Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Verity by Colleen Hoover

11 reviews

madalina0_0's review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Terminal illness, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Murder, Vomit, Violence, Addiction, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Death of parent, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

grumpz's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, and Sexism

mimmixoxo's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

0.5

This book made me legit angry in the worst way possible. I don’t know how it ended up with 4 stars on here. Such immature writing and a terrible thriller piece, if I didn’t know any better I would say it was written by a 16 year old on wattpad. To all the people who think this is genuinely good thriller please read an actual thriller like Rebecca or anything by Shirley Jackson or Riley Sager. Or anything would be better than this honestly. (Gave it a .5 bc I got at least one emotion from reading this) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Gore, Ableism, Misogyny, Infidelity, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Blood, Violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Car accident and Drug use

gingerspark_96's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Blood, Death, Child death, Infidelity, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Sexism

parchment_and_papyrus's review against another edition

dark tense 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? Yes

2.0

 Verity by Colleen Hoover follows a little-known author, Lowen, as she’s offered a life changing opportunity to ghost write for a bestselling author. Tragically the author, Verity, has been involved in a car crash and can no longer write for herself. Verity’s husband invites Lowen to their family home to go through Verity’s notes on the series, but while Lowen is searching through Verity’s office she stubbles across what appears to be a biography of sorts. What Lowen reads unravels her view of Verity and her family and draws Lowen closer to the surviving members of the household. 

I had high hopes for the book from the moment that I read it’s first sentence, “I hear the crack of his skull before the splattering of blood reaches me.” But unfortunately, I think the opener was the highlight for me. If you like fast paced plot driven books, then this is a book for you. It was the pace of the book that kept me reading, and Hoover tried to pack a punch with the number of twists, turns and saucy elements throughout the book. Despite this I found myself flicking forward for spoilers, a sure sign it’s not keeping me engaged. I found the plot a bit predictable. There wasn’t really a point in the book where I felt shocked or blindsided, and I’d pretty much predicted the ending by about a third of the way through. 

Hoover did do a good job of writing some very ‘grey scale’ characters where even the good had some fundamental floors. I did however struggle to separate whether the narrative was building a character or whether it was more a comment on the author herself. I think the best way is to give an example. At one point Lowen thinks, “this is the first time I’ve ever had a guy open a door for me. Dammit. How messed up is that?” Not messed up at all Lowen, because men don’t have to open doors for ‘the weaker sex’. Now Lowen is written as a character who has never been dependent on anyone else, cared for her ailing mother alone and lives in the modern world. A comment like that seemed a little out of place for her character. 

I did think that Hoover described her world well, I was able to build rich images of Verity’s house, where the majority of the story was based, and I felt like I could picture the characters and their energy really well. 

Spoiler Alert ahead! 

There were some parts of the book that I had huge conflicting feelings about. I know that Hoover was trying to portray an evil, obsessive, and controlling character, but some of the devices she used I thought were a bit stereotypical at best and really damaging at worst. Verity’s absolute disconnect with her babies in the womb and her ongoing lack of bond with her children were used as absolutes on moral judgement. There was no mention of possible antenatal or postnatal mental illness, her wild beliefs screamed postnatal psychosis. It just perpetuates a dangerous narrative that the moment you know you are pregnant a mother should feel nothing but pure love, as evidenced by the dad in the story. Don’t get me wrong, her actions were evil, but perhaps it would help if the general population was exposed to other narratives. I’m just really not into this trope.

For me the pace of the book was the only real thing that saved this book for me. I won’t be recommending this book to others but I’m still going to try and give Hoover another go, just maybe not a book in the thriller genre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, and Child abuse

Minor: Sexism

hanneke12's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexism, and Child death

camdentomlinson's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Blood, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Death, Car accident, Child abuse, Grief, Child death, and Vomit

karenroma's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

2.0

I set 2 stars basically because it entertainment me and had some good ideas, but it has so much waisted potential, you can’t even say its a plot twist at the end. Super predictable and vanilla, wouldn’t call it a thriller. Had a lot more better plot twist in my head, sorry not my style 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Sexual content

jordanleigh321's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Grief, Murder, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Sexism, Violence, Death, and Infidelity

linetyyni's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

0.5

First book of C. Hoover I read / listened to. The books sell so good in our store, so I thought I finally give it a try.

Well. I don't get it. Why is it this popular?
So much sexism, ableism, fat-phobia. 
No content warnings at all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Abortion, Sexism, and Murder

Moderate: Fatphobia