It Ends with Us

“We’re all just people who sometimes do bad things.” 

Lily stresses throughout the novel that even people who make terrible choices such as her father, her mother, and Ryle, have positive sides. Through Ryle especially, Lily makes the point that the negative choices that people make could be born out of their own traumas, but do not exempt the person from responsibility over their actions.

“Naked truths aren’t always pretty.” 

Lily and Ryle begin to know each other through their discussion of their personal experiences and honest interpretations of a given event. They will often ask each other for them as their relationship progresses. Lily’s diary entries could be seen as a distillation of her own naked truths as she comes to know the cycle of domestic abuse.

“Brave and bold.” 

Lily’s mother encourages Lily to take risks as she embarks on opening her flower shop. She urges Lily to be courageous again and leave Ryle after she learns of Lily’s abuse at his hands, noting that Lily showed that kind of courage when she supported her mother through her long years of abuse at the hands of her father.