Book at a Glance
Author: Colleen Hoover
Published: August 2, 2016
Genre: Contemporary romance
Pages: 384
Series: It Ends with Us, Book 1 (followed by It Starts with Us)
Rating: 4.1/5 (Goodreads)
At her father’s funeral, Lily Bloom promises to name five things she loved about him, then stands in silence until she walks away from the podium.
That quiet moment opens Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel and sets up the question the whole story asks.
The It Ends with Us characters are a trio at the center of a love triangle, plus a small circle of family and friends, and the 2024 film brings each of them to the screen.
Here you’ll find who each character is, who plays them on screen, and how the actors compare with Hoover’s originals.
Because the story deals with domestic abuse and this guide includes spoilers, it is best read after you have finished the book or film.
It Ends with Us Characters and Film Cast
The table below matches each character to the actor who plays them, so you can scan the full lineup before reading about the people behind the names.
| Character | Role in the Story | Film Actor |
| Lily Bloom | Florist and narrator | Blake Lively (young Lily: Isabela Ferrer) |
| Ryle Kincaid | Neurosurgeon, Lily’s husband | Justin Baldoni |
| Atlas Corrigan | Lily’s first love, now a chef | Brandon Sklenar (young Atlas: Alex Neustaedter) |
| Allysa Kincaid | Ryle’s sister, Lily’s best friend | Jenny Slate |
| Marshall | Allysa’s husband | Hasan Minhaj |
| Jenny Bloom | Lily’s mother | Amy Morton |
| Andrew Bloom | Lily’s late father | Kevin McKidd |
The It Ends with Us Movie: Release, Crew, and Reception
The It Ends with Us movie is a 2024 romantic drama directed by Justin Baldoni, with a screenplay by Christy Hall, released in U.S. theaters on August 9, 2024 by Sony Pictures Releasing.
It runs 130 minutes and was made by Columbia Pictures and Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios.
The film cost about $25 million and grossed $351 million worldwide.
Critics were mixed, and some felt its polished romantic tone sat uneasily with a story about abuse.
What Happens in the Novel
Hoover’s novel follows Lily Bloom, a 23-year-old college graduate who moves to Boston to open a flower shop after standing silent at the podium during her abusive father’s funeral.
Her romance with Ryle starts out promising, until his temper surfaces and her first love, Atlas, steps back into her life.
Hoover writes it as a character-driven romance, a quality it shares with the novel covered in our Normal People review, and the question that drives it is not which man Lily will choose.
It is whether she can recognize in her own marriage the pattern she once watched in her parents’ home.
The Lead Cast and the Characters They Play
The 2024 film rests on three lead performances, and each actor gives their character a different kind of weight.
Blake Lively as Lily Bloom
Blake Lively was cast as Lily in January 2023 and carries the film as its emotional center.
Her character as Lily is a florist opening a shop in Boston, and from the funeral scene onward, Lively plays her honesty as stubbornness rather than grief, a choice that pays off when Lily has to admit what is happening in her own home.
Isabela Ferrer plays Lily as a teenager in the flashbacks that show how she met Atlas and what she saw in her parents’ house.
The film received mixed reviews overall, but its performances drew attention.
The Globe and Mail’s Johanna Schneller praised Lively for conveying Lily’s warmth and strength, even as she found the adaptation uneven.
Justin Baldoni as Ryle Kincaid
Justin Baldoni plays Ryle and also directed the film, a double role that grew out of his 2019 decision to option the novel through his company, Wayfarer.
Ryle is a charming neurosurgeon who tells Lily he wants only casual dates and then falls for her anyway.
The film keeps viewers close to Lily’s growing doubt: Ryle slaps her after burning his hand while cooking breakfast, apologizes at once, and insists it was an accident, and later incidents escalate from there.
Baldoni signed on to direct in January 2023, with Christy Hall adapting the screenplay, and the finished film opened in theaters on August 9, 2024.
Its polished romantic tone drew debate among critics, some of whom felt it sat uneasily with the story’s subject.
Brandon Sklenar as Atlas
Atlas Corrigan is Lily’s first love, a teenager she befriended while he was homeless, who returns years later as a successful chef.
In the film, Brandon Sklenar plays adult Atlas, a role he landed in April 2023, and Alex Neustaedter plays him as a teenager.
Many viewers knew Sklenar from his role as Spencer Dutton in the series 1923.
What makes the Atlas from It Ends with Us matter on screen is his role as a contrast to Ryle.
He runs a Boston restaurant called Root, tells a local magazine he named it in Lily’s honor, and gives her his phone number with an open offer to call if she ever needs him.
When he notices her bruised eye and Ryle’s bandaged hand at dinner, he urges her to leave, though he never forces the decision.
She does call him, and he takes her to the hospital.
Supporting Characters and the Actors Who Play Them
The smaller roles carry more weight than their screen time suggests. Here is who plays each one and what they add to Lily’s story:
- Allysa Kincaid (Jenny Slate): Ryle’s sister, Lily’s best friend, and a worker in the flower shop. In the film, Allysa is the one who tells Lily about Emerson’s death. In the book, Ryle confesses it himself.
- Marshall (Hasan Minhaj): Allysa’s husband and the calm presence in their circle.
- Jenny Bloom (Amy Morton): Lily’s mother, a character Lily once resented and later understands. In the book, Jenny urges her daughter to leave Ryle and not repeat her mistakes.
- Andrew Bloom (Kevin McKidd): Lily’s late father, who appears through memory and flashback. He is the model of abuse Lily swore never to live with.
Emerson, Ryle and Allysa’s brother, died in childhood, yet his name runs through the story because Lily gives it to her daughter.
The Characters in Real Life: Who the Actors Are
In real life, the It Ends with Us characters are played by actors noticeably older than their book versions.
Blake Lively was 35 when cast as 23-year-old Lily, and Justin Baldoni was 39 around the film’s release, playing a Ryle who is 30 in the novel.
Hoover explained that a neurosurgeon in his twenties is unrealistic, so she aged the characters up, as Cinemark’s film guide reports.
Both leads came with television fame, Lively from Gossip Girl and Baldoni from Jane the Virgin.
Baldoni’s wife, Emily Baldoni, also plays Lily’s nurse, and Lively’s sister, Robyn Lively, appears at the funeral.
The production later became the subject of a legal dispute between Lively and Baldoni, which the Associated Press reported was settled in May 2026.
Lily, Ryle, and Atlas After the Final Page
The It Ends with Us characters work because Hoover gives each a reason, not a label: Lily’s honesty, Ryle’s pain, and Atlas’s steadiness all feed into the one decision that matters at the end.
Whether you know them from the page or from Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, and Brandon Sklenar on screen, the story asks the same question about what we choose to pass on to the next generation.
If the film left you wanting more of Lily’s inner life and Atlas’s past, read the novel, then continue with It Starts with Us, Hoover’s 2022 sequel that follows Lily and Atlas after the epilogue.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is It Ends with Us based on a true story?
The story is fiction, but Colleen Hoover has said it draws on her mother’s relationship with her father. She has called it the hardest book she has written.
What does the title It Ends with Us mean?
It refers to Lily’s hope of breaking the cycle of abuse that shaped her parents’ marriage. She says the line to her newborn daughter near the end, hoping the pattern stops with them.
Does It Ends with Us have trigger warnings?
Yes. The story includes domestic violence, an attempted sexual assault, and the death of a child, so readers may want to choose their timing. If you or someone you know needs support, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is at 1-800-799-7233.
