It Ends With Us

I’m not sure if anyone actually reads this blog but if so, I think I need to give a spoiler alert here and also a potential trigger warning regarding domestic violence.

Ok on with my review. This story begins with a 23 year old girl, Lily, who against her wishes, falls for a perfect neurosurgeon named Ryle. He originally does not want a relationship at all while that is exactly what she wants. They quickly fall for each other and the first half of the book convinces you to fall in love with him, and their relationship. Also in the first half of the book, Lily reads journal entries from when she was 15 and fell in love with a boy named Atlas who was homeless by unfortunate circumstances. The journal entries also explain her experience growing up in a home where her father abused and raped her mother. She moved to Boston after university which is where she met Ryle. One night while out for dinner, she runs into Atlas, who she didn’t know also lived in Boston now. Part two of the story changes everything. Ryle and Lily decide to get married as she pushes away her resurfacing feelings for Atlas. Shortly after they get married, Ryle abuses Lily three times. After the third, she calls Atlas to save her and when he takes her to the hospital, she finds out she is pregnant with Ryle’s child. The remainder of the story dives into her contemplation of whether to stay with Ryle for the sake of their child or not. It gives insight into the mind of a domestic abuse survivor and the challenges associated with staying or leaving.

I reeeeeally enjoyed this book. Not for the content, but more for the message. I expected this story to be a cheesy love story, as I tend to mostly read those. To say I was surprised at the storyline is an understatement. I think the author did an awesome job of making you imagine the situation Lily was put in. You are made to sit in the eyes of an abuse survivor. I even found myself contemplating what I would do in her situation and I found my feelings swaying alongside hers. I actually picked up the book on a Friday night when I wasn’t even halfway through it expecting to read a couple of chapters before going to sleep. I ended up staying up until one in the morning to finish it and after I finished crying over it, I had to sit silently in my bed to take it all in.

I would say that there were two takeaway lessons from this story. First, I think making Ryle out to be a perfect man initially can be an accurate depiction of how it is hard to predict and then leave an abusive situation. I am grateful for that part of the storyline to make it feel so much more applicable. Second, Lily making the strong choice to leave Ryle in the end was important for sharing the probably correct choice for someone in her situation. I think the epilogue was important in this too as it showed that even though Lily grew up in an abusive home and then found herself in an abusive marriage, she still kept her heart open to love and taking chances in it. It is important for this lesson to be displayed as it gives hope to seemingly hopeless situations.

My favourite character is probably Atlas. I can’t say I related to him in any way but I loved his character development. I also really liked Alyssa, Ryle’s sister, cause she brought a fun, bubbly personality to the story. My favourite part in the story is probably the epilogue (does that count?), I am a sucker for a happy ending. From the actual story, I liked the scene when Lily was at Alyssa’s party in her apartment and saw the picture of herself blown up on the wall.

My least favourite part was probably the casserole scene when Ryle lost his temper and pushed Lily for the first time. It was such a defeating feeling to be able to anticipate that this wasn’t going to be the last time something like that was going to happen. I think I need to acknowledge that it was my least favourite part because of the reality of the situation. I did not think it was poorly written, it was obviously detrimental to the storyline.

I would recommend this book to a young adult audience that can handle reading about domestic violence quite graphically. Anyone who could handle the concepts that I have discussed here should read the story to be able to imagine the situation and how to handle it without actually being in a toxic relationship.

My rating: 5/5