I’m going to be totally honest, I downloaded the romantic suspense novel Woman Down by Colleen Hoover to hate-read. It is not something I normally do. Life is too short. But all the discourse and pop culture context proved too tantalizing to resist, and here I am.
The premise of this book was obviously inspired by the drama surrounding It Ends With Us, the film adaptation of Hoover’s book by the same name. It just seemed so pandering and ridiculous, not to mention it seemed to capitalize on the real sexual harassment of the movie’s star, Blake Lively. It’s all rather icky, but the curiosity got me.
The internet has turned on the formerly adored author Petra Rose, after the movie adaptation of one of her books was the subject of significant backlash. Her sales have tanked, and she needs to finish writing a new book to keep herself from losing everything.
So Petra flees to a remote cabin in hopes of curing her writer’s block and salvaging her career. She has a story started, but can’t seem to get past her trauma to put words on the page.
But when someone dies on the road by her cabin, it brings a sexy detective to her door, and inspiration strikes.
The words are flowing, but Petra might be in over her head. As the lines between fiction and reality blur, Petra must decide what she’s willing to risk to resurrect her writing career.
From the start, the relationship between Petra and the detective, Saint, is bonkers. Every time they are on the page together, I want to shout “what the fuck are you doing” at both of them.
It’s not just their actions, but the fundamental nature of these characters that is an issue. These characters are unlikable, and not in a fun way, but in an incredibly cringey way.
The whole cast of characters is collectively insufferable. Given that I hate them all, I did not care what happened to them, which made reading this book difficult.
Admittedly, some of the romantic scenes were hot, but you’re definitely not rooting for a happily ever after while reading this book.
There is a sense of irony in Woman Down, but I’m not sure it was intentional. There are some interesting conversations in the pages about writing, the nature of reviews, and what makes a book good, bad, or unrealistic. In another book, this might be a poignant conversation, but here it was just strange.
If you’re here for the drama of it all, to its credit, this book has significant departures from the actual chain of events surrounding the real-life problems of the author. While it’s clearly an inspiration, the fundamental conflict is very different from anything that actually happened.
Given all the social media hoopla, I wasn’t expecting Woman Down to be so bland. I struggled to get through it, and frankly, I have no idea why I didn’t put it down. Unpopular opinion, I know, but I usually like Colleen Hoover’s books. They are entertaining, at least, but this one simply wasn’t worth it.
The second half of Woman Down was mildly exciting, with a wild twist, as is expected from this author. None of it makes up for the lacking characters in a self-indulgent and confused novel made up of blurred lines.
Save your time, and pick up something else.
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