All the Information You Need to Know About the It Ends With Us Debate Before the New Film

Colleen Hoover, a 44-year-old best-selling author, wrote her first book as a gift for her mother Vannoy Fite, but her real breakthrough came from another family tale.

Based on the relationship between Hoover's parents, her 2016 novel It Ends With Us will be released in theaters on August 9 as a feature film that she co-executive produced with Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (who also directed). Even though the book has received over 300,000 reviews and a 4.7-star rating on Amazon, where it currently ranks first, it is not without its detractors. Hoover told PEOPLE for a story in this week's print issue that that's not surprising.

She notes, "A book with this many readers, the negative attention's going to be loud," and that she occasionally has to console friends who get all worked up over trying to defend the book on the internet. "The quantity of reviews and overall rating on Amazon are astounding... Therefore, I believe that people concentrate on all the negative, but that is inevitable for a book with this many readers."

A few fans took issue with how intimate partner violence was portrayed.

It Ends With Us, both the book and the movie, follow Lily Bloom as she starts a romantic relationship with Ryle, but eventually, his violent side comes out. After Lily becomes pregnant, he abuses her physically, sexually, and emotionally, and she realizes that their relationship needs to change. In the end, Lily chooses to separate from Ryle and let him keep being a co-parent of their daughter.

Some readers have expressed doubts about Lily's decision to keep Ryle around for as long as she does, which has sparked controversy. Others commend the partnership's realism, emphasizing that divorcing an abusive partner is not a simple or easy choice.

Hoover, for her part, has been candid about how witnessing the relationship between her own parents shaped her writing style.

She said of her biological father, "One of my earliest memories was him throwing a TV at her," to Today in 2023. "Up until that point, our home was abusive."

She went on, saying, "There were no resources for women to leave situations like that," adding that her father and mother had divorced when she was just two years old. She succeeded in ending that relationship. After that, all I can recall is having a mother who was incredibly strong and self-reliant while I was growing up.

Hoover stated that she "would ask her mother all the time about how she was able to leave her father and ended up writing a book inspired by her mother’s courage."

It is listed on the shelf as "romance," not "fiction."

There have been some questions about the book's classification as a "romance" due to the nature of Lily and Ryle's relationship. Although some readers feel that the book belongs more in the category of "contemporary fiction," others contend that dark romance is a distinct subgenre.

Some fans believed Ryle and Lily ought to be younger.

Because Lively, 36, and Baldoni, 39, are significantly older than the characters in It Ends with Us, Hoover faced criticism once they were confirmed for the movie.

Hoover clarified in June 2023 that hiring older actors genuinely fixes an error she discovered after the fact. She remarked, "I had no idea that neurosurgeons attended school for fifty years." "There isn't a neurosurgeon in their 20s."

Hoover continued, "When I started this movie, I was like, 'We need to age them out because I messed up.'" "So that's my fault."

Some simply didn't like the attire.

Although some of Lively's ardent admirers criticized the costumes she dons in the movie, calling them "frumpy," the people involved with the production dismissed the criticism. In that area, we don't always consider the reasons behind her clothing' appearance. It all makes sense after you watch the film, too," Baldoni added to ET.

Baldoni continued, saying that he believes the public will be satisfied after watching the film and that he and the entire team value the passionate source of those criticisms.

Furthermore, according to Hoover, who came up with them, he can't even recall what Lily was wearing in the novel. "I have absolutely no memory of describing clothes. At the time, she said to Today cohost Jenna Bush Hager, "I don't care what they have on." It's all about the story and the conversation they're having, in my opinion. In the film, it works in the same way."

One Easter egg about Lily's wardrobe that Lively also disclosed was that some of it was from her own closet. Many of the actress's Instagram followers salivated over the glittery knee-high boots that appear in the opening scene of the video when she posted the teaser. The audience's first glimpse of Lily's fishnet mesh pointed-toe Saint Laurent boots comes when she enters frame.

The majority of Audrey Long's celebrity fashion Instagram account is devoted to Lively, and she wrote that she was "dying" for the boots.

In response, Lively disclosed that she had taken them from her own wardrobe. "they’re my real life boots I loaned to the movie :)"

One thing is guaranteed to fans by both Lively and Hoover: you will adore both, regardless of whether you read the book first and thought it was fantastic or saw the movie first and immediately went to your local bookshop to get it.

"'Cause as a reader first, you know, we want those movies to reflect the books that we write," Hoover stated. "And so I think y'all are gonna be very happy when it comes out."

On August 9, It Ends With Us opens in theaters.