It ends with us - Colleen Hoover

An absolute emotional ride I would say. It’s a slow start. Started with romance and I was not ready for it. My life itself is quite miserable at this point and why would I want to read a romantic fiction now? Whatever, decided to give it a shot since I felt there is more coming up and I particularly has nothing else to do in the busy train I was travelling.

So, the book actually explores the emotional vulnerability, boldness and decision making capability of a woman. A woman who is in an abusive relationship, a part of her want to stay and give her a partner a chance again and again but a part of her also wants to just end it.

The three main characters of the Book are Lily, her husband Ryle and her first love Atlas. Though the story is all about Lily and Ryle, I felt including Atlas was good because it gave the much needed break to what otherwise would have been a little monotonous. Also, the supporting characters are built up so good, that we fall in love with each of them. I can’t stop appreciating the effort the author has carefully put in to creating each of them. 

Lily meets Ryle unexpectedly and they get bonded and gets married. Atlas, her first love was a homeless guy, her school senior, who she helped and fell in love with and had a very deep connection. Atlas had to part with her because of the shitty situation they are all in. But Atlas comes back to her life, after she meets Ryle and though there is no extra marital relationship, Ryle gets suspicious at times. Ryle is a neurosurgeon and a beautiful soul. He has a past, a childhood trauma, in which he accidently shoots his brother and then on is undergoing therapy and can’t control his temper which explains his behavior. This is where the whole story revolves around.

Ryle is just perfect in all other ways, but abusive when he loses his temper. Lily grew up in an abusive household too, where her father constantly mistreated her mother. And she always wondered why her mother never left her father, unless she herself was in that situation. She understands what it is to love someone and then how hard it is to take a decision to leave that person who you love the most. Rightly quoted in the book cover, “Sometimes the one who loves you is the one who hurts you the most”. Lily is Ryle’s life, Ryle’s everything. But he can’t control his temper and she deserve better.

Two beautiful conversations from the book stayed in my mind. One between Ryle’s Sister Alyssa (who is also Lily’s best friend).  Alyssa after learning about the abusive behavior of Ryle, says Lily that though as a sister I want you to give a chance to Ryle, I will never forgive you as your friend if you ever accept him back.

The second one is between Lily and her mother. Mother tells Lily that when your partner is abusive, and you decide to give him a chance, then you must know the limit. The limit of when to stop giving chances. It should not be he bet me yesterday, but didn’t do that today. It must not be I have lived with it for 5 years and can live another 5.

The book indeed help us figure out many things. When we randomly hear of someone in a bad relationship. We first ask why cant the person just leave the partner? But we never understand the emotional investment someone has put in a relationship. We never are considerate about how much difficult it is to leave someone who you love so deeply.

So Lily doesn’t want to continue this cycle, her mother giving her father chances, she giving Ryle chances and so on. She wants to stop the loop. She doesn’t want her daughter to be in the same position and think twice on when to leave a person. Had Lily left Ryle the first he hurt her, she wouldn’t even be married to him. Thus, Lily tells Ryle that she is intended to “End it with us”.

Atlas is Lily’s real love or all time love or the first love she can’t forget. Atlas is that perfect man anyone would wish for and is Lily’s Saviour. She finally stops swimming across all her difficulties and ends up with him.  As I said, though the story is about women who are in abusive relationships, Atlas is a relief that Lily gets, that the readers get.

At some part, we would really wish Lily and Ryle to be together. But that is not what should happen right. 80 to 85% of people live with their abusive partners in the hope of things getting better. Also, most of them does not have a place to move to, or an income to support themselves, or someone like Atlas to lean on. I wonder when will all women be independent so that they can take their own decisions, so that they don’t need to force themselves on anything.

You would really wish you find someone like Ryle, but not abusive. You would also wish to find someone like Atlas. But Atlas is too ideal a character. And even when we have a Atlas with us, we will be so stupid to search someone else, in the hope of finding some treasure, never realizing the true value of anything.