Colleen Hoover is a name that has been all over Goodreads, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. She is an American author who primarily writes romance and young adult fiction books. In the last 2-3 years she has gained a massive following of readers with one of her most top-rated books being ‘It Ends with Us’.According to New York Times, Hoover sold more books than Dr. Seuss amounting to more than 20 million copies. She has legions of devoted fans and a knack for high-voltage emotional drama. The majority of her female followers refer to themselves as CoHorts and leave ecstatic comments in response to the heartbreaking endings of her books. A CoHo (as she is called by her loved fans) fan who made the following plea on TikTok went viral: “I want Colleen Hoover to punch me in the face. That would hurt less than these books.”
Hoover’s most massive fan base comes from young adult women who are twenty-somethings.
The books are very fast-paced and have a great deal of emotional drama.
What are the books about?
In a classic Hoover book, two people in their twenties are held apart by their own personal indecision rather than by their parents, society, class, or financial status, as they navigate the demands of romantic love with obstacles that are very 21st-century. They only want carefree sex; they’re too busy, too broken, too empty, or too numb for love. Subsequently, the threads emerge and secure them in a predictable yet sturdy cat’s cradle. A lot of her books have become popular because of the extremely fast-paced romance. The books are not what is called ‘slow burn’ in the reading world. Most of the books have extremely scarred male and female protagonists and they almost always end up scaring each other even more. Everything is rosy and lovey-dovey till a point when the author decides there needs to be some emotional drama. A lot of it usually manifests itself as domestic and sexual abuse of women protagonists who already have a traumatic past.
What really sells in her books is the fact that a lot of women relate to the characters on a superficial level, they cry after reading her books (people love tragic books) and there’s a lot of sex. Yes, sexual and erotic scenes are described in such vivid detail and more often than not , they come out of nowhere and at every second page in some books.
The female characters have very low self-esteem and settle for the bare minimum, only to realize suddenly what they’ve been doing all this while. Hoover’s female characters often lack depth, and self-worth and are highly dependent on men for validation.
Top 5 Reasons why we need to stop the glorification of her books
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Her Characters lack self-worth
Having a massive audience who are women in their twenties or teenagers, the readers are at a highly impressionable stage. Most of her female characters are dependent on the male protagonist and would do anything to gain their attention. That is not the kind of values we want to inculcate in young girls reading these novels. A lot of books portray women in a very debilitated manner and they reinforce damaging stereotypes like “ this is how men are” or “love will fix everything”.
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There is no focus on a woman’s professional life
Tate is described in ‘Ugly Love’ as a nurse who is seeking a master’s degree. Her studies were limited to her profession and had no success criteria. We were not given any material to learn about her efforts to save lives or pass her examinations. But we were supposed to be happy for Mile, who is 24 years old, and for her brother and all the other accomplished male pilots.
The same thing happens in ‘It ends with us’ when Ryle is a doctor and so he is allowed to have a stressful burst of emotions, both physically and psychologically but when it came to the female protagonist, Lily was a florist. We did not really get to see her side of the professional front.
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Her books come with a lot of trigger warnings
If you are someone who gets triggered by subjects like suicide, murder, rape, domestic or sexual abuse, alcohol or drug abuse or parental toxicity then her books are not for you. There is so much emotional drama surrounding the books, that it is a little too much even for a person not triggered by the mentioned subjects. A lot of the storyline revolves around a traumatic past and PTSD so if you are planning to read her books as a ‘light’ read before your morning meditation session, probably skip it.
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Her books are repetitive and cliche
Mostly all of her books are about an unnecessary love story that inevitably involves a damaged man and a woman who has already experienced a lot of trauma. Even with the release of books like ‘Verity’ which was a psychological thriller, the main plot still remained the same and revolved around the male protagonist.
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There is a lot of unnecessary sex
Sex sells. This is no secret. Women love to read smutty romances and sometimes even prefer it over visual content. But, either you market the book like a smut book and own up to it or you don’t make the entire plot revolving around sex. The sexual scenes are also very problematic and scarring for some individuals. Hoover’s books romanticize unhealthy relationships and show off abusive behaviors, contrary to what her books are actually supposed to be against. In some of her novels, she is seen repeatedly going back to her ‘lover’ because she thinks he loves her while it is quite evident that he is only using her for his own pleasure. This sends a very wrong message across, especially to young girls who have just entered romantic relationships.
Then what is making Hoover the best-selling author time and again?
There are books that get critically acclaimed for their literary experience and then there are books that just get popular. Critics hate that book, no one seems to find any reason as to why that book can be considered a literary masterpiece. Colleen Hoover’s books are like that. A lot of readers refer to her books as “junk food” when it comes to their library. Her books are to be consumed once in a while just to read something that won’t tell you how to change a habit or that environmental change is real. There are multiple reasons why people read her books, primarily because they are very fast-paced. If you are an avid reader, you can easily complete a book in a day. The vocabulary used is so simple and easy to comprehend that the mass population of beginner readers find it easy to read. The books are intertwined with a lot of sexually explicit scenes and that attracts a lot of audience.
After stating so many reasons why you shouldn’t be picking up her books to read, her books have at least talked about domestic and sexual abuse. They have opened the eyes of many who were unaware of the seriousness of these issues and brought about talk in the masses for the same. While it is impractical to say that Colleen Hoover should be hated for writing what people are so fondly buying, I think the only way to put an end to this is by not indulging in these “guilty pleasures”. It ends with you and me, It ends with us.
We learn so much by reading books, but some books are just for entertainment that you get so engrossed in that book that for some time you forget your life problems. Colleen Hoover’s book probably falls in its category. But still it is worth thinking about what kind of mentality writer is conveying to the people through his characters, that’s why I think we should write or read any book very thoughtfully.