Draft:November 9

November 9 Colleen Hoover

Intro: November 9 (2015) is one of many popular romance books written by Colleen Hoover. Its target audience is young adults. The book is divided into chapters in which every chapter is a new year. During these years we get to follow Fallon and Ben and their lives, facing difficulties like heartbreak, death and hard truths.

Plot: November 9 is about Fallon O'Neil who is an 18 year-old girl living in California. Ever since she was young, she has been dreaming of becoming an actress, living in New York. Her dad Donovan O'Neil, a famous actor, has always pushed Fallon to follow her dreams and to become an actress. Two years ago that changed, when an accident happened. A fire almost took Fallon's life, physically it only gave her scars but will haunt her for a long time. After the accident Fallon struggled with confidence and self esteem. Fallon's dad did not support her anymore, because he didn't think anyone would want an actress with scars on her face and body.

In the first chapter Fallon O´Neil and her father Donovan O'Neil, are sitting in a restaurant eating lunch. Fallon has just told her dad that she is moving to New York tomorrow, which leads to a heated argument, and Fallon is not afraid to talk back. Suddenly the boy sitting in the booth behind them stands up and jumps in the booth with Fallon and her dad. He presents himself as Benton (Ben) Kessler, Fallon's boyfriend. Ben has been listening to their conversation and is not afraid to put Fallon's dad in place. Fallon likes the attention and plays along. Fallon's dad leaves the restaurant which leads to Fallon and Ben being alone. They decide to spend their afternoon together. Since Fallon is moving tomorrow, Ben is offering to help her pack the last things in her apartment. Fallon has previously lived with her best friend Amber. While Fallon and Ben are packing, things heat up between them, revealing that they feel an attraction for each other. They give each other nicknames like “Ben the writer” and “Fallon the transient”. Ben wants to stay in touch with Fallon when she moves across the country, but Fallon won’t let him. She has promised her mother that she won’t fall in love until she is 23, because that is when you are finding and growing to know yourself. They decide to meet in the same place, same date, every year, with no contact in between. Meanwhile Ben will write a novel about their relationship called November 9, which is the same date they meet for the first time, and when the accident happened.

Over time they get to know each other better. They talk about each other's family situations. Ben reveals that his mother died when they were young and that he has no contact with his father, so he and his two brothers grew up together. One year, Fallon meets Ben's brothers Kyle and Ian. A moment Fallon thought was very special, was when Kyle and Ben were having an argument that leads to Kyle hitting Ben. That argument has led Fallon to wonder what they were talking about..

In the following years, every November 9, Fallon and Ben see each other (despite their difficult restrictions). One year when Fallon and Ben are seeing each other back in California (at Ben´s place), Fallon discovers Ben's script for the novel while he is asleep, and she immediately gets curious. Fallon is doubting if she should read it because she promised Ben not to read it before it was done. Does she really want to know his thoughts about her?. The curiosity takes over, she starts to read because after all it is about her. Fallon skims through the text and reads about their first meeting. She continues to read through the text, and the more she reads, the more her heart pounds. Her tears start to form in her eyes and then everything stops. “It took four years for me to fall in love with him. It only took four pages to stop,” Fallon comments. Fallon has finally found out what Kyle and Ben argued about. Has Ben been lying to Fallon this whole time or does he only want to write a bestseller, she wonders.

Reading the draft, Fallon learns it was Ben who started the fire that almost took Fallon's life. Ben wakes up and begs Fallon to stay so he can explain himself but Fallon can't, she never wants to see him again. She heads straight to the airport with tears in her eyes. Fallon leaves Ben without hearing an explanation so the next year on November 9 Ben knows Fallon is not coming back to see him, instead he sends her the whole script of the novel, hoping Fallon will read it and get the clarification she needs. Ben has calculated how long it would take Fallon to finish reading the entire manuscript. Ben begins to lose hope when he hasn't heard from Fallon yet and it's getting closer to November 10th. He is sitting in the same restaurant where they first met. There are four minutes left of November 9 when Ben catches sight of Fallon again after a whole year. He has never been so happy and relieved that someone forgave him than at this moment.

