Grab your friends, wear your florals, settle down with a tasty cocktail and kick back: this year’s sexiest movie about domestic violence is upon us!

Er … what? If that was your general reaction, you are not alone. For weeks, the weird marketing for It Ends With Us, the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, has been raising eyebrows and causing intense drama on the internet.

If you are avoiding spoilers, please click away, because I am going to give a little background for anyone unfamiliar with Hoover’s work. It Ends With Us is about a florist called Lily Blossom Bloom who is seemingly obsessed with “marine-grade polymer” outdoor furniture. (This comes up a lot in the book; don’t ask why.) Bloom, who is working through the death of her abusive father, falls for a sexy neurosurgeon called Ryle Kincaid. He is abusive and eventually she leaves him, although they end up co-parenting.

The portrayals of domestic abuse in the book and the film have received mixed reviews. Some critics have accused Hoover, whose books are........

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