Status
Checked out
Due 11-10-2023
Call number
Genres
Publication
Simon & Schuster UK (2018), 384 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. Romance. HTML:From Colleen Hoover, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Ends With Us, comes a moving and haunting novel of family, love, and the power of the truth. Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness. The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother's former nurse, the little half-brother isn't allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there's Merit. Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn't earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antiques shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her�??until she discovers that he's completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines, when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix. Fed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she's never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves. Poignant and powerful, Without Merit explores the layers of lies that tie a family together and the power of love and tru… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member dawnlovesbooks
Without Merit is the second book by Colleen Hoover that I have read. She might be working her way onto my favorite author list. Merit Voss is the main character in this book. Her family lives in a remodeled church and they are the epitome of a dysfunctional family. Merit is an angry, quiet teenager
Honor is Merit’s identical twin, but on the inside there appears to be nothing identical about these two. They have drifted apart over the years and spent a lot of time arguing with one another. Merit feels that Honor is the beautiful, fun and better liked sister. Honor has her own issues and spends her time falling in love with terminally ill boys.
Merit’s father, Barnaby, turned all their lives upside down when he cheated on their mother. He is married to their mother’s former nurse. Both her mother and stepmother are named Victoria. Her mother lives in the basement and suffers from many mental issues, including agoraphobia, which keeps her locked in the basement with no contact with the outside world. Merit has began to resent her for being absent from her life.
Merit has two other siblings, her brother Utah who she has had a very strained relationship with for the past five years and her four year old stepbrother, Moby (named after Moby Dick) who everyone adores.
As if this family isn’t dysfunctional enough, Victoria’s eccentric and strange brother, Luck, shows up and begins living with the family. Around the same time, Honor’s boyfriend Sagan moves in the other spare room in the house. Merit has very strong romantic feelings for Sagan and is constantly at war with herself trying to bury her feelings.
This family has a lot of baggage, unresolved issues and anger toward one another. When Merit does something very drastic, they finally begin to work through their problems. Merit: “I have so much anger building inside of me, and it has nothing to do with me. It’s anger at almost every single person in this house.” Merit begins to realize that maybe she has been blind and judgmental and wrong about her family all this time.
“I think we all just got to a point where we were waiting for someone else to initiate it, but no one ever did. Maybe that’s the root of a lot of family issues. It isn’t actually the issues people are hung up about for so long. It’s that no has the courage to take the first step in talking about the issues.” “If I’ve learned anything this week, it’s that I don’t know people as well as I think I do.”
“Your whole family suffers from all kinds of things. You shouldn’t feel so special. We’re all a degree of fucked-up.”
““So many people dream of living in a house with a white picket fence. Little do they know, there’s no such thing as a perfect family, no matter how white that picket fence is.”
I read this book in one day. I could not put it down. Colleen Hoover is my new guilty pleasure and I will be reading her other books as soon as I can.
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who doesn’t like herself very much and likes her family even less. She feels invisible and left out, like she doesn’t matter to anyone. She feels that "without merit" her family would go on as usual and not even notice her absence.Honor is Merit’s identical twin, but on the inside there appears to be nothing identical about these two. They have drifted apart over the years and spent a lot of time arguing with one another. Merit feels that Honor is the beautiful, fun and better liked sister. Honor has her own issues and spends her time falling in love with terminally ill boys.
Merit’s father, Barnaby, turned all their lives upside down when he cheated on their mother. He is married to their mother’s former nurse. Both her mother and stepmother are named Victoria. Her mother lives in the basement and suffers from many mental issues, including agoraphobia, which keeps her locked in the basement with no contact with the outside world. Merit has began to resent her for being absent from her life.
Merit has two other siblings, her brother Utah who she has had a very strained relationship with for the past five years and her four year old stepbrother, Moby (named after Moby Dick) who everyone adores.
As if this family isn’t dysfunctional enough, Victoria’s eccentric and strange brother, Luck, shows up and begins living with the family. Around the same time, Honor’s boyfriend Sagan moves in the other spare room in the house. Merit has very strong romantic feelings for Sagan and is constantly at war with herself trying to bury her feelings.
This family has a lot of baggage, unresolved issues and anger toward one another. When Merit does something very drastic, they finally begin to work through their problems. Merit: “I have so much anger building inside of me, and it has nothing to do with me. It’s anger at almost every single person in this house.” Merit begins to realize that maybe she has been blind and judgmental and wrong about her family all this time.
