Why are Colleen Hoover books so popular?
What writers can learn from CoHo
Colleen Hoover (CoHo) is a romance author and BookTok sensation who has sold over 20 million books. Whether you enjoy her books or hate them, you can’t deny their popularity. So, what can authors learn from CoHo’s writing? I’m going to break down some things Colleen Hoover does really well in her most popular novel It Ends With Us. Understanding these story elements can help you improve your craft and attract readers. I’m also going to look at some other elements in this novel that might explain its popularity, but are probably best to avoid in your writing.
I want to preface this blog post with a couple of important points. The first is that I read It Ends With Us for the sole purpose of analyzing the craft and writing elements that might explain its popularity. That means this article contains spoilers for It Ends With Us! Second, CoHo books are not for me. They do not align with my tastes and preferences for books, but I have tried to be as neutral as possible in my analysis. Hoover uses some story elements that I wouldn’t recommend my book coaching clients use (I’ll outline these below). Also, if you don’t like spicy books with swearing, don’t read this novel. If you do enjoy her books, that’s great! Reading is a highly subjective activity and I firmly believe everyone should read whatever they like.
****Spoilers below******
***CW - mentions of domestic abuse and sexual assault***
Things CoHo does well from a storytelling perspective
1) Character ghost, misbelief and worldview
It Ends With Us begins with main character Lily Bloom standing on a roof having just come home from her father’s funeral. The reader quickly learns that her father was abusive to her mother and that Lily had nothing good to say about him at his funeral. Hoover is immediately letting the reader know what Lily’s ghost is.
(A ghost is something that happened in a character’s past and informs their worldview. In order to create complex characters, you need to build a ghost into your story.) The worldview or misbelief that Lily is operating from is well-established right from the beginning: she believes she’ll never end up in an abusive relationship like her mother. Yet, that’s exactly where she ends up.
Ryle is a good-looking neurosurgeon and the love interest for Lily. He also has a ghost which we learn about much later in the story: Ryle accidentally shot his brother when they were children. This supposedly explains his anger issues, but it’s not a completely believable ghost (I’ll talk more about this in the next section).
2) Character consistency
Colleen Hoover is good at creating consistent characters whose actions are believable. One of the most satisfying things a writer can do for their readers is to give them hints of something to come without giving anything away. Hoover does this with her character Ryle. When we meet him in Chapter One, he’s beating up a chair. Over the course of the story he turns out to be an abusive partner and husband to Lily. Ryle is a believable character because he behaves consistently. His actions are both shocking and not shocking because Hoover built them into his character from the very beginning.
3) Conflict
Conflict is what makes a story exciting to readers. The main conflict at the beginning of It Ends With Us is that Lily wants a committed relationship and Ryle wants a one-night-stand. Despite knowing they want different things, they’re attracted to each other. Two characters who want completely different things is the perfect type of conflict for a romance novel. Conflict isn’t just drama for drama’s sake. It has to revolve around the characters and the main plot question. In this case, the main plot question, at least at the beginning, is: Will Lily and Ryle get together despite the fact that they want different things?
4) Tension and escalation
Have you ever heard a novel described as unputdownable? When readers can’t stop turning the pages of a book, it’s usually because the author is really great at tension and escalation. Hoover has mastered this in It Ends With Us. When Lily and Ryle meet in Chapter One there is sexual tension between them, but their intimacy only goes so far because they want different things. Ryle wants to be physically intimate without commitment. Lily wants a relationship. The sexual tension builds. Each time they meet, they are both fighting their desire for each other and becoming increasingly more intimate.
A second important element that keeps readers turning pages and makes character actions believable is escalation. Ryle’s abuse doesn’t happen suddenly or out of the blue. The reader doesn’t have trouble believing that Lily would stay with him because the abuse starts slowly, almost imperceptibly, and increases over the course of the novel. Lily herself wonders how she let it go as far as it did.
In the later half of the book, the tension comes in the form of secrets about the abuse and her pregnancy that Lily keeps from friends and family.
5) Story Structure
Readers are subconsciously seeking a pattern when they read, so writers need to understand story structure. Story structure allows the pacing of a story to feel just right and plot turns to happen exactly when a reader expects. In other words, correct story structure keeps a reader completely invested in a story. Hoover’s story structure in It Ends with Us is deliberate and perfect:
Inciting incident - Lily and Ryle meet and are attracted to each other but they want two different things.
