Colleen Hoover has canceled plans for an adult coloring book based on one of her most popular novels Insider reports.
The author, who shot to worldwide fame as a phenomenon on the video-sharing service TikTok, had planned to publish a coloring book based on her 2016 book, It Ends With Us. The novel is about a woman who experiences domestic violence.
On Tuesday, Hoover announced the coloring book in a now-deleted Instagram post, writing, “I’m one of the adult coloring book industry’s biggest consumers, so to have one of my books turned into a coloring book is a dream come true. I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS!”
Some social media users reacted to the news with outrage. One Twitter user wrote, “what disgusting level of capitalistic greed is colleen hoover [that] made her & her team want to make a coloring book for a story about domestic violence.” Another tweeted, “When we talk about Colleen Hoover and her publisher both romanticizing abusive relationships and trying to convince us her books are romance, actually, something like CREATING A COLORING BOOK only proves the point.”
When we talk about Colleen Hoover and her publisher both romanticizing abusive relationships and trying to convince us her books are romance, actually, something like CREATING A COLORING BOOK only proves the point. pic.twitter.com/BwTJqn4fRx
— marines (@mynameismarines) January 10, 2023
Hoover announced on Wednesday, in another now-deleted Instagram post, that the coloring book project had been scrapped.
“I can absolutely see how this was tone-deaf,” she wrote. “I hear you guys and I agree with you. No excuses. No finger pointing…Thank you for the respectful discourse and accountability. Nothing but love.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