“I think we all just got to a point where we were waiting for someone else to initiate it, but no one ever did. Maybe that’s the root of a lot of family issues. It isn’t actually the issues people are hung up about for so long. It’s that no has the courage to take the first step in talking about the issues.” “If I’ve learned anything this week, it’s that I don’t know people as well as I think I do.”
“Your whole family suffers from all kinds of things. You shouldn’t feel so special. We’re all a degree of fucked-up.”
““So many people dream of living in a house with a white picket fence. Little do they know, there’s no such thing as a perfect family, no matter how white that picket fence is.”
I read this book in one day. I could not put it down. Colleen Hoover is my new guilty pleasure and I will be reading her other books as soon as I can.
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LibraryThing member haymaai
I was especially excited about reading ‘Without Merit’ by Colleen Hoover, since the novel was the winner in the Romance category of Goodreads Choice Awards for 2017. Although the story was very interesting, it was not at all what I expected. This book seemed more like a Young Adult,
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coming-of-age story than an adult Romance novel. The vocabulary seemed simplistic at times, perhaps due to the fact that a teenager was speaking. The main character is Merit, who is a twin and lives with her very dysfunctional family in a renovated church. Merit collects disused trophies to boost her morale. She recently drops out from high school, and is dealing with depression and anger over issues with family members. Merit has a twin sister, Honor, who is an identical image to her, but is very different in personality. When Merit meets Sagan, a young man who comes to work for her dad and moves in with them, Merit immediately assumes that Sagan is her ‘perfect’ sister’s boyfriend. Although Merit is madly attracted to Sagan, she tries to disallow her feelings for him. Sagan is an artist, carrying his sketchpad everywhere with him and his drawings are used to compliment the telling of the story. He is wise beyond his years, and is very perceptive in caring about others. I recommend this story as a quirky depiction of a modern family who finds its way towards healing and restoration. Show Less
LibraryThing member seriesousbooks
3.5/5?
I'm really torn over what to say. I have very mixed feelings. I liked Merit and her oddities. she was an interesting character to read from. this book was just so easy to read even with its serious topics. I liked the idea of secrets and I like the overall message of the book. but I wonder if
I'm really torn over what to say. I have very mixed feelings. I liked Merit and her oddities. she was an interesting character to read from. this book was just so easy to read even with its serious topics. I liked the idea of secrets and I like the overall message of the book. but I wonder if
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it got a little lost in it all. Going to ponder this a little more. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookczuk
Romance, YA, dysfunctional families, and depression, but still an entertaining summer read.
LibraryThing member BingeReader87
Great story that deals with a lot of personal issues and family problems. Can be relatable to a lot of people and is pretty funny in some parts. Recommend it to everyone.
LibraryThing member leslico
Wow, this book absolutely wrecked me! Such a great story, just be ready with tissues.
LibraryThing member pdebolt
The "family" in this book goes beyond dysfunctional since there is apparently no function. Twin sisters Merit and Honor live with their brother, their father, his new wife and their 4-year old son, the new wife's brother, a special friend of Honor who is the object of Merit's interest, and their
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mother who lives in the basement with occasional post-conjugal visits from her former husband, who lives upstairs with his new wife. Just to add another beyond-odd element, they live in an abandoned church with a marquee in the front. Their brother posts pithy messages on the marquee every day. I soon tired of the unending configurations of who is doing what to whom. The title "Without Merit" is prophetic of this novel since it lacks any redeeming qualities of plot or characters of interest. I'm wondering if I read the same book as those who gave it glowing reviews. Show Less
LibraryThing member Bodagirl
I read this with a couple of friends and it really isn't my usual genre. It was a little soapy with long lost relatives appearing, affairs and infidelity, traumatic mental illness, and ridiculous names, but it was entertaining, considering how fast I binged it. Both Luck and Sagan also turned into
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after school specials at some points, which took me out of the narrative a bit. Not sure if I'd go back for more of Hoover. Show Less
LibraryThing member IceQueenTN
Definitely a Y/A book but it was enjoyable.
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
384 p.; 7.8 inches
ISBN
1471174018 / 9781471174018
Other editions
Without Merit by Colleen Hoover (Paperback)