If you’ve ever heard of #BookTok, you’ve probably heard of “It Ends With Us”, the novel by Colleen Hoover that shook the publishing industry. While the contemporary romance novel was released in 2016, it wasn’t until #BookTok started raving about this book that it became an international bestseller. It debuted at #1 on the New York Times best sellers list in January 2022, has been reviewed by over one million readers, and sold over 4 million copies. According to the NPD BookScan, Hoover is the bestselling author in 2022 as of September 3rd with a total of 7.3 million books sold.
So why did this book go viral and what is “It Starts With Us”? I’m here to tell you.
The TikTok creator @caitsbooks is deemed the creator of #BookTok as a community in 2020. Since then, #BookTok has expanded with over 83.8 billion views. It has shocked the publishing industry with rapidly increasing book sales, novels becoming bestsellers years after publishing, and indie authors gaining popularity and getting signed with traditional publishing companies. Once #BookTok picked up one of Colleen Hoover’s novels, it started a trend that neither the author or the subcommunity would have expected. Hoover has released 24 books and in my opinion, six of them are widely discussed and reviewed on TikTok. As a member of the #BookTok community, my opinion would be: “It Ends With Us”, “Ugly Love”, “Verity”, “Reminders of Him”, “November 9”, and “All Your Perfects”. Of these six, “It Ends With Us” is definitely the most popular, as shown by the sales and the prevalence of this book in the hashtag.
“It Ends With Us” is a heartbreaking novel with elements of drama, suspense, and romance. It is told through the perspective of Lily, a new business owner living in Boston. Lily had a rough childhood with an unhealthy example of a romantic relationship set by her parents. Enter Ryle, breathtaking neurosurgeon with an affinity for Lily but not relationships. Lily enters this new situation and is taking things one step at a time, but when her first love Atlas comes into the picture, everything changes. The overall storyline: “Sometimes the one who loves you is the one who hurts you the most.”
“It Starts With Us” is the long awaited sequel, detailing her life with her love interest (I’m not spoiling) and is a dual point of view novel (both Lily’s and her love interest’s perspective), unlike “It Ends With Us”. As a reader and lover of all things Colleen Hoover, I cannot explain how excited I am to read more of her work and see where the story goes.
Is it worth the hype? Guess you’ll have to read it and find out.