Barnaby Voss (father of the clan, an atheist who thanks God at times, has relations with the two Victorias) Wtf is this water in my eyes ? Is there an onion near me? Am I crying AGAIN? God damn, my emotions are everywhere.

I don’t matter here, either. If I dropped out of life, just like I dropped out of school, everyone’s lives would go on. With or without Merit." There were characters I didn’t love at the beginning, but I did by the end. Everything is not how it seems when it comes to these characters and this family. People are redeemable. Forgiveness is key. There are so many important themes and great points made in this story. I’m excited for other friends to read it, because I can’t wait to discuss it more with others! Todo inicia cuando Merit una chica de 17 años decide ya no ir a la escuela, no por nada trágico o especifico, ella simplemente tiene el sentimiento de ser invisible. Vive en una casa que solía ser una iglesia y toda la historia sobre cómo termino viviendo ahí es muy peculiar y ridícula, cuando leí esa parte no entendí porque la autora le daría tanta importancia a eso, pero por supuesto como en todo libro de CoHo, cada detalle tiene un papel importante.And while people are saying Without Merit is not really a romance, I'd actually disagree. It may have a plot outside of the romance, unlike some of Hoover's earlier books, but it is still very romantic. A lot of the story feels centred around the romantic tensions between Merit and Sagan. I didn't like either of them. Sagan mansplains everything to Merit, coddles her against her wishes by saying he won't make out with her for her own good (ugh), and then even says this which I think is supposed to be sweet: En conclusión: Without Merit es una historia de drama adolescente, que nos deja ver de una forma realista, triste y complicada lo que es vivir con una enfermedad mental.

This was a story about depression. The ins and outs and in betweens. I love that over and over it's written that depression can take so many different forms of exhaustion. That it's not as visible as we may think. That it can take so many different forms that, more often than not, the person with depression has no idea they're going through it every day. I think it's very eye opening to see it written in a way that makes it clear depression is more than just being very sad. It's a sum of so many different, contrasting feelings put together. En este caso, vemos la historia desde la perspectiva de Merit, y no es una perspectiva en la que podamos confiar definitivamente, desde el inicio se notaba su bias, la manera en la que se expresa de su hermana se burla de ella a pesar de que su hermana pasa por una tragedia que la cambio mucho. No one would be able to determine any of that from inside our house, either. We’re good at keeping secrets in this family.Antes vivían al lado de una iglesia, pero como a su padre le molestaba que el perro del pastor ladrara mucho, cuando tuvo la oportunidad de comprarla, la compró. Ahora viven en la iglesia reformada y a pesar de que es ateo dejaron la estatua de Jesucristo tamaño gigante en uno de los pasillos.

So many secrets in this house. And yet, the one secret I should have told years ago is the one I’ve kept the quietest. Merit dice que vive en una casa y no en un hogar. Y esto es correcto. Viven juntos en esa casa de locos, pero nadie, y en especial los adultos, están pendientes de los menores. Solo se ven en la cena y no es una reunión amena. Todo lo contrario, es el momento ideal para reclamarse unos a los otros. This seems like a big, depressing pity party and I apologize for that. I wish more than anyone that I didn't feel this way about this book but alas, here we are, and I felt the need to get this off my chest.

Creative Play

No amount of words will be able to describe the eternal love I've developed for this book. I want to scream. I want to cry. Okay, why not both???? Like I said, ever since this book, I've been one tall glass of emotion. Without Merit, is going to be stored somewhere deep inside my heart. It's not like I had a choice. This book demanded to move inside my heart and was like, "yo i'm just gonna live here". I don’t matter here, either. If I dropped out of life, just like I dropped out of school, everyone’s lives would go on. Colleen Hoover is a very popular author, and it isn't hard to see why. I've hated as many of her books as I've liked, but there is something compulsively readable about her stories. I think if she gets anything right, it's her pacing, which is nearly always spot on. I can read one of her books for hours without getting bored. Angry, maybe, but not bored.

I don’t know you guys. It’s like, I can see what CoHo was trying to do here but it was just executed oddly. Yeah, oddly, that’s a good way to put it. There are some deep rooted issues in this book from depressions, to sexual identity, to cheating, to family roles, to alcohol and drug abuse. Somewhere in the story the mark was mixed.

I buddy read this book with my girl Quinn and overall we have fairly similar thoughts. Granted we generally like the same things, I just felt like this tidbit should be mentioned. even though I'm an atheist, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God that I have a wife who understands that.” When Merit stumbles across some pretty huge and disturbing family secrets and then is forced by Sagan to see some of her own transgressions, she goes down a path of destruction and decides to call her entire family out on all of their secrets. Will uncovering all of the Voss family secrets tear them apart or heal all the wounds from the past?