This perspective brought a better understanding of the plot to both the first and the second books. When Atlas and Lily’s teenage years are revisited in the book, it created intrigue.Īdditionally, I appreciate how Hoover included Atlas’ perspective in the book to explain events that happened in the past. While parts of the book were intolerable at times, there were some parts that I really enjoyed. It is clear that Hoover tried to add this detail in the book to develop the plot, but it was truly a waste of pages. Throughout the book, Atlas reads over Lily’s journal and relives the moments she wrote about. Hoover takes the first 50 pages of both books to explain the day to day life of Lily, which slows down the plot.

In “It Ends With Us” I felt that the book started off slow as did “It Starts With Us”. The one problem is that Lily finds out she is pregnant with Ryle’s child. So, Lily builds up the courage to get a divorce. Ryle is jealous of this and begins to have aggressive outbursts of anger and he physically abuses Lily repeatedly. Over time they fell in love, but it didn’t end up working out because Atlas left Lily’s hometown.Īfter Ryle finds these journals, Lily runs into Atlas and they begin to see each other more often. In high school, she met a homeless teenager, named Atlas, that she took in and wrote about in her journals. Not long after, Ryle finds Lily’s old journals that she frequently wrote in as a teenager. They eventually started dating and later got married. In the first book, she met a man named Ryle. Lily is the main character of both books. Nonetheless, I felt that I had to give Colleen Hoover a second chance by reading the sequel, “It Starts With Us”. Here is my hot take of 2022: “It Ends With Us” doesn’t live up to its reviews.

(Editor’s Note: the book and article discuss physical abuse)

It starts with us sequel