophomore and he was already an 18 year old senior💀

[@user-ej2ml8zf4j]

when colleen started getting popular on booktok, all i knew about her was you and your negative thoughts on her books. thus, i've never understood the hype around her especially due to the themes in her books. I've avoided her books all thanks to me finding your channel at a formative age, thank you caleb.

[@GoddessofWisdom]

Same!!!

[@madtadbecker8933]

literally!!!

[@calistasneed283]

same w me!!

[@ajinmericancitizen8723]

ME TOO!

[@kythefairy2029]

literally same

[@saravinson478]

I read “It ends with us” a while ago and it absolutely infuriated me. They used the main male leads trauma to excuse his behavior and not report him to the cops! And they still let him see his child, even though it was made very clear he hurt people. I knew something was bothering me but I’m so glad you summarized it so well!

[@TheEmmaHouli]

I dont mind her not going to the cops, that tracks for me. But that she lets her daughter be around him unsupervised?!? Like not even Alice, I mean Mia, I mean Allysa is around him with their daughter?

[@silvia6790]

Like, personally, I wouldn’t let my child near that man anytime soon. He needs some real therapy. I don’t remember whether he goes or not, but even if he does, I would still be wary of him. Yes, I get that he’s the father, but he did some really bad things, and he’s basically left off the hook.

[@justl1453]

I read it because my friend had and lent to me and i hated it so much i barely finished

[@sbrinicole0]

hate to break it to you but that’s how society is! men get away with things all the time so idk what was your point of this comment lol

[@meaadal-hadidi7306]

I completely agree. There's something else that really bothered me that I no one mentions. Marshall and his wife whose name I can't remember (Ryle's sister) are the worst 'friends' ever. Like, Ryle showed up at Marshall's apartment and when Lily looked at him as if asking "Why did you let him in?" he said something along the lines of "I couldn't stop him" You know they're having problems! I'm not sure, but I think that she'd told Marshall and his wife at that time. And Ryle's sister is THE WORST FRIEND EVER. She genuinely actually told Lily "If you go back to him, I'll never talk to you again" yet she stood with Ryle when he explained that he loses it sometimes bcs he accidentally killed his brother as a kid and didn't say a thing to him about abusing Lily. Also, the fact that after Ryle snaps out of his 'not in control' phase he immediately wants to do the nasty and genuinely thinks that that's gonna solve the problem?! I was genuinely shocked when it was explained that he wasn't abusing Lily for his own satisfaction.

[@casieatthe393]

Is anybody else circling back to this video because of the “it ends with us”controversy lol literally thought of Caleb immediately.