“It Ends With Us”: Are ‘Booktok’ books worth it?

Emily Davis 

She/Her

Staff Writer 

12/16/22

It Ends with Us falls into the romance genre. It came out in August 2016 and surged in popularity due to the attention from BookTok, a side of TikTok that bookworms have called their home, in 2021. On Booktok users recommend books, and discuss characters and authors. In January 2022, it debuted at number one on New York Times best sellers list. 

The novel follows the perspective of Lily Bloom, a young college graduate living in Boston, Massachusetts. After her father’s funeral, she finds herself on a rooftop where she unexpectedly meets Ryle Kincaid, a handsome neurosurgeon. They have amazing chemistry together and their relationship seemed magical until it wasn’t. With all the battering questions about her new relationship with Kincaid, Bloom cannot help but have her thoughts consume her while thinking of her first love, Atlas Corrigan. Suddenly Corrigan reappears in Bloom’s life which causes a huge rift between her and Kincaid. 

Whenever I think about the most famous BookTok book, It Ends with Us is the book I think of. I ended up reading it back in June and it was one of the first books I have read willingly in years. I very much enjoyed Corrigan’s character and how he was always there for Bloom no matter what. His character shows exactly how she should be treated. Unlike Kincaid’s character, who is charismatic at first but we soon learn about his abusive side. It made me cry multiple times even until the last chapter. These tears ranged from sadness to even happy tears. This book gives awareness to domestic abuse victims and how there is a way out of those relationships. The back of the book has resources such as a website for domestic violence survivors and a website for homeless individuals. Also, there is a personal message written by the author for the readers where she explains the inspiration for the novel. I give the author props for provoking many emotions throughout the whole book. So far, no other book has done this for me. Overall, I believe that It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover is worth reading and Booktok may know what they are talking about.

Recently, in October, Colleen Hoover released a sequel called It Starts with Us. This book is supposed to serve as a prequel and sequel to It Ends with Us, yet it’s only been marked as a sequel.