Without Merit

by Colleen Hoover

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

This emotionally combustive book sheds a light on the fragility of love. The character of Merit will pull on your heartstrings until you feel as though you cannot handle anymore.

La famiglia Voss è tutto fuorché ordinaria. Vivono in una chiesa sconsacrata, ribattezzata Dollar Voss. La madre, un tempo malata di cancro, non esce mai dal seminterrato, il padre ha sposato l'ex infermiera della moglie, il fratellino ha una lista infinita di regole assurde da rispettare e i fratelli maggiori sembrano essere fastidiosamente perfetti. In tutto questo caos organizzato, c'è Merit. Merit Voss colleziona trofei che non ha mai vinto e segreti che non ha mai scelto. Fino a quando, in un vecchio negozio di antiquariato, incontra Sagan. Il suo sguardo gentile e il modo in cui vede il mondo la spiazzano, lasciandole addosso un'irrefrenabile voglia di cambiamento. Ma Sagan è tutto fuorché raggiungibile. Più Merit cerca di trovare un senso alla sua esistenza, più si chiude in sé stessa e, quando scopre una verità troppo grande per essere ignorata, qualcosa in lei si spezza. Stanca delle bugie e con la voglia di distruggere l'apparenza perfetta che tiene insieme ciò che resta della sua vita, Merit impara che la verità può essere una liberazione e anche un atto di coraggio. Ma, a volte, il coraggio ha un prezzo altissimo.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788892749023
Publisher:	SPERLING & KUPFER
Publication date:	10/28/2025
Sold by:	SPERLING & KUPFER EDITORI - EBKS
Format:	eBook
File size:	901 KB
Language:	Italian

About the Author

Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty-three novels, including It Starts with Us, It Ends with Us, All Your Perfects, Ugly Love, and Verity. Colleen lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys. For more information, please 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

★ 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