Hopeless (Hopeless, #1)

by Colleen Hoover

[Angie]

Meet Sky, the adopted daughter of a vegan who refuses to accept TV, telephone, or internet access in the 21st century, and the narrator of Hopeless. Sky has also never gone to public school (or any school) before, but she's enrolling for her Senior year in order to list some extracurricular activities on her college applications. Upon attending school, she signs up for none, unless you count being stalked by Dean Holder as an extracurricular activity. At nearly 18 years old, Holder is the first guy Sky has EVER been attracted to, despite making out with many. Too bad that he makes her feel uncomfortable because he's a stalker and all. At least for two days. Then things get crazy.

The first 60ish% of Hopeless is 1★ material. I hated absolutely everything about it. The first thing Sky tells us is that she's not a slut unless being slutty means making out with lots of guys. Um, well, that's not what being a slut means, so no you're not a slut. I actually think it's great that she's comfortable enough to do what she wants with guys and stop them when it starts crossing into territory she doesn't want to go. What I'm not okay with is all of the "slut this" and "whore that" and "I don't have sex so I'm not a slut" and blah, blah, blah! This all spans several chapters. Sky really wants us to know she is not a slut, since she's never even been attracted to a boy before, and only makes out because it lets her shut her brain off and not feel anything. Of course, on her first day of school she's already the school slut, but she holds her head high. Wonderful.

Then she meets the one boy who gives her butterflies and makes her want to do naughty, naughty, dirty things. Meet Holder! He follows Sky to her car after glaring at her, demands to know her name, snatches her ID, and clearly has anger problems. Sky thinks he's sexy as hell, but she's also nervous because of his "intense" behavior. Holder proceeds to stalk her for the next two days, and actually gets pissed off when she points out that she doesn't know him, because ya know...she doesn't. Then later on, he gets pissed off again about a bracelet she's wearing, grabs her, yells at her, then disappears for a whole month. Sky's reaction? She wants an apology so she can give him a second chance. By the way, she thought he was just on drugs. How about NO!

Does Holder apologize? Nope. He climbs through her window in the middle of the night, climbs into bed with her, and they start making out. I don't know about you, but I'd scream my head off if someone just appeared in my bed with their lips all over me! Then he cooks her breakfast, because nothing says I'm sorry like fresh bacon. He gives this epic speech about how he won't apologize because he doesn't want forgiveness. I don't really think it's up to him whether or not Sky forgives him (which she does), but let's just play along. Now they're in "live." That's somewhere between like and love, if you were wondering.

Let's talk about Holder a bit more. Clearly he's unstable. He literally stalks Sky and shows abusive tendencies. Sky even points out all of the red flags, but she clearly doesn't care, because...he has a tragic past that totally explains his behavior! Okay, so, his story does make it clear why he is the way he is, but it in no way excuses his actions. He admits to nearly beating a kid to death like it's no big deal. Aside from grabbing Sky's arm over the bracelet, later when all of the craziness of Hopeless comes out, he shoves her aside hard enough that she falls! I understand why he did it, but again, not an excuse! I can't say why because it's a huge spoiler. Anyone who is capable of this is not boyfriend material! Does Sky think any of this is wrong? Nope, they just have lots of sex to forget about it!

Now, I did really like the plot once it showed up. However, it had already been tainted by everything I already mentioned. Hopeless really felt like two distinct books, and it's certainly long enough that it could have been. That first 60% is all about this unhealthy relationship and there are some hints about what's to come. The last 40% was actually quite good. I flew through it because I had to know what the heck was going on. I did figure out the situation with Sky's father as soon as he was mentioned, so it was just a matter of waiting another 300 pages for everyone else to realize it to. This made it not as shocking when it came out, which is unfortunate, because this could have been really emotional.

While I liked the last part of Hopeless a lot, it did feel like the author had a checklist of issues and included all of them. There's adoption, sexuality, suicide, grief, repressed memories, child abuse, incest, kidnapping, mistaken identities, and probably some others that I'm forgetting. There's even a token gay friend. I actually did like Breckin, but I was annoyed that he was only the token gay friend. Once the plot appeared, it was twist after twist after twist. When you thought the worst has appeared, more comes!

Hopeless is...I don't even know. The relationship between Sky and Holder was the biggest downfall. I think all of the intense plot twists were suppose to distract us from his previous actions, and probably excuse it, but it doesn't. This is not a healthy relationship. He has issues that he needs to get under control before he seriously hurts someone else. Sky has her own issues so that she apparently looks past his abuse, since she needs him to heal her, because sex heals all! And is this being pushed as New Adult? It's not. It is literally sexed up YA. The characters are 17 and in high school. There's just a lot of sex and violence, making it mature YA not NA.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.