Content warning: This article contains sensitive topics such as abusive relationships, domestic violence, and sexual assault.
If you’re actively online, you might know the “BookTok” side of TikTok. Videos from this Internet corner typically center around book reviews, recommendations, and other book-related content. One author that has amassed a large amount of fame on BookTok is Colleen Hoover. Some of her works include titles such as It Ends With Us, November 9, and Ugly Love. Hoover gained TikTok fame over the so-called “romances” within her novels..Hoover gained TikTok fame over the so-called “romances” within her novels. They are ripe with misogyny and depictions of abusive and codependent relationships. The romances often glorify such themes and are pitched as love stories.
Colleen Hoover’s novels are marketed as young adult (YA) fiction as if it couldn’t get any worse. The demographic for the YA genre is teenage girls ages 12 to 18. Hoover’s romanticization of abusive relationships being marketed towards such a young and impressionable audience muddles their perception of what a healthy relationship is and looks like. Therefore, they may romanticize manipulative behaviors and signs of an abusive relationship. They might even sympathize with the abuser because he is “broken” or has childhood trauma. While it is true that trauma can affect a person psychologically, it does not absolve them of their actions. Because of everything I have heard through the Internet grapevine and the excerpts I have seen from Hoover’s novels, I intend to never read any of her works. I cannot say this is the case for every teenage girl. It is dangerous that Hoover’s novels are marketed as romances because it normalizes these abusive behaviors and influence young girls to think they are romantic. I cannot stress this enough: it is not romantic to be physically and emotionally manipulated by your partner, it is abuse.
In her article “Abuse Isn’t Sexy: The Romanticisation of Domestic Violence in Literature”, Aala Cheema describes the abuse depicted in Hoover’s novel It Ends With Us. Ryle, the “love interest,” physically and sexually assaults Lily, the main character, on three separate occasions. Hoover attempts to justify Ryle’s unexcusable behavior by giving him a traumatic childhood, which, as mentioned, caused him to gain sympathy votes from female readers. Moreover, Hoover has Lily claim that women stay with their abusers out of love, which is completely untrue. Cheema dives into the horrific implications of this comment by saying:
I find that comment deranged. Domestic violence is so much more complicated. It comprises physical violence, emotional abuse, coercive control, financial abuse, isolation, manipulation, and more. Often, victims are left completely reliant on their abuser, making it impossible for them to leave. (Cheema)
Not only do Hoover’s books normalize abusive relationships, but the claim that women stay with their abusers out of love is also incredibly harmful to survivors of domestic violence. All in all, it is hazardous to frame such depictions of abuse as romance and then market it toward teenage girls. It is time we stop viewing these books as romances instead of what they are, which is highly problematic.