My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow, just wow. And oh my god. Oh. My. God.
I'm going to try to be vague and yet persuasive because it's better to go into this book blind.
And I say that it is better going into this blind because it's better to go into this novel experiencing this stuff with Lily. The best part of this book is both the subject matter and also the emotional impact this this book can have. I went into it not knowing what to expect and I felt like I was experiencing what Lily was experiencing. It made it real to me (even though I went through very similar experiences). You'll lose that sense of emotion if you know what the book is about specifically beforehand. It's still emotional but it wont be as much.
Colleen Hoover was really good at avoiding stereotypical characters, the only stereotypical character in this book is Atlas. Everyone else has this kind of dynamic, they're complicated, Atlas isn't complicated but I guess that's okay. Not every character in a book is going to have a huge personality. Atlas was a main character but he definitely came off more as a major supporting character. He had no real personality and he was just used as a way to move the plot along. I hate to even admit it but it's true, sorry.
This book is really good at portraying what it wants to portray, Colleen is easily able to raise or lower the tension in a book and that's a good quality in a writer. The point of view and the tension control really paints a good picture for this whole book. This book might make you laugh, it might make you sob ugly tears, it might make you scream out in rage, and it might make you cry prideful happy tears. You can tell the amount of work she put into this book, you can feel the emotions, and the fact that this book was really personal to her should be obvious.
I've read one of her books to completion before and didn't really like it that much, I struggle with her because you can really tell if she's putting effort into the writing. When Colleen Hoover is good, she's amazing but when she's bad she's horrendous. Someday, I hope for all of her books to have this level of quality in it without her having to be emotionally invested.
I would suggest reading this book, it's difficult for me to say that you shouldn't read it because of triggers because this book had one of my major triggers in it but with the way she wrote, it was like she knew and eased me out of the anxiety. It's a good book, it's okay to skip the parts to make you uncomfortable, I did it. I definitely definitely recommend this. It's an excellent book.
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