The book, “It Ends With Us” by Colleen Hoover was recently adapted into a movie. If you have never read the book, like me, you may think that this is a romance movie between main characters Lily Bloom, portrayed by Blake Lively, and Ryle Kincaid, portrayed by Justin Baldoni. The two characters meet by happenstance as they both end up on the same roof one random night. This however is not the case. The movie portrays their seemingly normal relationship and how easy it is to overlook and forgive domestic violence. 

The movie shows Lily Bloom as a child, and how her mother was a victim to her father. Lily hoped that this cycle would end with her as she had seen all the signs of abuse while growing up, but things like domestic violence can happen so suddenly and it can be hard to get out of the relationship. Domestic abuse victims tend to stay in the relationship for so long because they are afraid, they never know how their partner will react to them leaving and I can only imagine how scary that feeling is.

Lily loved Ryle. She could never have imagined he would hurt her. And how could she? He was seemingly a normal and loving man. There were no signs of how he would end up treating her. She trusted him. The first time he had hurt her they both played it off as an accident, and she truly believed it was for a while. Until it happened again. And again. 

While I was watching the movie I was moved to tears. Although something like this has never happened to me it is so scary to think about. The fact that no one, not even Ryle’s own friends and family, could see the abuse coming makes it hard to put that much trust in someone. Especially someone that is supposed to love you and keep you safe. 

Towards the end of the movie Lily becomes pregnant with Ryle’s child and this was her eye-opening moment. She decided she couldn’t let her kid have the same childhood that she had. She overcame her fear and left Ryle. In that moment, she seemingly ends the cycle of abuse. She comforts her newborn daughter and tells her, “it ends with us.”