Act 1 turning point (25% mark) - Ryle agrees to do things Lily’s way. They sleep in the same bed without sex and begin a serious relationship.
Rising Action - Ryle and Lily are in a serious relationship. Things are going well. Ryle meets her mother and seems to adore Lily. His commitment issues seem to be going away.
Midpoint (50% mark) - During a night of drinking, Ryle drops a casserole on the floor and burns his hands. Lily laughs and Ryle pushes her. She falls and hits her face on a cabinet.
Falling action - Lily forgives Ryle, but now she’s navigating something new: whether or not to stay in what might be an abusive relationship. At the same time, Lily’s ex-boyfriend and first love, Atlas, shows up and causes Ryle to become increasingly jealous.
All-is-lost (75% mark) - After Lily and Ryle get spontaneously married, Lily comes home one day to find Ryle in a jealous rage over something Atlas said about her in a newspaper article. This time his abuse includes marital rape and it’s planned, calculated and humiliating. Lily leaves Ryle and stays temporarily with Atlas.
Climax - After a few months apart and with the protection of a friend, Lily tells Ryle she’s pregnant with his child and explains how his actions affected her. Ryle apologizes and asks to be part of Lily and the baby’s life. When their baby is born, Lily makes the final decision to divorce Ryle. They work out co-parenting arrangements amicably.
Things CoHo does that may explain her popularity, but I really don’t recommend
1) Sensationalism
It’s no secret that people love drama! We all do. It’s possible that Colleen Hoover’s books are popular because they include elements that could be considered sensationalist. What I mean by that is that her book includes a lot of hot or shocking topics. Some scenes feel like they were inspired by a Dr. Phil episode. Sometimes it feels like she chose a few news headlines at random and decided to combine them into a story.
Let’s take Ryle’s ghost as an example. Ryle accidentally shot his older brother when they were children when he discovered a gun in his family’s garage. While this may be an issue in the US that should deeply concern all of us, I’m not sure this is the best way to explore it at a deep level. Not only that, from a storytelling perspective, it doesn’t make a totally believable ghost for Ryle. Ryle struggles with anger and lashes out violently. That means his ghost should be deeply connected to those actions and feelings. It would make more sense if he had been on the receiving end of abuse himself as a child (the cycle of abuse).
2) Brushing the surface of big issues
When we include too many issues in a novel, we don’t have the opportunity to authentically explore and comment on those issues. I believe this is one of our jobs as writers, no matter what genre we write in. In It Ends With Us, I think Hoover does a good job of demonstrating to readers how someone might get into an abusive relationship and find it difficult to leave. She wrote an author’s note explaining her personal relationship with abuse.
Despite that, a few concerns came up for me:
a) Lily seeks solace and ends up with her first love, Atlas. But Atlas has also demonstrated anger issues. (There is a scene in the novel where he tries to fight Ryle in his restaurant - really summoning those Dr. Phil/Maury Povich vibes).
b) There’s also a question about the co-parenting relationship in light of the fact that Ryle doesn’t do anything to seek help. His anger could put their child at risk. Hoover mentions the cycle of abuse in the end and it’s wonderful that Lily could end that as a victim, but I think we need to think about how the perpetrator is going to end the cycle. Or at least try. If someone has shown violence in the past and chooses not to seek help, then we have to restrict their access to our lives and our children’s lives.
c) Teen homelessness was another issue that was brought up but I didn’t think it was authentically represented or deeply explored in this novel
Overall, I think there’s a lot to learn from CoHo’s writing technique and style. It makes sense that her novels are popular. What I would try to avoid as an author though is creating literary junk food or literary clickbait for the sake of making a book popular. Instead, work on building a hearty literary salad. Include authentic characters who journey through a plot that challenges and changes them while exploring themes and issues on a deep level. That way, you’ll attract readers who feel deeply satisfied and mentally nourished after reading your books.
If you need help with story structure, character, conflict, tension or other storytelling elements, I help writers improve their novels and become great storytellers! Get in touch for a free 30-minute chat to see if my book coaching or developmental editing services might be right for you!
