Even though one has directly been blamed for the downfall of the other, social media can often prove to be massively beneficial for a good old-fashioned paperback novel, something Colleen Hoover discovered when It Ends with Us became a viral sensation.
The book that finds a woman named Lilly beginning life after college before being plunged headlong into a twisting and turning series of events that upends her entire life has racked up over a billion tags on TikTok, and debuted at number one on The New York Times best-seller list on its way to shifting well over a million copies, as well as being translated into excess of 20 languages.
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Needless to say, then, the expectations shot through the roof when the inevitable movie adaptation was announced, but the live-action version of It Ends with Us came under fire from fans of the source material for casting Blake Lively in the lead role, with the actress roughly a decade older than her counterpart on the printed page.
Speaking to Today at a recent book singing, Hoover addressed the controversies head-on, and in a surprising turn of events for any creative when talking about their own work, she held her hands up and took the blame.
“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 made Lily very young. I didn’t now 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.”
It’s a minor issue to have if we’re being honest, but with the production currently on hold due to the ongoing writers’ strike, it could be a while before those with an affinity for It Ends with Us get to pass judgement on the end product.