Major Themes:

Confidence and self esteem: In the beginning of the book we meet an insecure Fallon who is struggling with self esteem. She has had emotional trauma since the accident happened, which has led to insecurity. The fire from the tragedy left Fallon with big scars on the left side of her body. She was trying to cover her scars with long sleeves and hairstyles. Before the injury Fallon was the main character in a TV-show, but when she got the scars they kicked her off the show and replaced her. Fallon´s mother pushed Fallon to be herself even after the accident. She has promised her mother that she wouldn’t fall in love until she was 23, because that is when you are finding and growing to know yourself. Fallon's mother says, “You’ll never be able to find yourself if you’re lost in someone else” (Year one). Fallon thinks her mother is speaking from her own experiences. Fallon has stuck with that sentiment for a long time, but after meeting Ben she has felt more appreciated. Ben has helped Fallon to grow as a person due to him pushing Fallon to go on dates and wear more revealing clothes so her scars are visible. In the end of the book Fallons has more confidence thanks to her experiences, and she has figured out herself, and what she wants in life. “One of the things I always try to remind myself is that everyone has scars,” she says. “A lot of them even worse than mine. The only difference is that mine are visible and most people’s aren’t.”

Love and relationship: In the book we follow Fallon and Ben´s development. In the beginning they are strangers to each other. By coincidence they meet at a restaurant and they feel a connection to each other which leads to them meeting every year, on the same date and place. They agree to have no contact in between, ​​so they can find themselves and achieve life goals. Fallon wants to be an actress while Ben wants to be an author. During the years they get to know each other on a deeper level, and their relationship expands because of pain and passion. Their relationship is put to the test due to different challenges. At the end of the book, Fallon finds out a secret, by reading the script Ben has been working on during the time they met. She finds out that Ben was the reason that the fire started on November 9th. This puts them in a very bad position, where Fallon doesn’t want any contact with Ben. But one year after the incident, Fallon reads everything, which leads to her forgiving Ben. They can now start over, where they both have grown as people and built a stronger relationship.

Family: One thing we learn in the book is that neither of the main characters Fallon and Ben has the stereotypical family situation. Fallon has a close relationship with her mom, but she is not close with her dad, especially after the accident. Before the accident Fallon's dad supported her more than ever to become an actress just like him. When the accident happened Fallon was at her Dad's, but he forgot that Fallon was there and left her in the house. After that Fallon and her dad’s relationship has been tricky and he did not support her acting career anymore due to her scars, he said that nobody would want Fallon when she had her scars, which led him to not want her to move to New York. Later in the book she starts to forgive him and with help of Ben –– he was never close to his dad so he supports Fallon’s still meeting her dad. Ben has been living with his two brothers and his brother’s finacé for a while because his mother committed suicide. They have been helping each other since they were little. Ben and Fallon reveal more about their family and they support each other during this time.

Genre and style: November 9 is a book written by Colleen Hoover. Most of her books target young adults. They may recognize themselves in the book seeing as the characters and the readers are probably the same age, around 18-23. November 9’s genre is romance and drama. The book is divided into chapters and every chapter is a new year. The chapters show action in parallel between Fallon and Ben, which helps the reader to get to know both of the characters' thoughts. The reviewers at Goodreads think November 9 contains love, drama and Contemporary Romance.

Development history: In one [[interview https://vilmairis.com/spotlight-november9/ Colleen Hoover says “I can honestly say I don't remember if it was inspired by anything in particular or if I just liked the date as a title and wanted to build a story around it.” The difference from Colleen Hoover´s earlier books is that we get to follow the characters through many years of their lives. In another interview (http://www.onceuponatwilight.com/2015/10/book-tour-november-9-by-colleen-hoover.htm ) Colleen Hoover says “It was difficult to write a believable connection when overall, the characters spend so little time together. But I’m very happy with the outcome”. One of the goals is to make the reader feel as much as possible while reading, says Colleen Hoover.

Publication history: Publisher: Atria Books, (November 10, 2015), Ariele Stewart Fredman Cover: Danielle Mazzella Di Bosco Copyright: Colleen Hoover Literary significance and reception: November 9 by Colleen Hoover has won no prizes, but has received good reviews from 90% of Google respondents. On Goodreads the book received 4,1/ 5 stars. (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25111004-november-9 )

Awards and nominations: According to New York Times Colleen Hoover is a beloved #1 bestselling author. November 9 has been listed on various bestseller lists, but unlike other Colleen Hoover books it has not won any awards.

External links: The book November 9, Colleen Hoover, 2015 november 10 https://vilmairis.com/spotlight-november9/ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25111004-november-9 http://www.onceuponatwilight.com/2015/10/book-tour-november-9-by-colleen-hoover.html