Colleen Hoover: It Ends Here
If you are a fan of reading books–especially fictional ones–you may find yourself scrolling through BookTok, a community of Tik Tok users who share their favorite books, authors, and book recommendations for other book lovers to see. Although this side of Tik Tok is purely for entertainment purposes, BookTok does not fail in creating an impact on not just readers, but for authors and their books as well.
It was expressed by The Bookseller that, “…BookTok, the small corner of the app for bibliophiles…boasts 13 billion views and counting.” So, it is not surprising that the power of views can boost the likelihood of people purchasing specific books from specific authors. It was also expressed that this spread and use of Tik Tok created this “…repeated phenomena of publishers selling out of blacklisted copies of a book because of a single mention on TikTok”. Clearly, the recognition and popularity of authors can be attributed to BookTok.
Now, one of BookTok’s most recognized authors that is constantly being mentioned, appraised, and admired on one’s For You Page is Colleen Hoover, an American author whose main specialty is publishing romance and young adult fiction. Hoover has published over 20 novels and novellas thus far and has been ranked #1 New York Times bestselling author. Some of these book titles consist of; It Ends With Us, Verity, November 9, Ugly Love, All Your Perfects, and many more. According to The New York Times, Hoover has sold more than 20 million copies of her books.
Needless to say, Hoover is the talk of the book realm and her books are praised to be the best of the best — even if the book is centered on domestic violence, sexual assault, infidelity, and manipulation. CoHorts (what fans of Hoover considered themselves to be named) continue to “stand” by and romanticize not just Hoover as a writer but her characters and plots that drive on obsession, insanity, and again, manipulation.
Hoover has been a person of heavy interest recently for CoHorts and critics of her books. There are multiple discussions and memes that are seen on Twitter from both admirers and critics. A user tweeted, “Colleen Hoover gets a lot of hate but I still don’t think she gets enough”. Another person also voiced their opinion through a tweet on Hoover’s book; It Ends With Us, which has an odd scene where the female main character gets cow manure wiped on her face. The tweet said, “I don’t think Colleen Hoover knows what cow manure smells like because trust me you wouldn’t be turned on if someone wiped it all over you…”
Clearly, critics see a pattern of disturbing themes and scenes in Hoover’s books. Besides this though, CoHorts praise these books for being the best when really, the issue that is being ignored by CoHorts is that Hoover writes about abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, divorce, or rather infidelity in such an odd way — where no matter what trauma the characters go through together they still somehow are able to live happily ever after as if the journey of toxicity and trauma was simply okay.
Of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with an author writing about these parts of life that do occur and should be spoken about, but giving these characters a happy ending only seems to justify the behavior that does not deserve to be justified in the first place. Instead of Hoover labeling her books as Romance, she should be considerate and respectful in expressing that her books may be highly sensitive, dark, inappropriate, and triggering for people. Not just this, but given that her novels are targeted to not just adults but young adults as well, she should also make it clearly known that her books should not be in any way considered justifiable for abusive behavior in relationships and should be taken lightly (even though almost all her books seem to be intensely explicit).
To make matters worse, Hoover decided to announce in early January of 2023 that she was to release an adult coloring book that would be associated with her best-selling novel It Ends With Us, which is filled with domestic violence and abuse. Hoover received harsh backlash that can only be described as being “tone-deaf” because the question that lingered in the minds of readers and critics is simply put; why create an adult coloring book that appears pretty (like the book cover) and is linked to a novel that is rooted in abuse? The insensitivity to the matter is again seen with this idiotic decision.
The backlash was seen again on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, and even Good Reads. Someone tweeted, “…Colleen Hoover being awful like the woman who didn’t plan to make a coloring book based on a story of domestic abuse for another quick cash grab lmao…” While another person who supported Hoover tweeted, “The fact that this toxic ass society caused Colleen Hoover to cancel her coloring book is annoying af…” We can see there is a high debate from both CoHorts and the critics concerning the choices Hoover makes in her writing, books, and ideas.
After receiving backlash, Hoover and her publisher decided to cancel the production of the coloring book and she took her thoughts to her 24-hour Instagram story. Why did Hoover post a story that would disappear after 24 hours rather than post on her actual feed to keep it longer? I am unsure. Nevertheless, Hoover stated, “The coloring book was developed with Lily’s strength in mind, but I can absolutely see how this was tone-deaf. I hear you guys and I agree with you. No excuses. No finger-pointing. I have contacted the publisher to let them know I would prefer we don’t move forward with it. Thank you for the respectful discourse and accountability. Nothing but love…”
This quote has been labeled as an apology, however, I see no apology in this statement and again, this statement disappeared after 24 hours which seems immature and inconsiderate. Considering her large fan base and high-profile followers, one would assume her “apology” would remain showcased on her feed. But, this was not the case and I have reason to believe this shows the lack of respect and true care she has for her fanbase.
On top of the tone-deaf decision to release a coloring book, it was just announced that Hoover’s book, It Ends With Us is now being adapted into a motion picture movie that cast stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Here we are again, with yet another thoughtless decision. Interestingly, one project failed as a result of high backlash but, now here is another project, this time a movie that will bring in more profit for Hoover. But, to no surprise are there critics for the movie as well. A user tweeted, “The making of this movie will only create more romanization of the domestic violence and abuse portrayed in the book and Colleen Hoover knows this. She wants to capitalize off of it.” This quote captures the same thoughts that other critics touch on when sharing their thoughts on social media platforms. These are my thoughts as well.
Romanization is when a topic or concept like abuse, domestic violence, toxic masculinity, and more, is turned into something that is idealized or positive when it should not be rooted in the first place. This is sadly the case, especially for young audiences like teenagers and young adults which are the two key target audiences for Hoover’s books. Teenagers and young adults who cannot separate reality from fiction should not be a target audience for such topics to be romanticized because they may fall prey to adopting these beliefs into their lives. There is a key difference between an author touching on these topics in an appropriate way versus the approach Hoover takes which is to integrate pornographic scenes and happy endings. According to Glamour, “This isn’t the first time Hoover has been accused of romanticizing the abusive relationship between Lily and Ryle.”
The response Colleen Hoover has for those critics who do not like her novels is described as such, “I don’t expect everyone to like my books, so if someone doesn’t, it isn’t my job to deal with them.” Clearly, Hoover’s ego overrides her consideration of the impact her novels have on young adult audiences when she should be worried. Her books may contribute to the idealization of having partners who are toxic and abusive whether they are physically, mentally, or emotionally. This results in teen dating violence situations again. The aim authors should take is to reduce these real-life problems not contribute to them.
As a user tweeted earlier, maybe Colleen Hoover really is money hungry. So it seems.
