Book Review | Without Merit by Colleen Hoover

Without Merit by Colleen Hoover
Published by: Atria Books on October 3rd, 2017
Genre: YA, New Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Pages: 384
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased

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Summary (from Goodreads): Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.

The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, the little half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there’s Merit.

Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn’t earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antiques shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her—until she discovers that he’s completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix.

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. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves.

Review: This is probably one of the lowest rating that I have given a Colleen Hoover book. They usually hit 4-5 stars with me but this one felt very average to me. I felt like there was a lot missing in the book and that it just kind of ended with a lot of unanswered questions. There were a lot of topics discussed in the book (mental illness, sexuality, suicide, abuse) which is great that it is being discussed but each topic ended up not being fully discussed appropriately. I think if just one or two were focused on and fully developed that it would have been much better.

The family and living situation felt a little unrealistic to me and also highly convenient at times. I didn’t particularly care for any of the characters. All the characters and storylines were all just a little too much for me.

I don’t really have much else to say as if I dive into the plot that I might accidentally give stuff away. This book was just eh…. Hopefully the next one is better!

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