It Ends With Us is a BookTok sensation, so why is the film controversial?

Colleen Hoover's novel It Ends With Us is being brought to the silver screen, but not everyone is happy about the adaptation even though they haven't yet had the chance to see it.

If you're on BookTok, or even vaguely aware of the social media space for book fans, then chances are that you've heard of Colleen Hoover. The author has enjoyed a huge boost to her career thanks to the platform, and her 2016 novel was one such book that became a hit years after its original release thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations on BookTok.

However, with more attention on her work comes increased expectations, and that has meant that her fans have been quite vocal about the forthcoming film adaptation starring Blake Lively — and it's not all been good.

Why is the It Ends With Us film adaptation controversial?

A beloved book getting a film adaptation is often cause for celebration, but for some of Colleen Hoover's fans the upcoming movie is a source of ire, not joy.

The movie adaptation of It Ends With Us was first announced back in 2019, with work on the movie starting in earnest after the book became a TikTok sensation in 2021. Casting for the film was first announced in 2023, and that's when problems began to arise for some fans.

It Ends With Us follows 23-year-old Lily Bloom, a college graduate who begins a relationship with 30-year-old neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid. While things start well between them, soon Ryle turns abusive towards Lily — something she witnessed her mother experiencing at the hands of her father when she was growing up.

While suffering from this abuse, Lily reconnects with her childhood sweetheart Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar). Her friendship with Atlas causes problems between her and Ryle because he begins to lash out at her in a jealous rage, and the book follows as she tries to end the relationship.

The subject matter aside for now, fans of Hoover's book were upset by the decision to cast Blake Lively in the role of Lily and Justin Baldoni —who also directs— as Ryle. The reason they were unhappy is because the actors are much older than their fictional counterparts, and the aging up of Lily and Ryle was something that several fans couldn't accept.

Read more: BookTok, the social media trend transforming TV and film

Backlash began to emerge online over this, with the controversy only increasing when set pictures showed Lively in character. Several book fans were unhappy with the way she was dressed, and several began to share their complaints on social media in a bid to try and stop the movie from being made.

When production on the film had to pause as a result of the WGA Writer's Strike there were some fans who took it as a sign that their complaints meant that the film would be recast and reshot, if it wasn't scrapped completely. This, of course, was not true.

Hoover addressed backlash from fans over the aging up of her characters and the costumes in the film in an interview with Today, where she said: "Back when I wrote It Ends With Us, the new adult [genre] was very popular. You were writing college-age characters. That’s what I was contracted to do.

"I didn’t know that neurosurgeons went to school for 50 years. There’s not a 20-something neurosurgeon. As I started making this movie, I’m like, 'We need to age them out because I messed up.' So that’s my fault."

The author went on: "I don’t remember describing outfits at all. I don’t care what they have on. In my head, it’s about the conversation they’re having and the story. It’s the same way in the movie.

“You’ve seen a couple of outfits that are completely out of context. I’m not worried about it.”

Baldoni also spoke on the matter with Entertainment Weekly, saying: "When you have a book that is so in the zeitgeist, especially on a platform like TikTok and Instagram and social media, you're always going to have online chatter. There's always going to be opinions.

"It didn't really bother me because the fact that they were talking about it was a beautiful thing. If nobody talks about your book adaptation, then I feel like that's more of a problem. Then we should be worried."

Read more: Ryan Reynolds Grills Wife Blake Lively’s New On-Screen Love Interest In The Most Hilarious Way (HuffPost, 2-min read)

The filmmaker added that when he first began working on the movie he knew it couldn't be about a 23-year-old because he "wanted women of all ages to be able to see themselves", and aging up the characters allows it to be a "universal story".

It's not just Hoover's fans who have already written off the movie before its release, because several people criticised the plot after the film's first trailer came out. Some people claimed the story is romanticising domestic abuse, though Hoover's fans have long defended the story as being about Lily's journey to break the cycle of abuse not about a perceived romance between her and Ryle.

It Ends With Us premieres in cinemas on Friday, 9 August.