(TW: mentions of domestic abuse)
The recent TikTok phenomenon has caused thousands of readers to flock to the social media platform to gather inspiration and recommendations for their next read. The sudden burst in reading and literature based content has inspired the hashtag #BookTok on TikTok and the creation of many book recommendation Instagram accounts. One author who appears in many of these posts is none other than Colleen Hoover. Hoover’s staggering popularity has brought her romance books to the top. Her novel “It Ends With Us” was a New York Times Bestseller and has received over one billion tags on TikTok. However, Colleen Hoover’s works prove that popularity doesn’t always signify quality.
Hoover tends to write romance novels, with a sprinkling of thriller and science fiction tropes every once in a while. However, in almost every book she writes, there is a common theme: romanticized domestic abuse within romantic relationships.
Let’s begin with evaluating the themes within some of Hoover’s most popular books. In Hoover’s “November 9,” the main male character Ben commits numerous harmful acts to the female main character, such as physically holding her down and touching her without consent. Just like “It Ends With Us,” the book does not showcase healthy relationships and normalizes abusive ones. In another one of Hoover’s popular books “Ugly Love,” the female main character, Tate, is expected to take on the male main character Miles’ emotional trauma and is perceived as responsible for his violent outbursts and damaging actions. And lastly, in the previously mentioned book “It Ends With Us,” the male main character, Ryle, commits multiple abusive acts toward the female character Lily. At one point he takes pictures of her without her consent and frames them in his apartment. These actions are immediately followed up with forgiveness and multiple second chances, romanticizing abuse and attempting to paint the situation in a “forgiving” light.
Copy and paste seems to be a common theme in Hoover’s character development, but how do readers get so attached to these “misunderstood” men and become apologists for their behavior? With each male character Hoover writes about, young female readers feel sympathy towards the male characters and it sets up a terrible standard. The themes and recurring situations that Hoover includes in her writing feeds right into toxic masculinity. Her writing romanticizes the “red flags” found in dangerous men. Readers of Colleen Hoover are settling for less, and Hoover is just standing by and allowing this to happen.
These comments aren’t new to Hoover, and in past interviews acknowledging the romanticization of abuse in her novels, Hoover hasn’t been open to criticism. Whether that means completely avoiding the interview questions or going on an Instagram live rant, the scariest thing is that Hoover stands by her actions. Her actions are directly affecting the next generation of young women entering adult life and the realities of dating.Â
We must then accept the fact that Colleen Hoover is not the person who is making her books popular, it’s the community of readers surrounding her. Her fans choose to read and rave about these books, filling Hoover’s pockets and signing her contracts, and the cycle begins over again. As a community, we must accept the harsh truth of Hoover’s books, and branch out of “BookTok’s Favorite Books.” We will remain in this damaging cycle, giving these harmful books five stars on Goodreads and flooding theaters when a film adaptation of “It Ends With Us” eventually comes out (yes, it’s actually happening), until we take responsibility and work towards change. The romanization of domestic abuse that Hoover creates should not become normal or yearned for.