It was a bright sunny day when I stepped into my favourite book store to pick up new books. As I was debating with myself which should I buy, the attendant came up and showed me two books – it ends with us and it starts with us by Colleen Hoover. Apparently I was living under a rock to not have heard about these two and insisted that I must have a go at these. I usually stay away from emotional rollercoasters and slice-of-life novels preferring fantasy and science fictions but I decided to give it a read. And I cannot say I was disappointed. I usually read the plot before I commit to a story to see if that is something I would like to spend time on and to be honest, this was okay.
The book starts with the following:
“As I sit here with one foot on either side of the ledge, looking down from twelve stories above the streets of Boston, I can’t help but think about suicide.”
Shoosh! And there goes my drive to continue reading it. It talks about suicide, in the very first line. And the story is told from the first person’s point of view, not my favourite style. I feel very few writers can balance the narrative from the first person point of view and often fails to bring in both sides of the story. But anyway, I gave it a chance. Overall, I found the story to be mildly interesting, but that’s my opinion. The writer did a beautiful job of capturing the reality of a abusive relationship. One of the reasons I dreaded reading this book was, I know how it feels to be in one and I feared that it may bring up memories that I do not wish to relive. There were many instances I found myself wondering why she was staying. Was she that naïve?
But I also understood why she couldn’t. There is a statement somewhere in the book that I couldn’t agree with “there’s no such thing as bad people. We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things.” I often felt Ryle was vindictive and was acting with malicious intent. If the intent is to wish someone pain, we cannot just term them as people who do bad things, there is a word for the bad people, psychopath. In the end, to my relief, Lily did make the right choice. “It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.” – an incredibly powerful message that wraps the story.
For the unsuspecting readers, the epilogue kind of killed the story while setting the scene for the sequel. I felt, it should have ended with that statement leaving the ending, the new life of Lily, open for interpretation by the readers. Not start a new story and show that she has reached the shore. I hated the same approach that JK Rowling had taken for the last book of Harry Potter. It just spoils that lingering feeling that makes a book special.
If I am done reading the second part, It Starts with Us, I will try to post the review here.