Everything to Know About the It Ends With Us Controversy In Advance of the New Movie

Bestselling author Colleen Hoover, 44, wrote her first book as a gift to her mother Vannoy Fite, but it was another family story that really made her a star.

Hoover’s 2016 novel. It ends with usbased on her parents’ relationship, will hit theaters as a feature film she produced alongside Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (who also directed) on August 9. And while the book is an incredible hit, in the ranking no. 1 on Amazon at the time of publication, with over 300,000 reviews and a 4.7 star rating, it is not without its critics. That’s not unexpected, Hoover told PEOPLE for a story in this week’s print issue.

Colleen Hoover (left) and her mom Vannoy Fite; cover of ‘It Ends With Us’.

Colleen Hoover/Instagram

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Everything you need to know about Blake Lively’s upcoming movie It ends with us

“A book that has this many readers, the negative attention is going to be loud,” she explains, adding that she sometimes has to console friends who rebel by trying to defend her online. “The overall rating and amount of reviews on Amazon is amazing… So I think people focus on all the negatives, but that’s going to come with a book that has this many readers, of course.”

So what is beef? Those who haven’t read the book or seen the movie will want to stop reading here, because there are spoilers ahead.

‘It Ends With Us’ by Colleen Hoover.

Amazon

Some fans criticized the depiction of violence by an intimate partner

Both book and film versions It ends with us follows Lily Bloom as she embarks on a romance with Ryle, but eventually his violent side comes to the fore. He emotionally, sexually and physically abuses Lily, who realizes that their relationship must change after she becomes pregnant. Eventually, Lily decides to divorce Ryle and let him continue to parent their daughter.

The choice sparked controversy, with some readers questioning Lily’s choice to keep Ryle as long as she did. Others praise the realistic nature of the relationship, noting that leaving an abusive partner is not an easy or simple decision.

For her part, Hoover spoke openly about how observing her parents’ relationship influenced her choice of writer.

“One of my earliest memories was him shooting at the TV,” she said Today in 2023, her biological father. “Up until that point, we had grown up in an abusive household.”

Colleen Hoover (right) and her mother Vannoy Fite.

Colleen Hoover/Instagram

“Women didn’t have the means to leave those situations,” she continued, adding that her mother divorced her father when she was 2 years old. “She could have gotten out of that relationship. And from then on, I just remember growing up with a mother who was so strong and independent.”

Hoover said that she “kept asking her mother how she managed to leave her father and ended up writing a book inspired by her mother’s courage.”

The book was shelved as “romance”, not “fiction”

The book’s categorization as “romance” has also raised some eyebrows, due to the nature of Lily and Ryle’s relationship. Some readers have suggested that the book would be better placed under “contemporary fiction,” while others argue that dark romance is a subgenre in itself.

The author of the movie ‘It’s over with us’ deals with the controversy surrounding the casting of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni

Some fans thought that Lily and Ryle should be younger

Justin Baldoni (left); Blake Lively.

Dia Dipasupil/Getty, Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

After Lively and Baldoni were attached to the film, Hoover faced backlash because Lively, 36, and Baldoni, 39, are much older than It ends with us characters.

In June 2023, Hoover explained that casting more mature actors was actually correcting a mistake she realized after publication. “I didn’t know neurosurgeons went to school for 50 years,” she said. “There is no such thing as a 20-something neurosurgeon.”

“When I started making this movie, I said, ‘We have to age them because I messed up,'” Hoover added. – So it’s my fault.

Others just didn’t like the clothes

Blake Lively (left) and Justin Baldoni on the set of ‘It Ends With Us’.

Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

The costumes Lively wears in the film have also drawn criticism from loyal fans, with some calling her outfit “slim”, but those associated with the film have dismissed this. “We don’t always think about why her clothes look like that in that area. And also once you watch the movie, it all makes sense,” Baldoni told ET.

It ends with us Director Responds to Blake Lively Costume Criticism: ‘Just Go See the Movie’

Baldoni added that he thinks people will be pleased when people see the film and that he (and the entire team) appreciate the passionate place these reviews are coming from.

And as the one who dreamed them, Hoover said he doesn’t even remember what Lily was wearing in the book. “I don’t remember describing the clothes at all. I don’t care what they’re wearing,” she said Today co-host Jenna Bush Hager at the time. “In my head, it’s about the conversation they have and the story. It’s the same in the movie.”

Lively also revealed an Easter egg related to Lily’s outfit: some of them came from her own closet. When the actress shared the trailer on Instagram, more than one follower drooled over the sparkly knee-high boots that open the video. When Lily enters the frame, the first thing the audience sees are Saint Laurent fishnet pointe toe boots.

Audrey Long, who runs a celebrity fashion Instagram mostly dedicated to Lively, said she was “dying” for the boots.

– replied Lively and revealed that she brought them from her own closet. “those are my real life boots that I borrowed for the movie :)”

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Both Lively and Hoover promise fans one thing: whether you read the book first and loved it, or saw the movie and then ran to the nearest bookstore to pick it up, you’ll love both.

“If you read the book first, I truly believe, and I don’t make any promises, but I believe you’ll love this movie,” Lively said. “And if you see the movie first and then read the book, you’re going to like the book. And I think that’s the goal and I hope we can achieve that.”

“Because as readers, you know, we want those movies to reflect the books that we’re writing,” Hoover added. “And so I think you’ll all be very happy when it comes out.”

It ends with us arrives in theaters on August 9.

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