In Colleen Hoover’s bestseller It ends with us, The The main character, Lilly Blossom Bloom, is sure of a few things. First, her name is ridiculous, especially since she dreams of opening a flower shop. Second, no relationship comes close to what she experienced at age 15 with her first love, Atlas Corrigan. And third, the belief she has held since childhood – that she will never stay in a physically and emotionally abusive relationship like the one her mother had to endure – is much easier said than done. With 8 million copies sold, It ends with us wraps a central premise about the insidious nature of domestic violence in a colorful, cliched and often ridiculous love triangle. Of course, the film’s producers thought it would make a great movie.

Starring Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni and Brandon Sklenar, the film has spent the last six months preparing to conquer the box office with its August 9 premiere. That means the actors have launched a press offensive, a campaign to get the film in front of as wide an audience as possible. There was promotional material about Lively as the next big movie star. Glossy trailers featured a popular Taylor Swift ballad. There was even a pop-up experience at Century City Mall for fans, recreating Lily’s wacky flower shop as a photo opportunity. But all of that glossy, marketing-heavy treatment just proves that Hollywood hasn’t found a respectful way to market films about domestic violence. Worse, It ends with us doesn’t even try.

As shown in the numerous trailers, most of which are accompanied by Swift’s ballad “My Tears Ricochet”, It ends with us tells the story of flower shop owner Lily Bloom (Lively) as she tries to decide what kind of love she wants in her life. After attempting to give a speech at her abusive father’s funeral and remaining silent at the podium for minutes instead of speaking, Bloom goes to the roof of an apartment building to reflect. There she meets the attractive and equally emotionally troubled neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni). The two pour out their hearts and spend a magical night, but don’t speak until a chance encounter puts them in each other’s way again. Lily and Ryle quickly develop a relationship, start dating and eventually get married. But when Lily meets her first love Atlas Corrigan (Sklenar), whom she hasn’t seen since she was a teenager, her past memories and feelings for Atlas collide with her relationship with Ryle, which has turned from a fairytale into a hell of physical violence.

As for Hoover, whose books outsold the Bible in 2022, the author has always been open about how her own experiences with domestic violence inspired her novel and its sequel. It starts with us“My first memory of my life was when I was probably two years old. I remember my sister and I hiding in our bedroom and I just peeked out when my father threw a television at my mother,” Hoover said. TODAY. “She’s such a support and I always wondered what she was like in that abusive relationship. So writing this story was a way for me to explore that.” The author has also expressed her hope that the story will encourage women to leave harmful relationships. “I’ve heard from readers who have left horrific situations that my books have inspired them to do that – that’s the most amazing thing I could ever hope for,” she told TIME.

But Hoover’s personal connection to the heavy subject has not saved the author from being caught between the seriousness of her inspiration and her need to promote herself. After the popularity of her books skyrocketed during the pandemic, internet critics accused Hoover of profiting from the real-life struggle of women experiencing domestic violence. The book is about a love story, but Lily’s rationalization of her abusive environment, combined with the book’s and its subsequent sequel’s strong focus on the romantic aspect, means that the novel often has an incongruous tone. In 2023, publisher Atria Books announced that it would release a It ends with us coloring book, a decision that quickly drew backlash from fans and prompted Hoover to issue an immediate apology. (The exact pages were never released, but the cover featured key themes and images from the book, such as fallen flower petals and a doctor’s stethoscope.) “The coloring book was designed with Lily’s strength in mind, but I can absolutely understand that this was insensitive. I hear you guys, and I agree with you,” she said in a statement. “No excuses.”

Since its founding and success It ends with us has drawn a thin line between the seriousness of its inspiration and the book’s wide readership—something the film has seemingly embraced in its quest to be a faithful adaptation. What’s been glaringly obvious in the promotional cycle, however, is that the studio is prioritizing ticket sales for a love story while ignoring the domestic violence awareness message at its core. The book’s dark themes have been glossed over in favor of fan-friendly pop-ups and activations like photo ops, virtual memorial bouquets, and scavenger hunts in New York and LA. It’s a livery adopted by the film’s leading lady. Lively’s promotion of the film has been dominated by Lily Bloom-inspired fashion, like floral celebrity nail art by creator Elle Gerstein, and floral dresses everywhere, including Lively wearing Britney Spears’ iconic 2002 floral Versace dress to the premiere. There was also a shocking amount of cross-promotion with the summer blockbuster action comedy Deadpool and Wolverinewith Ryan Reynolds, who is both Lively’s husband and author It ends with us.

Something that also doesn’t help: major discussions about the film’s behind-the-scenes drama with the cast. Internet sleuths on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) noted earlier this week that Baldoni, who also directed, was decidedly absent from promoting the film. He attended the premiere but was not conspicuously absent from any single photo of the entire cast. He did not introduce the film with Hoover and Lively and was not photographed with any member of the cast. When Jenny Slate, who plays Lily’s best friend and Ryle’s sister Allysa in the film, was asked at the premiere about working with Baldoni, she dodged the question and instead said that the job of directing and acting sounded exhausting. All of the cast and Hoover also unfollowed Baldoni on Instagram, reminding fans of the drama surrounding the Olivia Wilde-directed film’s press cycle Don’t worry, darling.