Enduring Understandings

Colleen Hoover typically illustrates her characters to be very complex and relatable. Her characters tend to change a lot and evolve during her books. 

For example, in It Ends with Us, Lily's character is very complex and you see many different sides of her. You see her go from being happy and having fun, to being abused and broken, and finally to being strong. Readers see Lily heartbroken after she officially leaves Ryle and goes to the hospital where she finds out she is pregnant with his baby. On the ride home Lily says, “I stare out the window, too exhausted to cry. Too in shock to speak. I feel submerged” (Hoover, 201). At this moment Lily was at one of the lowest places in her life and was very depressed. Lily gains her confidence back at the end of the book. Lily’s strength is shown when she says to Ryle, “‘Ryle,” I say gently. “What would you do? If one of these days, this little girl looked up at you and she said, ‘Daddy? My boyfriend hit me. ‘What would you say to her, Ryle?’” (270). This quote shows that she is no longer afraid of Ryle and Ryle has made her stronger. Throughout the book she changes so much that at some point the readers have to feel connected to her and relate to Lily's character. Hoover makes Lily's character so complex so the readers will stay invested to see what she does next. Also, in It Ends with Us, we see Ryles character change drastically. In the beginning of the book when Ryle first meets Lily, he is so sweet and seems like the perfect boyfriend. However, later his true colors show and he becomes abusive. We see these sides of him go back and forth, making his character extremely complex. Hoover also makes Ryles character like this to make sure the readers stay invested in Ryles character and what his next move will be. 

Furthermore, in Hoover's novel, Verity, we can see once again how Hoover illustrates her characters to be complex and relatable. The main character in Verity, Lowen, changes throughout the book in order to keep the readers invested in the story. For example, in the novel, the main character, Lowen, changes a lot throughout the story. She starts out as mostly reserved and not sure of herself. She lacks confidence in herself as well as her writing. She is a new author and doesn’t feel like she will ever make it far. While she is being offered a huge job opportunity for writing, she says, “A lot of authors excel in reader interaction, but I’m so awkward I’m afraid once my readers meet me in person, they'll swear off my books forever” (12). This shows how unsure she is of herself. She is doubting herself and almost doesn't take the job because she is worried that she is not good enough. When she decides to take the extraordinary job offer, she moves to Vermont to write for a famous author, Verity, who is currently in a coma. While she stays at the house, we see her character change drastically. She is starting to gain confidence and put herself out there. She falls in love with Verity's husband. Through this we see her confidence grow as she grows more comfortable and willing to tell Jeremy how she feels. We also see a lot of confidence come out of Lowen when she says that she believes that Verity was a murderer. Readers can see Lowen very confident at the end of the book when she finally gains courage to tell Jeremy the truth about his wife. She says, “He follows after me as I run to Verity’s office. I grab the manuscript, every page of it, and I turn around just as he reaches me and I shove it against his chest. ‘Read it’”(250). This shows she is no longer scared and afraid to put herself out there. Throughout the novel we see Lowen slowly start to gain her confidence and she puts herself out there more, evolving into a confident phenomenal author. Her evolution into what she was at the end of the book, is what kept the readers so drawn. 

Hoover decides her settings based on her characters, their personalities, and stories. She uses the setting to showcase the mood and to get a better understanding of the characters. 

For instance, in It Ends with Us, the setting was in Boston. Lily opened a flower shop in Boston. This shows her personality being very girly and elegant. It also shows her creativity and her desire to make other peoples' days better. She spends a lot of time in her flower shop, and it represents her perfectly. On the day the flower shop opened when they got their first customer, Lily says, “Allysa squeezes my arm when the front door begins to open. I suddenly grow a little panicked, because what if something goes wrong?” (99). This shows how Lily just wants to make people happy, and wants everyone to love the flower shop as much as she does. On the other hand, Ryle lives in a huge apartment building. He is a neurosurgeon in a hospital. Both of these settings show his wealth. He has a lot of money. It is shown how much money Ryle has when Lily says in the first chapter, “Watching this guy— dressed in his Burberry shirt with his two-hundred-dollar haircut— making silly faces”(21). While sometimes this can be viewed as good, in this case it represents how cruel Ryle was. Because he was used to getting everything he wanted from having a good job and living in a beautiful apartment, he grew overly confident and cocky. This may have been the reason he abused Lily. He never thought Lily would've left her because of the money he had. He may have believed that because he could give Lily and their daughter an amazing life, because he had money, she would choose to stay with him in the end. 

