Without Merit: A Novel Paperback – October 3, 2017

I honestly didn’t think I was going to like this book. It felt like a slow start at first and I felt like the main character did a lot of unnecessary rambling in the beginning but as the chapters went on, it got really GOOD and I was moved by the emotions merit was feeling and this happy ending wasn’t like the other Colleen Hoover books I’ve read. This ending felt well deserved and heart warming.

This book started off a bit slow & took a while to get in to. That’s the only reason why I’m giving it 4 stars! While reading and getting deeper into the story, I then figured out why the beginning started the way it did. There was just so much back story. Once I got about half way through, I couldn’t put it down. I read the book in 2 days.It was so real, there were moments that were so wholesome & at times, relatable.Definitely a must read, especially for anyone suffering with depression, a toxic family & hidden secrets.Colleen Hoover is amazing.

This is unlike anything I have ever read from Colleen Hoover. In fact, I think that she can write anything regardless of genre and still have a major hit on her hands. She proves this in Without Merit- a quirky, somewhat dry and emotional read that dives deep into mental illness.When I first began reading this I remember thinking to myself, this is not Colleen Hoover! There is no romance or plight! But there is. It's just underneath all the important stuff that many authors fear to touch upon. And then, I continued reading the poetic words and brilliancy behind character motives and I thought, yup! It actually is work by Colleen Hoover. For some reason, her words and the way she puts stories together really set her apart from others. Readers feel like they are a part of the story in some shape or form and become emotionally involved and invested in what happens to the characters. At first, it is a bit tough to become emotionally invested in Merit because she is very DRY. She is also one dimensional, see's everything as if it were only one sided, and literally only knows how to judge based on her own perspective. Some readers may not like her character and I can understand why. But when the emotional journey hits it peak and things begin to slowly change within her eyes then YOUR perspective of her character is bound to change. For me, this is one of the most impactful books I have read by Colleen and I think she does a wonderful job at bringing dysfunctional and somewhat unlikable characters into human beings right before our eyes. I commend her for this, and I commend her bravery at bringing mental illness into a book because it's something we as readers seek more of (it makes them more realistic, right?).With that, readers are going to experience something very different with this book. I myself absolutely LOVED it for reasons that I mentioned above PLUS the fact that we got to get a good look at how depression can affect a person- especially someone who is YOUNGER and more prone to act rashly.I won't dive into the plot because there is no way that I can do it justice, it just needs to be read and felt by readers. But I will say that it is different than Colleen's other books as this is more of a young adult drama novel than a romance. There is also a ton of dysfunctional things going on within the Voss house that is all sorts of messed up as well, but that's for you to find out on your own.If you’re a fan of Colleen Hoover- grab this one! I know you probably will anyway because she is a #1click author for many. If you like young adult, domestic dramas that discuss mental illness then this would also be a great book for you. I assure you, it will open your eyes to a totally different world.

I'm not really sure where I heard this, but I could have sworn that Colleen Hoover said Without Merit would be a lighter and younger novel than she's published in her last couple of books. But that was really not the case. Younger...yes. Lighter...not really. Only shortly before this book published did I even see an official description for it. And while the description does mention family secrets, there's no hint as to what those secrets may be. But boy are there many.I don't know that Colleen Hoover can write a book that's simply a love story without having a good bit of drama and darker subjects woven into the story. Without Merit has all of the following: atheism, mental illness, depression, extra marital affairs, gay/bisexual characters, inappropriate sexual situations, suicide, and various other issues. Yet the biggest theme I'd say throughout the entire book is perspective. How we only see a version of the events that happen in someone else's life and we certainly don't know what others are thinking or feeling unless they share those things with us. And how we often assume things about how others think and feel based upon their actions and our own biases. While I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of dysfunction within Merit's family, I did enjoy the message about perspective.Even though I can't say that I hated Merit as a character, I can't say that I loved her either. She's flawed for sure, regularly making assumptions about her family members based on partial information. She's definitely not my favorite of Colleen Hoover's leading females. But at the same time, she truly was one of the more likeable characters within this family for me.Sagan was a saint. It was hard to see why he liked Merit, and actually at some point he actually doesn't like Merit that much. But he was involved in Merit's life and family in a way that goes beyond what the average person would do. Yet I liked him most because he inspired Merit to grow and become a better person.A small annoyance for me was the character names. I felt like they were all a bit too unique to be believable. There's Barnaby, two Victorias, Merit, Honor, Utah, Sage, and Luck. I mean Victoria isn't too odd, but having two of them in addition to the other cast was slightly too much for me.Because of my background, there were a few things that felt borderline for me. While I was annoyed at Merit's father for being an atheist, I appreciated this being a characteristic that didn't feel pushed upon the reader as he didn't even try to push the same on his children as well. I could easily feel like the characters were a little sacrilegious but Colleen Hoover actually kind of combats that in her writing preemptively. And then of course the gay and bisexual characters were slightly annoying because I'm beginning to feel like she includes this in every single book. Also, I really hate the "just get your virginity over with because there's too much hype" that seems to becoming more and more rampant among the younger generations.Favorite quotes:-But that was several years ago and my siblings and I have long since moved past the wrongs our father committed against our mother. Actually, we haven't. Not even slightly.-I once read a quote that said, "Don't make your presence known. Make your absence felt."-I also don't trust people who claim for a classic to be their favorite novel. I think they're lying just to sound educated, or they simply haven't read another book beyond high school English requirements.-If he doesn't like the thought of getting caught, why does he do things he doesn't want people to find out?-"Sometimes you get stuck with family members that do nothing but make mistakes they never have to apologize or pay for."AMEN AMEN AMEN!!!!-Maybe that's the root of a lot of family issues. It isn't actually the issues people are hung up about for so long. It's that no one has the courage to take the first step in talking about the issues.-"It annoys me when people try to convince other people that their anger or stress isn't warranted if someone else in the world is worse off than them."I believe I might have connected to Without Merit while reading it in large part due to the family conflict. Even though my extended family wasn't going through quite the same things as Merit's family (at the time I read this book), everyone can relate to family conflict and we were certainly going through it at the time I read this.While I read this book within 24 hours and felt hooked and invested into the storyline and Merit and Sagan, looking back on the story, Without Merit might now take the place as my least favorite Colleen Hoover story. It wasn't bad, at all. It's just that the content and characters weren't my preference at all. Even though I connected to the characters having conflict within their family, most of the time I prefer to read as a form of escape and this almost added more stress to my life than help me to escape the stresses I was feeling in my own personal life. Without Merit gets 3.5 Stars. Have you read Without Merit? What did you think? Let me know!

The author’s imagination is impeccable, storyline wasn’t predictable, and it kept my attention until the last word. The only thing I didn’t care for is the long chapters. Sometimes I only have 15 to 30 minutes to read at a time and I prefer not to start a chapter unless I’m able to finish uninterrupted. This book made it hard to stick to my rule unlike several other of Hoover books I’ve read. There’s one thing for sure, her books never disappoint!Great read!