Without Merit: A Novel

Product Information

even though I'm an atheist, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God that I have a wife who understands that. It's a slow build that didn't really keep my heart racing as I read, but I believe that was intentional.

There is the set-up of how Merit is so interesting because she collects trophies and doesn't wear make up, and there is a promise of some big secrets (which there are a lot of, actually), but it feels like Colleen Hoover is really pushing this uber-quirky vibe to make her book different.And frankly, who cares what I want, I get that, but when you're expecting one thing, hoping for one thing, and you don't get it. Likewise, Merit’s father is busy with his wife and their four-year-old son, Moby, and Merit’s mother does not come up from the basement. Without Merit started out very well, I was hooked by the end of chapter one – there was already drama. Lastly, a few are so dark and/or explicit that it’s best that only persons aged 21 and over read them.

Without Merit is a book that is worthy of your time and money; don’t sit in a queue of 200 people waiting for it to come in at the library. It was more so after this point though that the main theme of the book became apparently, and I started to lose interest. Instant response from their readership, that can guide their projects, and even their plots, to meet the demands of their readers. If I had to describe it, I'd say it's very much like It Ends With Us in feeling, but instead this book is targeted at the teen age range rather than adult.I think this book is framed to be open-minded about mental illness and sexuality but it is anything but. Merit Voss comes from a very interesting and dysfunctional family (which I think most of us do have some dysfunctionality in our families whether you choose to admit it or not). I'm the founder and president of The Literary Lifestyle, an authentic community that helps busy women relax, learn, and embrace a very cozy way of life. It includes all of her family’s darkest secrets plus her darkest secret of all: Utah forced her to kiss him when she was 12. It annoys me when people try to convince other people that their anger or stress isn't warranted if someone else in the world is worse off than them.

I like that there was a specific focus on family and mental health rather than just sex and boy-drama. While driving back to Dollar Voss, Honor tells Barnaby she is ashamed to be his daughter, and, finally, Barnaby tells them all that Vicky never had cancer, but rather she suffered from an array of mental illnesses after a brain injury that resulted from a car accident. Colleen Hoover’s books are too mature for 11-year-olds, as they contain romantic and thematic content that is too complex and advanced for persons that age.How will the decisions the make effect the people around them that they hold near and dear to their hearts?

The only instance I can think of in Without Merit was when the secrets came out, but there was still a significant chunk of the book after this to come. As an independent American author from Texas, Colleen Hoover came to writing as a hobby, but still something she felt compelled to do. Without Merit by Colleen Hoover is a unique book from her backlist in that it is more a family drama about mental health and complex family dynamics than a love story (though there is a bit of romance! she made me really think about the negative and positive side to having an identical twin (she had an identical twin Honor).She can’t sit through dinner without starting a fight; she’s been skipping school for days; and when she decides to give her whole family the silent treatment, Sagan is the only one who notices. The secretiveness causes the older children to blame Victoria for their parents’ divorce, and the uncommunicative environment weighs heavily and builds resentment among the family members. Even some of this drama or some of the characters presence seemed over the top or forced to me in one way of the other. Fed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she’s never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. Colleen Hoover is one of the authors who has fully gained my trust over the years and for me just knowing that she wrote the book is enough to make me feel confident diving into the story blind.