I had heard a lot of good things about her books and picked up Verity at a Goodwill, because from what I had seen it was supposed to be more of a “thriller” than a romance book. It was basically *just* smut with a paper-thin, predictable “mystery” plot as a disguise, and I, expecting an actual thriller, was very disappointed to say the least.
A while later my friend expressed interest in reading it, so I figured I would just give it to her. She had completely opposite opinions from me, and *loved* the book. Some of her favourite scenes were the ones that were, in my opinion, the worst parts of an already bad book.
This was very interesting to me, as it seems very similar to the online coverage I’ve seen of Colleen Hoover’s books. People either seem to think her books are beautiful romances with engaging plots, *OR* they think they’re vapid, abuse-glorifying, boring wastes of time. It’s either overwhelming praise or intense vitriol, and I’ve never seen anything really quite like it. People who have read her books, how did you feel about them? I’ve since read a few of her other books and, honestly, I haven’t really found any of them to be much better than the average grocery store romance novel with weird, romanticized overtones of domestic abuse.
by Ill-Introduction-134
6 Comments
>it seems very similar to the online coverage I’ve seen of Colleen Hoover’s books
What did those writeups/podcasts/videos have to say about it? I imagine they’ve probably covered most angles of this already.
My theory is that her books are enjoyed by people that don’t read a lot and people that specifically look for smut with paper thin plot contrivances.
>But I do believe I’ve identified the secret to Hoover’s success: Her books are efficient delivery mechanisms for the maximum dosage of multiple crowd-pleasers: love stories, unabashed smut, trauma plots, tear-jerking soap opera, and wild narrative twists. They are the everything bagels of popular fiction.
[Source Slate.com](https://slate.com/culture/2022/08/colleen-hoover-books-it-ends-with-us-verity.html)
Anything that’s popular will find both a rabid fanbase and a fervent base of detractors. I haven’t read them, though. They just don’t appeal to me.
It’s really no different from people who enjoy horror/slasher flicks filled with gore and gratuitous nudity and people who find that stuff distasteful and shallow.
Some people like the titilation and don’t care about deep character studies or intriguing plots, and other people want more depth and meat to their media. It just comes down to taste really.
My fiance hated the two colleen hoover books she read, but two of our mutual women friends loved them. My finace basically had the same problems you did OP — she thought the plots were contrived, the characters thin and unlikeable, and the entire thing just a vehicle for delivering smut with a veneer of story slapped on top.
I haven’t read her books, as they don’t seem to be the thing I’d be into.
But as far as why they’re so divisive?
Probably because *anything* popular is. There are going to be people who love it (hence why it’s popular) and people who don’t like it and range between flabbergasted and horrified that other people love this tripe.
Throw in that anything aimed at young women tends to be divisive just because, y’know, it *is*, and I’d be astonished if Hoover was anything other than extremely divisive.