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kingrosereads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I gotta start by saying that books where you’re not sure what’s real or not, really freaks me the fuck out. Like when reality and fiction blur and you don’t know if you can trust your own sense? Nah fam, I’m telling you that’s my nightmare and genuine fear.
Okay so we’ve got some weird ass names in typical Colleen Hoover fashion: Lowen Ashleigh is a good author but not super popular, she’s broke af (girl same), and her mom just died after she played caretaker for months. The way this fucking book started, shook me and made me wanna vomit.
“I hear the crack of his skull before the spattering of blood reaches me.”
Jesus. Ease me in Colleen. I had no idea what this book was about other then people saying is was freaky and the vague references I saw on TikTok had me thinking some Jane-Eyre-wife-in-the-attic vibes. Anyway, Lowen had the most grotesque meet cute on the planet with Jeremy Crawford (probably the only normal name in the book). Turns out Jeremey is going to the same meeting Lowen’s going to! His wife is Verity who’s like the queen of thrillers. Her books are a sensation, she’s a millionaire, and overall bad bitch. Unfortunately, Verity is in a vegetative state after a car crash with three books left unfinished in her series.
Verity’s publicist and Jeremy are looking for an author to finish the series, but as a co-author, since they’re keeping the extent of Verity’s injuries a secret. Lowen, though doubtful of her skills as a writer, accepts the job cause, let’s be honest, she needs the money. She ends up staying at the Crawford house to go their Verity’s boxes of notes to get in her headspace to finish the series.
So the Crawford family is messed up every which way til Sunday. Verity’s upstairs in a vegetative state, the couple’s 5-year-old, Crew, is running around doing creepy kid shit, and they recently lost their twin daughters, Harper and Chastin. It’s all very upsetting and the darkness just makes me wanna vomit and/or cry.
As Lowen goes through Verity’s things she finds a manuscript for Verity’s autobiography that proves to be the most disturbing thing my eyes have ever read. And even though Lowen’s life is sad and a bit tragic and she makes a lot of good points, she’s got the personality of peeling paint. But I can understand how it took a few weeks for her to get through this manuscript, vomiting and crying throughout, because she believed it was the truth.
Now spoilers. So look away for like 3 paragraphs.
“If this bitch turned off that goddamn television, I’m walking out that front door without shoes on and I’m never coming back.” Fam, I would’ve BEEN gone!
I felt like I was going crazy with Lowen. I half expected it to be all in her head. Or Jeremy was really the psychopath. Part of me genuinely believed she was gonna get to the end of the manuscript and it would be a recent addition that like calls Lowen out.
I thought the discovery of Verity’s deceit was anticlimactic. The discovery of the letter was a little comical, cliché, and exhausting. Like I highly doubt Verity was actually innocent. You can do a lot of things to survive, but to urinate on yourself REPEATEDLY and stay still for hours with no reaction to movement or sound? And do this for months? Yeah no. You’ve gotta be a whole ass psychopath for that, life on the line or not. Other than the creepy scene of Lowen ending up in Verity’s room (when she doesn’t mention in the letter) what’s the point of her sleepwalking? I was also thinking she’d wake up attacking Verity. Which would’ve been interesting. And what was the deal with those two women at the Target who claim to be Verity’s friends and are never mentioned again?
Also, why leave the letter? If you genuinely think your life’s at stake and you’re innocent, why leave the letter? And why not put it at the end of the manuscript for the only person who would understand your process and who wasn’t as emotionally invested in the situation to find and help you? Like fam, you have all this time to fake being catatonic but can’t use that time to actually ask for help from either of your two nurses or Lowen? I’m not buying it. She definitely left that letter for Lowen to find to fuck with her. As a last “fuck you” if Jeremy killed her before she could run away or kill him.
As time went on, dry as a biscuit, Lowen, started becoming mad interesting when she started becoming a crazy ass bitch herself. What is up with this man’s dick that got all these women doing some crazy ass shit over it?! Cause Lowen really did and thought some fucked up shit! Lowen was losing her mind over Verity and threatened the woman! Then she lift her hips to let Jeremy’s magic sperm do it’s work?! How fertile is this man?! How fertile are these women?! Honestly, Jeremy is fucked up too. He comes in a girl he doesn’t know, the way he reacted to the manuscript was sus as hell, he was just crazy obsessed with these two women, and then he casually moves on with another woman and having a baby less than a year from losing his two daughters? He was fucking some chick with his wife in the other room and talked about that guilt right before fucking??? Red Flag.
The sex scenes were like hot at first but quickly became creepy as hell as Lowen thought about Verity while in the act, bit the headboard to outdo Verity’s bite marks, and did everything to be the opposite of Verity in bed to please Jeremy. Like she took what she learned about Jeremy’s sex skills in the manuscript and ran with it.
Honestly, other than possibly neglecting her children, trying to abort her twins, and killing her daughter, Verity is the most interesting character in the whole book. Is she manipulative and traumatizing as fuck? Yes. Will Crew need therapy for the rest of his life? Yes. But I recognize the commitment and I respect it. Plus, she made it like her mission to fuck with Lowen, and in retrospect, that shit is funny as hell. Not during, the shit was creepy. But I’ve had time to think back on it these last 71 minutes and have concluded it’s hilarious as fuck.
OKAY YOU CAN COME BACK NOW! No more spoilers
Honestly, this book was a mess. There was a lot of random things that throw you off and seem sus or weird, but are just there. But this thing freaked me out. If you get freaked out over “what’s real and what’s not?” and psychological thrillers where the supposedly vegetative people are running around, then this book will be good to you. I imagine someone who is blasé about that, will find this boring or comical. I mean hell, even I laughed at some parts, and not all of it was nervous laughter. I don’t see how anyone cried doing this book. It was sad that the girls died, but those scenes written from the POV of a psychopath made it easy to be detached from it.
It was entertaining enough. Book holds its own. I struggled to put it down. So check it out if this kind of shit interests you.
Graphic: Child death, Grief, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Excrement, Vomit, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Pregnancy
nxclx's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug abuse
Minor: Excrement
laurendenton's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Gore, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cancer, Drug use, Miscarriage, Rape, Self harm, Excrement, and Alcohol
heyer7's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
emmadub's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It leaves you wondering who the real villain is. This is done cleverly through the layers of books within this book. The protagonist is reading a book while she is writing a book, and, of course, you're reading a book where she is doing these things. The books she reads and writes are also from the POV of the villain, which is a bit clever to make you question if you are also reading a book from that POV.
TLDR: clever, dark, and spicy.
Graphic: Child death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Excrement, and Car accident
mallory10100's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Fatphobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment
i highly recommend checking this one out if you think you can handle it, i’m still in shock