Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Verity by Colleen Hoover

313 reviews

carlab33's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Verity, by Colleen Hoover, was better than I thought it would be, but still not all that great. There were some stand out moments, but the ending made the story fall flat, altogether. The writing was nice and flowed well. The pacing was done well, except for Lowen’s scenes. I felt they dragged the story down. The book touched on some heavy themes of motherhood and what happens when your aren’t the stereotypical mother. But, as I mentioned before, it fell flat in the end. There were some thrilling parts, but nothing really “wowed” me all that much. The spice scenes were overdone and felt like fan service. They also added nothing to the story. Overall, I felt like the story could’ve been done from Verity’s point of view with all the extra spice and fluff removed. I actually found myself wanting to know more about Verity and her background. The story could’ve been tightened up a bit more. There was just too much padding that didn’t need to be included. The twist fell flat for me also. It felt like the “It Was All a Dream” trope. So for the most part, there was enough there to keep me reading, but not enough for me to love it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fatphobia

kimpossiblereads's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

The book itself was a great read, this was my first Coleen Hover book so I did not know what to expect. However, her writing style did confuse me a bit, she is somewhat very straightforward whilst also being descriptive without much physical descriptions which was interesting. The story kept me wanting to continue reading as I wanted to know more, however it is difficult to take a liking to the characters. There are also some gaps within the story that could have connected better and also a lot of what I feel was unnecessary amount of sex scenes. But what I especially like is that the ending was open ended and you could decide who was telling the truth - I understand that not everyone likes this style but it was good. Fresh!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Abortion, and Murder

icedamericanoandbooks's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, and Murder

amachonis's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Hot garbage I read for book club

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

cehanzen's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Car accident

cat_girlie's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

laura__maclean's review against another edition

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

bella613's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was... definitely something. 

I liked it until chapter 23. The last few chapters felt boring, rushed, and lazy after all the build up. 
But actually I don't know if "I liked it" is quite the right way to put it. Reading this book gave me the same feeling as when you overhear a juicy piece of gossip about something horrible. It makes you dislike the person who did the thing, the people who are gossiping about it, and kinda also yourself for listening in. Every character in this book is so incredibly terrible (except maybe the children but they weren't well developed) and it felt more like I had to read it than wanted to. 
The writing isn't great but Hoover definitely does a great job at making you love to hate her characters. Maybe the hype around her is hate-bonding, like when students group together in class because you hate the professor and the material and then after you leave and look back, it looks like a positive experience because of the community made within the hate. 
Anyway, this was difficult to rate and I might change it later once I've had time to think about it. It's better than what I expected because I heard a lot of fuss over the author and wasn't interested because of that. A colleague suggested this book to me and I took a long time to actually pick it up. I don't think I'd necessarily recommend it but I am going to read more by the author (mostly because of the movie coming out lol) 
Also can I just say: Colleen Hoover was marketed to me as a romance author. Unless the other books she writes are drastically different than this, she definitely is quite the opposite of a romance style writer...?? This is not romance (although not decisively thriller, either?) I would probably call it horror but tbh it doesn't fit great there either. Idk what to call it but there is zero romance whatsoever. Sex scenes, yes, and some weirdly obsessive lust from all the characters but not romance. Maybe the people hating on her and judging the authors morals based on her fiction books are just classifying this incorrectly 😂

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

alyssamaly's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Not my favorite book. I don’t think I’m a Colleen fan but I’ll try one more before making that decision. Some of the plot seemed all over the place and the ending didn’t wow me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Car accident, and Murder

ravenousrose's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I will say I blew through the 2nd quarter of the book. It definitely had me hooked plot-wise. Even despite the “legendary author hires a budding author and then

reveals a dark secret

trope.

Unfortunately, I do better with books where I can attach to at least one character and I couldn’t do that with anyone.

This was a double-twist type story. Loved the first twist. The second one irritated me.

Mainly because I hate it when twists render the entire plot essentially worthless

.

Definitely liked this one better than “It Ends With Us” but I’m thinking this author is just not my style. I’m glad so many people enjoy her. I guess I’m just not one of them, unfortunately.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Car accident