In addition, Hoover's book, Verity, starts off with Lowen in New York City. Lowen was living in a very small apartment showing that Lowen was broke and kind of lost. Lowen not having a lot of money is shown when she states, “For the past year, I’ve lived off what little advance I had left over from my last published contract. But it's all gone now, and apparently, so is my mother's money” (28). She states this when she was talking about not being able to afford her apartment. Her writing career was also not where she wanted it to be, on top of her mom recently passing away. When she gets a huge offer, she moves to Vermont into the Crawford House. The Crawford house was a huge home with dark stone, a bright red door, and a huge lake in the back. When Lowen arrives at the Crawford home she states, “Seconds later, the rest if it appears, and my breath snags in my throat. Dark stone works its way across the front of the house, broken only by the blood red door, the only relief of color in this sea of gray. Ivy covers the left side of the house, but instead of charming, it's threatening-like a slow-moving cancer” (45). This shows that the house has a very eerie and creepy feel to it. This setting is very significant to the character, Verity. Verity is Jeremy's wife who is currently in a coma. When Lowen went to finish working on Verity's stories, she came across an autobiography written by Verity which made her seem like she had killed her twin girls. This whole time, this house is given a creepy sense to it in a way, and I think that represents Verity's dark side. It is also a suspicion that Verity is faking her death and may even run away in the middle of the night with her son. There was so much darkness going on in the house and suspicions. Living in the middle of nowhere, with trees everywhere, in a dark house, and a red door, seems very fitting for Verity's character. 

Colleen Hoover always makes her novels full of plot twists and unexpected events. In most of her books there seems to be a pattern. The whole book is very interesting and the ending seems obvious. However, Hoover always does the opposite of the expected.

In particular, in the novel, It Ends with Us, the main topic of the story is abuse. Lily was abused by Ryle. When the abuse got bad Lily moved out of his apartment. However, after a little time had passed, it seemed like Lily was thinking about getting back together with Ryle. When Ryle and Lily were reconnecting after the abuse, Ryle touched Lily’s stomach for the first time. Lily was pregnant, and she made it seem like she just wanted her family all together. After this moment Lily says, “Just because someone hurts you doesn’t mean you can simply stop loving them” (207). She expresses that she still does love Ryle. They spent a lot of time together, and Hoover truly made the readers believe that without a doubt Lily and Ryle would get back together for their daughter. Then in some of the last pages, their daughter is born. Almost immediately Lily tells Ryle that she wants a divorce and that she wouldn’t let her daughter go through seeing abuse and an unhappy marriage. She did not want her daughter to think it is normal for women to put up abuse by men. This is seen when the book ends with Lily stating, “My mother went through it. I went through it. I'll be damned if I allow my daughter to go through it. I kiss her on the forehead and make her a promise. ‘It stops her. With me and you. It ends with us’” (383). 

