Without Merit: A Novel

by Colleen Hoover

Overview

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a moving and haunting novel of family, love, and the power of the truth.

Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.

The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, the little half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there’s Merit.

Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn’t earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antiques shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her—until she discovers that he’s completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines, when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix.

Fed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she’s never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves.

Poignant and powerful, Without Merit explores the layers of lies that tie a family together and the power of love and truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501170621
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	10/03/2017
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	50,624
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Slammed, Hopeless, Maybe Someday, Maybe Not, Ugly Love, Confess, November 9, It Ends with Us, Without Merit, and All Your Perfects. She has won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance three years in a row—for Confess (2015), It Ends with Us (2016), and Without Merit (2017). Confess was adapted into a seven-episode online series. In 2015, Colleen and her family founded The Bookworm Box, a bookstore and monthly subscription service offering signed novels donated by authors. All profits are given to various charities each month to help those in need. Colleen lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys. Visit ColleenHoover.com.

Reading Group Guide

Introduction

The Voss family is quirky, flawed, and full of secrets. With everything going on at Dollar Voss, it’s easy for Merit to feel pushed to the side or completely ignored. She starts to believe that it would be no great loss to her family if one day she were gone. But before she goes, Merit decides it’s time to clear the air of her family’s darkest secrets and force them to finally face the truth about one another. When she suddenly realizes that she doesn’t want to leave after all, it’s too late. Merit and the rest of the Voss clan are forced to deal with the layers of lies that have tied their family together, and the staggering power of love and truth.

Topics & Questions for Discussion

1. Merit collects trophies she hasn’t won, buying a new one whenever something goes terribly wrong in her life. Is there anything you like to collect? Why?

2. Honesty is a common theme and a big deal for Merit throughout the novel. How different would the Voss family’s relationships be if they were more honest and open with one another?

3. Another prevalent theme is perspective. Luck tells Merit that after only a week he could tell that she lives in her own version of reality. How has Merit’s perspective skewed the way she treats and passes judgement on herself and others?

4. Merit constantly compares herself to her twin sister Honor; always painting herself in a harsh, unforgiving light. How has this affected her sense of identity and self-worth? How has it affected her relationship with Honor?

5. While Merit’s sense of identity is constantly in conflict with Honor’s, Utah’s identity is rooted firmly in what others think and believe of him. How did this lead to what he did to Merit? How did it inform his behavior afterward?

6. Merit keeps her feelings buried inside, like a lidded pot that’s about to boil over, letting searing bits of truth spill out every so often until eventually pouring out every scalding secret into her letter. Why is it so easy for her to be candid about others’ secrets yet so difficult for her to express her own truths?

7. “Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.” Consider the letter Merit wrote and all of the secrets and mistakes that were revealed in it and afterward. Do you agree with this? Why?

8. Sagan tells Merit, “Tuqburni is used to describe the all-encompassing feeling of not being able to live without someone. Which is why the literal translation is, ‘You bury me.’” How does Merit interpret these words? What does it reveal about her self-perception?

9. Luck opens up about his own struggle with depression and attempt to take his own life. Compare his experience to Merit’s. What led each of them to believe suicide was their only solution? Or that their absence would be met with indifference?

10. As Merit goes through the checklist of the Symptoms of Depression (pages 265–266), she confirms that she’s experienced all of them. Think back on Merit’s behavior throughout the novel and identify examples of each. Why are many of these symptoms so easily brushed aside by some as being normal teenage behavior? When do they become a sign of a deeper imbalance?

11. Despite efforts to raise awareness about mental illness, mental health and its treatment are extremely stigmatized. How does Luck try to help Merit see that suffering from mental illness and seeking treatment doesn’t make her any different from anyone else?

12. In the end, why is it so important that Barnaby Voss decides it’s time for the whole family to go to therapy? What does it mean to Merit and for Merit in particular?

Enhance Your Book Club

1. Have an open and honest discussion about mental health with members of your book club and/or at home with your family and friends.

2. Visit sites like the SuicidePreventionLifeline.org, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI.org), ProjectSemicolon.com, and To Write Love on Her Arms (twloha.com) to learn more and keep the conversation going.

3. To learn more about Colleen Hoover, check out her other books, and find her on tour, follower her on social media and visit her at http://www.colleenhoover.com/.

