A Podcast And A Review Of It Ends With Us

“The optimist sees the donut, the pessimist sees the hole.” Oscar Wilde

This is a different musing. I had seen a lot of reviews of the movie, “It Ends With Us.” I thought I would share my thoughts after reading the book. 

I love to listen to differing podcasts

Recently I was listening to Allie Beth Stuckey. Now, before you all say, “She’s really conservative!” In my defense, I listen to the spectrum of podcasters. I am not wedded to “one side fits all” in my thinking. I have found for many years that hearing both sides of the argument is better than blind trust in someone. We all have our biases, we do. It is best that we admit it up front and have an open mind to learn new things. 

I find listening to different points of view helpful

This was not always the case in my life. For many, many years I was entrenched in one intransigent thought. My side was the right side, the other side was wrong. Part of that stubbornness of mind was my strict religious upbringing. I had never traveled outside the south, I had never left my little corner of the world and I was perfectly okay with it. Fast forward several years and I have completely changed my approach to life and thought. Travel, age, meeting new people. Seeing other cultures has renewed my life approach. Are there times when I cower in the corner of my childhood? Absolutely. But those times are becoming fewer and far between. 

It Ends With Us was a quick read

Back to Allie Beth Stuckey, I was listening because she had been commenting on Colleen Hoover’s book, “It Ends With Us.” That piqued my interest because I have read all of Colleen’s books. Her books in my opinion are easy to read, they are not overly challenging to the mind. You are not going to solve the mysteries of life with her stories, but they are not without merit by any means. Allie said that Colleen’s books were in a way both emotional and physical smut. I tish-toshed that idea at first but after a little thought I actually agreed with her in a small way. The blessing of reading this book? I read it in our little apartment back porch in Zuerich, Switzerland with the Alpine breeze. 

What was the story about?

In the story, a girl named Lily Bloom has high hopes and dreams to open a flower shop. Lily Bloom, flowers. Some say clever, others say, “How original.” Because I am a novel writer myself, I am not going to fault the author’s choices in character names. Our books are our babies in a way. It takes an awful lot to write, edit and format an Indie novel. Trust me. Lily had a past of abuse in her family with her father. Her move to Boston is an attempt to start anew and afresh after college. 

 Lily has flashes of memories with her first love, Atlas. She holds him tenderly in her heart even after years have passed. But she figured much like life, he had moved on. Lily meets Ryle, a young neurosurgeon while sitting on a rooftop. Ryle had an angry outburst on the roof, a bit of foreshadowing in my opinion, but he stops when he sees Lily. In that meeting a romance is started. Lily and Ryle begin to date and Ryle’s sister, Jenny works for Lily at her shop. 

The relationship progressed to a violent state

As the relationship progresses, Ryle becomes violent towards Lily. After the violence, Lily accepts his apology and they move on. One day at an outing, Lily runs into Atlas. The attraction is instant, as if they are long lost soul mates. This causes Ryle to be very jealous of Lily’s relationship with Atlas. Atlas sees the bruise on Lily’s eye and the bandage on Ryle’s hand and is rightfully concerned. He slips Lily his phone number just in case she needs him in the future. Atlas knew of the past abuse in Lily’s life and saw that perhaps the pattern was repeating itself. 

Is the story worth a read?

I am not going to give the whole story away, but there is a lot of physical and emotional abuse. Lily realizes that she is repeating the pattern of her childhood and decides to make some much needed changes for the future. It is a gut wrenching story to be sure with bits and bobs of romance thrown in. Now, back to Allie Beth Stuckey’s review. She contended that books of this nature are a bit of emotional and physical pornography. This book does have its fair share of explicit scenes. So if you are shy about reading such things, yes. I would agree. In my little opinion, you can always turn the page. I feel as if our culture has swung the pendulum to the far side of too much information in that sphere. Where is the nuance? You can write a beautiful scene of love without all the dirty details.

There are bits of smut in the book

As far as emotional smuttiness, books are fiction. We want the fairy tale sometimes, don’t we? As I wrote in a previous article, the thing with fairy tales? They are not real. Allie contended that we tend to romanticize fictional characters rather than counting the blessings in our life. I must admit, I am often guilty of this. I’m a storyteller, of course I am weaving tales day in and day out. It is a bit of escapism from life, is it not? So yes. We should engage in some thankfulness for all that we have from God. 

The author was telling a real-life story

There is also a lot of physical abuse in this book. Colleen was telling her real-life story of the abuse that was carried out between her mom and dad. If I were a betting person, I would say that this book was a catharsis for her. She wanted to tell her story so that she could release her inner hurt. Also, she probably wanted to tell other women, you are not alone. 

Be careful with book reviews. It is important to read a few

As I read the reviews of the book, I was a little surprised that libraries said this was suitable for teens. No, it is not. That is my opinion. This book is solidly in the adult category. I would not put this in the hands of a young one. I commend Colleen for telling the story of her mother and her courage to end the cycle of abuse. There were some reviewers who called Colleen an abuse apologist. I did not perceive that in my reading. 

Final thoughts

My final thoughts? I respect any writer who puts their work out there. I do. My personal philosophy concerning writing is, “Can my granddaughter read it?” Not just my children’s books but also my novels. When the pendulum swings back to nuance, I want readers to be able to pick up my works and enjoy the story without blushing. I encourage you all to check out Allie Beth Stuckey, she has some thoughtful podcasts. Listen to varying points of view. After all, in the words of Aldous Huxley, “There are things known, there are things unknown, an in between are the doors of perception.”