In an interview with Elle, novelist Colleen Hoover said that she is “confused” by her massive literary success.
Hoover’s novels, including It Ends With Us, Regretting You, and Reminders of Him, have been sensations on the social media platform TikTok, and she is one of the country’s most successful authors, with her books routinely becoming bestsellers.
During the interview, Elle deputy editor Kayla Webley Adler noted that some have called Hoover’s work “overrated.” Hoover replied, “I agree. I absolutely agree. I feel like I’ve gotten into this career so accidentally. And as big as it’s gotten, I’ve never made an effort to get here. Because I just am very much confused by it. I don’t get it, because I’ve read my books. I’m not some highbrow literary writer. I write just fun books that are easy reads. And so sometimes I’m like, What is happening?”
Hoover said she’s never wanted to “impress people with my writing skills.”
“Sure, I could probably spend more time on a sentence and write metaphors and stuff that I don’t do,” she said. “But I don’t enjoy reading that, and I want to write what I like to read. And the people that criticized that kind of writing, could they write a better book? Probably. Have they? Probably not.”
Hoover revealed that she has outlined two forthcoming novels, titled One Good Reason and One Bad Reason, which she hopes will be published on the same day.
“The more pressure there is on me, the more likely I will get them done,” she said. “So print that shit.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
