BORING AND NOT SO INTERESTING NARRATIVE

 BOOK: IT ENDS WITH US

AUTHOR: COLLEN HOOVER

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

COUNTRY: AMERICA

GENRE: FICTION

PUBLISH DATE: 2016

PUBLICATION: ATRIA PAPERBACK

PLOT

The story starts with Lily sitting with one foot on either side of the ledge, looking sown from twelve stories about the streets of Boston. She is thinking about the suicide. Moreover, she has many thoughts on her mind. Meanwhile, she sees Ryle and they starts to have a conversation. While having a conversation, she finds out that Ryle is a neurosurgeon.

Months after the first meeting, Lily opens her big dream, a flower shop. By chance, Lily hires a saleswoman Allysa, who turns out to be Ryle’s sister, and thanks to this coincidence, Lily and Ryle starts meeting and they fell in love. With the time, both gets married. However, she did not know that her life could be worst after getting married. One night at Lily’s house, after drinking and flirting, Ryle drops a pan from the oven after slightly burning his hand, and Lily bursts out laughing. At that moment, Ryler’s anger explodes, and he hatefully pushes Lily making her hit her head and causing a visible wound in the temple. He seeks forgiveness and convinces Lily and she forgives him.

Moreover, one day, he finds Atlas' number and assaults Lily. He then confesses that he accidentally shot and killed his brother Emerson as a child, resulting in trauma that causes him to have rage-filled episodes. Lily reconciles with him, but Ryle assaults her again after finding her childhood diaries, believing that she is having an affair with Atlas.

Lily escapes the house and calls Atlas. He takes her to the hospital, where she discovers she is pregnant with Ryle's child, which she opts to keep a secret from him. She stays with Atlas for several months while Ryle leaves the country for a fellowship. Atlas admits he still has feelings for her but has suppressed them because of Ryle. Finally understanding what her mother went through, Lily confides in her about the abuse.

When Ryle returns, Lily forms a tentative truce with him and allows him to help her through the final few months of her pregnancy, but remains emotionally distant from him. Lily later gives birth to a daughter, whom she names after Ryle's late brother. After giving birth, Lily realizes she does not want her daughter to grow up witnessing Ryle's aggressive outbursts, and tells him she wants a divorce. He tearfully begs her to reconsider, but finally understands her perspective and agrees to separate after she asks him how he would react if their daughter told him she was being abused by her partner. Lily hopes she has finally ended the cycle of abuse in her family, telling her daughter, "It ends with us."

In the epilogue, Lily, who is co-parenting with Ryle, finds Atlas and tells him that she is ready to restart her relationship with him.

CONCLUSION

There was much hype of the book. I saw many people talking about the book in Tiktok. Therefore, I brought the book to read. After reading the novel, I regretted buying and reading the book. The first half was boring and narrative. The first half had Lily’s diary and romance.  Although the ending has the message, I did not like the book.  It took many days to complete the novel as the novel has boring starting. As I turned the pages, the novel did not interest me. The novel is raw and like the novel is not yet polished. Therefore, for me I did not like the narrative part of the novel. It depends on how the reader takes the novel.