Help! Is Colleen Hoover NOT Writing a New Book?
After a cryptic article in Texas Monthly, readers are wondering, Is Colleen Hoover NOT Writing a New Book? Is Colleen Hoover Quitting? Here’s what I know.
Is Colleen Hoover NOT Writing a New Book?
The reporter attended Hoover’s Olive and June nail polish launch and then interviewed Hoover at her Texas home.
From reading the article, here’s what I learned:
Colleen Hoover Seems Somewhat Uncomfortable with Fame
At least as the reporter portrays her. She seems a bit ill at ease at the big event. Wearing a dress (which she says she never does) with her hair done, she later changes into jeans.
The reporter also (weirdly) discusses Hoover’s “resting bitch face” in photos. In a joke-y way, but why bring it up? I felt a bit of shade in the article, so I’ll give you my opinion on the CoHo phenomenon and then go back to this article (and a couple of other recent ones) to see what they say.
First off:
Colleen Hoover is Beloved by Her Fans
On October 18, 2022, to celebrate the publication of It Starts With Us, Hoover’s publisher, Simon and Schuster, set up a beautiful wrapped flower cart in New York’s Rockefeller center, where they and gave out cookies and hot chocolate. Plus, the Strand sold copies of the new book.
I live in NYC, so I popped over to see and …. wow.
First off, the line was MASSIVE:
Rockefeller Center is pretty large (it’s where we set up that huge Christmas tree every year) and the line went out of the plaza and down the block. The flower cart is the tiny purple thing you can see behind the line.
I wasn’t able to wait in such a long line, so I went up to get a quick peek at the flower cart. Here’s my photo:
Okay, back to the article.
According to the article, Colleen Hooever is taking “time off”
The article says:
” [Hoover] moved into this house in April 2023, she says, and she has not written a single word since before then. I gawp at her: she has produced two books a year since she started publishing in 2012.”
Well, that explains a lot! TWO books a year? Maybe she’s just tired?
No, the article says. She’s TERRIFIED.
“I ask whether this time off was a decision—whether, after publishing so many titles in such a compressed period, she chose to pause to avoid burnout. No, she says. She has been ritually telling her editors she’ll get them something “in three months.” She is egregiously behind on every deadline. Her editors are being kind about the delays, but Hoover is terrified.”
So what is going on?
Okay, so let’s go back to 2012, the date of Hoover’s VERY first book, Slammed. (This was right after I started blogging in September 2011.)
Slammed was a young adult book, and part of a big trend of angsty romantic fiction that I think got kicked off by the massive popularity of Twilight.
I’m not a big angst fan. It stresses me out! I tried Slammed but decided it wasn’t my thing, and didn’t review it.
But I think he popularity of very dramatic, angsty YA led to the creation of a category called New Adult books in 2009. Again, I think this was aiming to capitalize on the Twilight craze, and to give Twilight fans what they wanted: books with a lot of drama, and even some spice.
Many authors, like Hoover, Cora Carmack, and Abbi Glines started self-publishing the kinds of books they thought these readers wanted. And they were right!
New Adult was aimed at late teens and twenty-somethings. These books were typically romances, sometimes explicit, always angsty and often with themes like:
- Two broken people whose jagged broken pieces fit together
- “But Daddy I Love Him”
- He’s controlling (even emotionally abusive) …but I can fix him
But There Were Critics
Even back in the 2010s, many readers complained about the way that controlling and/or emotionally abusive relationships were romanticized in some YA books like Twilight. In 2011 Psychology Today published an article arguing that Bella and Edward’s relationship was a “template for violence and abuse”.
Similar criticisms were leveled at the YA and New Adult Books written by authors like Colleen Hoover and Jaime McGuire. Goodreads has a reader-created list called “Books About Abusive and Controlling Relationships, and McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster is #2.
This Biography.com article discusses these critiques of Hoover’s books, saying that:
“A Hoover-ian plot typically kicks off with a relationship problem that drives the protagonist away (like in Ugly Love). The boyfriend character then uses physical abuse and manipulation to get his partner to stay (see: November 9). The main character very easily forgives her partner for his dangerous transgressions (Without Merit is just one example). And the boyfriend rarely, if ever, apologizes for his harm (like in It Ends With Us).”
Fictional men behaving badly? OMG, I have never heard of such a thing!! Look, these critics may have a point, but the obvious solution is … don’t read the books!
The Biography.com article goes on to say:
“…Colleen Hoover’s books are extremely popular and leave an impression on young women—Hoover’s primary audience—by casually portraying abuse as ‘just how a relationship is supposed to work.'”
To me, that suggests that, in 2024, young women are too dumb to see through abusive and emotionally manipulative behavior.
Really? Maybe some of Hoover’s readers have experienced it and feel less alone or judged reading these books. Or maybe they just enjoy reading FICTIONAL books with a lot of drama. As young women often do.
TikTok (lol) also says Colleen Hoover is a terrible writer
I also don’t have much patience for this, which is a) part of a misogynistic belief that all things women like and enjoy are silly and shallow and b) part of a culture of reader and critic snobbery that says some books are not worth reading.
I think it is safe to say that Colleen Hoover will never be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, nor will I. It is perfectly acceptable to read for pleasure. And sometimes (or all the time) that means something easy and enjoyable to read.
Most of Hoover’s books are not for me, and that’s okay. I’m older now and again, angst is not really my thing.
What is my favorite Colleen Hoover book?
Hands down, it is this one. It’s pure genius the way Hoover took a literary genre from the 1800s and made it modern and relevant. It made me realize she IS a really talented writer, no matter what the haters say!
And it’s being made into a movie. (No, not the Blake Lively one.) I’m excited!
But the haters are getting in Colleen’s head
In the Texas Monthly article, Hoover says:
“It’s just the popular thing, to hate, right now, and I wish I didn’t let that get in my head, but I do. Because at this point I’m like: It doesn’t sound fun anymore. Release days don’t sound fun. So I’ve been dragging my feet. It used to be so exciting, and now it’s not. And that’s the saddest part.”
So … is Colleen Hoover quitting? Is she not writing a new book?
We live in a world where hate and negativity get clicks and engagement.
As the Texas Monthly article points out, Colleen Hoover has sold more than 50 million copies of her books. 50 MILLION. She has had 17 New York Times best-sellers.
I’m hoping after her break, which is as long as she wants, she writes something new! (I hope it’s another suspense book.)
I have not read Verity, but I have read quite a few CoHo books. I am like you, you don’t like it, don’t read it, but the public seems to like to pile on. They discount CoHo’s her personal story and all the good she does. I have enjoyed her books. When I am in the mood for a certain kind of story, I know I can depend on her to deliver.
I’m trying to decide if you’d like Verity. It’s very dark and twisted!