Additionally, Hoover also shows these types of patterns in the novel, Verity. In this story, Lowen, who is an author, gets a job to help a very famous author, Verity. Verity was in a coma and could no longer finish her series of books, so Lowen was hired to finish the series. While Lowen was looking for information on the books in Veritys office, she found an autobiography that Verity had been writing. She became very invested in this autobiography. In the autobiography Verity states how she hated her twin girls, especially Harper, because they stole her husband away from them. She also starts telling a story about how she was the one who actually killed Harper. She stated that she took her out in the middle of the lake and left her there to drown. This can be proven when Verity says in her manuscript, “I leaned forward, close to Crew’s ear. I covered his mouth with my hand. ‘Crew. Sweetie. Hold your breath.’ I gripped the edge of the canoe and leaned all my weight to the right” (108). She then also says as she is swimming back, “I started swimming. Harper was screaming. Splashing. I continued to swim. She continued to scream” (109). This shows how horrible of a human she was. All of these things seemed so realistic and twisted that the audience believed that Verity was an evil human being. When Lowen finally told Jeremy about all of this, Jeremy lost his mind. He killed her. Lowen and Jeremy were dating and they decided that they needed a fresh start so they would move. While they were moving, Lowen found a letter written by Verity. In this letter, the readers learn that Verity was actually not an evil person. In reality, Verity was only writing all of these evil things because her new book would be told from a villain's perspective. The autobiography was just a writing exercise to help Verity look at things from a villain's perspective. In the letter Verity leaves Jeremy, she states her innocence by saying, “She said I needed to get into the mind of an evil character by writing journal entries from my own life…things that really happened…but to make my inner dialogue in the journal entry be the opposite from what I was actually thinking at the time” (310). The whole time Hoover made the readers believe that Verity was a disgusting person when in reality, it was all a lie. 

Colleen Hoover always uses a first person point of view in her novels. This makes the readers feel very connected to the main character and get a deeper look inside the characters minds.

For example, in, It Ends with Us, the main character, Lily, tells the story from her perspective. The readers get to see her thoughts all through the abuse. After Lily was abused and sexually assaulted, readers could see what was going through her mind. Lily says, “I could call the police, but my mind can't even process what all that entails. I don't want to give a statement. I don't know that I want to press charges, knowing what this could do to his career. I don't want Allyssa mad at me. I just don’t know” (246). This quote really shows Lily contemplating what she should do, and what was going on in her mind throughout all of this. The first person point of view also helps us see what Lily went through as a teenager. In the book we see journals that Lily would write as a teenager. Lily’s father was abusive towards her mother. This is significant because we can also see why Lily is the way she is now. Lily witnesses her mom getting abused, “I opened the garage door and didn't see my mom. I just saw my dad behind the car doing something. I took a step closer and realized why I couldn't see my mom. He had her pushed down on the hood with his hands around his throat” (110). This shows that Lily witnessed her mom being abused as a child and it tore her apart, leading her to make sure her child would never have to go through witnessing that. Lily is constantly trying to escape her past and everything she has been through. Using first person point of view throughout her teenage years as well, really emphasizes her struggles and why she decides to do what she does. 

Also, in the book, Verity, the book is told by one of the main characters, Lowen. However, we also see Verity use first person because the book shows Veritys writing from her perspective. The switch between people using first person is very effective and makes the story more interesting. The readers will read one of the chapters of Veritys writing, and then the next one will be Lowen explaining her reaction. The readers are able to see both sides of the story. Lowen using first person point of view is very significant because we are able to see what she is truly experiencing through all of the mysteries and lies. We see her deeply try to decide what decisions to make when it comes to telling Jeremy all of Veritys lies. After Lowen reads the chapter where Verity describes Harper's death, readers see Lowen contemplate what to do about this. Lowen says, “I press my forehead against my arm, struggling with what to do. Do I tell someone? Do I tell Jeremy? Do I call the police?” (267). The first person from Lowen helps readers see what is going through her mind through reading Veritys manuscript.  Verity uses first person point of view in all of the diary entries, letters, and notes. This is significant because the readers see what was going on in Veritys mind and who she truly was, or at least what the readers thought. After one of her twins died, readers saw what went through her mind. Verity says, “I gave Chastin all the love I had every minute she was alive because I knew it would happen. I knew Harper would do something like that to her”(229). This quote shows how dark Veritys mind was. She was blaming Harper for killing her own sister, when in reality, Chastin just died from an allergic reaction. It had nothing to do with Harper. At the end of the novel, in chapter 24 we see Lowen read a letter that Verity had written. All of the truth comes out then, but it is not in Veritys perspective. The readers only read Veritys point of view when it was something bad and evil. This was to keep the readers engaged and wanting to read more and find out how truly twisted Verity was.