Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

First in the Hopeless duology

4 stars

Sky has never felt anything when it comes to boys. She makes out with them, but never feels anything. She just looks at her ceiling and counts the stars. Then she meets Dean Holder. Dean has a reputation, but he also makes her feel for the first time in her life. As she struggles to keep him at a distance, she also knows that she wants nothing more. Memories are starting to resurface. Memories of events that are strange and make Sky feel even more disconnected from her life. Why is this happening? What does Dean have to do with it? I don’t know what prompted me to finally look through my Kindle library and open up Hopeless, but I’m glad I did. I honestly expected to hate this novel. It seemed like another one of those NA novels weighed down by tropes and a book I would probably regret reading. This isn’t the case. I’m happy I read this novel because it made me really enjoy a new NA author. I plan on reading Hooover’s works and experiencing some better NA.


"You can’t get mad at a real ending. Some of them are ugly. It’s the fake happily ever afters that should piss you off.”

The thing is Hopeless does have a lot of tropes. There’s slut shaming (mildly), the bad boy trope, and the tragic past of the heroine. I also have found a new trope I call the I’m-in-high-school-but-this-is-NA. I don’t understand why this is considered NA because it feels like a YA except there are some explicit scenes. It reminds me of Bully. I’m not sure if it’s NA or mature YA. Genre categorizing problems.


The main female character is Sky. Sky annoys me for a good portion of this novel. Sometimes I loved her character and other times I hated her. She was constantly acting as if her past was horrible. You make out with a lot of guys, so what? That doesn’t define you. Who cares if Dean only likes you because of rumors? If that’s what you think then just don’t obsess over him all the time.
"Not everything is going to go my way and not everyone gets a happily ever after. Life is real and sometimes it’s ugly and you just have to learn how to cope.”
I disliked her a lot for a while, but while she was a character I didn’t like all the time she was also a character I became invested in. I wanted to know what happened next in her life. I cared. That’s why she’s a good character. I hated her but wanted to know where her life took her.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 7

The main male character is Dean. Dean is a dickhead. Dean the dickhead. He annoys me to know end. Almost this whole novel I wanted to hit him in the face. He has multiple personalities. At one point he likes Sky and wants her around and the next he hates her and needs some space. I don’t have time for these mood swings and stupidity.

"Because I want your first kiss to be the best first kiss in the history of first kisses.”
I do hate Dean sometimes, but I also like him. I liked him a good bit at certain parts. He was sweet and he cared. Then the ending happened. This is going to be a spoiler, so don’t click on the tag unless you really want to be spoiled. How can he just get away with murder? I don’t get that at all! It really pisses me off and if the novel wouldn’t have ended on that note maybe I would’ve felt differently about him overall.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 6

The Villain- Gosh, I want to talk about this. So the whole villain section is spoilers. Sorry! SPOILERS start now! Basically my favorite part of the whole novel was how I couldn’t decide who the true villain was. Was it Karen or Sky’s father? I figured Karen was Sky’s aunt from the time she was mentioned in a certain flashback. I knew she took Sky and I kind of hated her for it. Then I read about poor Sky. She was so tiny and so little. I was truly sickened and for once in a NA I wanted to truly hug the main character. Sky has every right to be disconnected from her peers and just feel lost. She had it tough and I understand completely why blocking the memories would be her way of coping at such a young age. Sky’s father is a character I hate. Human beings like him sicken me and I felt queasy when the confrontation occurred. I do understand Karen and I’m glad she took Sky because Sky would’ve been more broken and she deserved to be a happy child. Karen gave that to her.
SPOILERS ARE OVER!
"Because those bad things aren’t you. They are just bad things that happen to you.”

Villain Scale: 9

My favorite character of the whole novel is Six. She’s a great friend. She sends texts that make her friend smile and keep her going. She cares about her friend and protects her when push comes to shove. The sad thing is she is only present for 23% of the novel and it sucks. Sky also makes friends with a gay kid at school. His name is Breckin. I liked him well enough, but I do get tired of the gay best friend trope. It is overused, but Breckin is funny. So I’ll forgive him. I also liked Dean’s sister. It made the title a lot sweeter. (view spoiler) I really wish Leslie wouldn’t have turned out to have a different life the way she did because I think her being reunited with Sky would’ve changed a lot.

Character Scale: 8

"I’ll probably get knocked down a few more times before this life is through with me, but I can guarantee you I’ll never stay on the ground.”
This novel is good. It has problems, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I recommend it mostly for fans of NA or a new reader into the genre. I feel like if I read this at any other time I may not have enjoyed it as much, but I did like it a lot. So, four stars do seem just.


Cover Thoughts: I love the cover. I love the sky and how it doesn’t just represent Sky but an important scene later in the book. It’s definitely one of the better NA covers I’ve seen.