I have never had such a visceral reaction to a book before. Don't get me wrong, I often - and usually - relate and empathize with most characters in the books, TV shows, and movies that I read/watch, but this one was different. This one was deep in my gut. This one destroyed me.

This is the first book I've read by Colleen Hoover, and it came recommended to me by a bookstagrammer on Instagram who told me that it destroyed her when she was sixteen years old. To this, I had responded that I needed to read it. I never cry from book - the emotions never transcend my face or pour outwardly from my body. It doesn't mean I don't feel them, though, and for this book, boy did I feel them.

Hoover manages to weave together an intricate, heartbreaking, and poignant young adult novel that will leave any and all readers grappling to understand the horrors of the world that we live in. The fact that while a fictional story, this story has happened to people in our world (with likely some slightly different details) is simply traumatizing in itself.

The Plot
Seventeen-year-old Sky lives a fairly sheltered life in her small home in Texas with her adopted mother, Karen. She doesn't even remember her life before Karen, as she had only been about three years old at the time, and foster care isn't something that most people want to remember, anyway.

Now, Sky has a best friend who lives next door, Six, and they share everything with one another. Sneaking in and out of each other's adjacent windows, they've become inseparable. But their lives are drastically different.

Sky has been homeschooled her entire life. Karen doesn't believe in technology, hates the concept of Big Brother, and fears for a world that is overrun by people addicted to gadgets and impersonal relations. So Sky doesn't watch TV, has never had a cell phone, doesn't use the internet, and doesn't understand what LOL means.

But that starts to change when Sky begs to attend public school for her last year of high school in hopes of bettering her extracurricular resume for college applications. Karen finally relents and sends her off, only to realize that Six won't be joining her, as she's been accepted to a foreign exchange program. So now Sky gets to navigate an unknown world of bad reputations, mean girls, and drama all on her own.

That is, until she meets Breckin, her newest best friend who makes it his mission to take Sky under his wing and form an alliance with her. And then there's the rumored bad boy, Holder, whom Sky just can't seem to shake. There's something about him that she's drawn to, and she's never been drawn to another person like she is to him before.

In fact, she's usually numb and distant from most other boys. She could never quite place the reason, but it's always been the case. Yet, Holder seems to change this for her. It isn't until they spend more time together that she begins to remember why the numbness had set in in the first place - why she had used it as a coping strategy - and why she was so afraid to feel anything for so long.
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"Hopeless" is a story about love, loss, friendship, relationships, identity, and family. It's about coming to terms with your life while recognizing all you've lost and left behind. It's about grappling with change and loss of control. It's about questioning who you want to be when you don't even know who you are.

I cannot personally recommend this book enough. For a fictional story to have this much of an impact on me is not something that I take lightly. That being said, it is important to note the triggers that are associated with reading it (feel free to skip in order to avoid potential spoilers): sexual abuse, sex, kidnapping, abuse.

If you have not yet read a book by Colleen Hoover, make space on your TBR shelf, now.
Stay tuned for a review of the sequel, as I'll be picking it up later today. Yes, it was just that good.