Editorial Reviews

08/21/2017
In this surprisingly serious look at the experience and consequences of untreated mental illness, Merit Voss’s eccentric family amplifies her typical teenage angst as she tries to shield herself with dismissive, defensive humor. Her bubbly twin sister, Honor, keeps falling in love with terminally ill boys. Her reclusive mother has not left the basement for years, and her preening stepmother (her mom’s former oncology nurse) lives upstairs. The recent appearance of Sagan, a perfect example of a dreamy stranger, in the household awakens strong jealousy in Merit when she assumes he is Honor’s boyfriend. Merit keeps repeating how much the town hates her family, but her depressive slide into dropping out of school does not allow any proof of social rejection. Finally fed up with her family’s willful ignorance of her problems, she drunkenly pens a letter that exposes secrets, including an explanation for her chilly relationship with ambitious, chipper older brother Utah. When her suicide attempt is foiled, the whole family has to learn to cope with these revelations. The romantic thread between Merit and Sagan is flimsy but stays intact through to the end. Hoover relies a bit too much on pat conversations to resolve resentments, but her characters are lively and her honest approach to difficult issues makes this contemporary novel more solid than its fluffy feel suggests. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Colleen Hoover reminds readers that love is a fragile thing, built from courage, hope, and tears. Every person with a heartbeat should read this book.

Kami Garcia

Colleen Hoover’s one-of-a-kind style of storytelling shines with November 9... I dare you not to fall in love with Ben and Fallon.

Vilma's Book Blog

If you haven't read November 9 yet, then, apologies to your busy schedule, but you're going to have to put everything down and spend the next day devouring it.

Seal of Excellence Winner RT Book Reviews

Emotionally wrenching and utterly original, Without Merit’s characters stayed with me long after I finished.

Sara Shepard

"Merit is complex and charming as she struggles with depression, and Hoover shines here as she reveals hope glowing within a house of dysfunction."

Booklist (5-star review)

"Hoover has captured the insecurities that make us human in this unforgettable novel. . . A captivating and poignant story delving into the complexities of living in a house filled with turmoil, secrets, and mental illness, and the vulnerability it takes to lean on those we love in times of need."

RT Book Reviews

Honest, funny, and heart wrenching, all spun together perfectly. I couldn't put it down.

Anna Todd

What a glorious and touching read, a forever keeper. The kind of book that gets handed down.

USA Today

What a glorious and touching read, a forever keeper. The kind of book that gets handed down.

USA Today

★ 2017-08-06
With the help of unusual houseguests, a teenage girl who tries to rebel by airing her family's dirty laundry cleans up her act instead.To Merit Voss, the white picket fence around her house is the only thing normal about the family it contains. She lives in a converted church with her father, stepmother, and siblings, and although her parents have been divorced for years, her mother still lives in the basement, struggling with social anxiety. No one in her family is religious, so her brother Utah updates the church marquee every day with fun facts instead of Bible verses. Merit is less accomplished than her identical twin sister, Honor, so she likes to buy used trophies to celebrate her failures. But Honor seems to have a fetish for terminally ill boys, so it's a surprise to Merit when Sagan, who is perfectly healthy, kisses Merit after mistaking her for her sister—and then reveals that he's living in their house. Soon they have another houseguest, Luck, whose connection to the family makes Merit even more convinced she's living in a madhouse. So why is everyone so angry at her? Merit has a love/hate relationship with her sister. She's conflicted by her feelings for Sagan, who leaves intriguing sketches (illustrated by Adams) around the house for her to decipher. She's simultaneously intrigued and repulsed by Luck, who annoys her with his questions but is also her confidant. She can't sit through dinner without starting a fight; she's been skipping school for days; and when she decides to give her whole family the silent treatment, Sagan is the only one who notices. In fact, he and Luck are the only people in the house who recognize Merit's quirks for what they really are—cries for help. And when Merit takes drastic measures to be heard, the fallout is both worse and much better than she feared. Hoover (It Ends With Us, 2016, etc.) does an excellent job of revealing the subtle differences between healthy teenage rebellion and clinical depression, and Merit's aha moment is worthy of every trophy in her collection. This quirky, complex, and frustrating heroine will win hearts and challenge assumptions about family dysfunction and mental illness in a life-affirming story that redefines what's normal.

Kirkus Reviews

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