A review by weaverca
Verity by Colleen Hoover

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

Most of the time if I don't like a book, I'm quick to say it's a DNF. This book, however, is the first one where even though I was not enjoying it, I still finished it to see just how bad it was as a whole. A "hate read" if you will. First off, Colleen Hoover's writing is pretty bare bones which unfortunately leaves a lot of room for lacking depth or exploration.
Like I thought the skull-crushing car accident at the beginning would be important to the story later, but then it was just... not mentioned again until one short sentence at the end?
Disappointing. That also made it hard to like the characters, and if there's one thing I hate when it comes to books, it's when they have unlikeable "protagonists." Second, I've read better smut on Wattpad for fuck's sake. All of it was so tasteless and repetitive, almost catering to the male gaze instead of the women the book supposedly gears itself towards. Last, even though I somewhat enjoyed the Gone-Girl-flipped-on-its-head ending of it all, I saw it coming from a mile away.
Verity using the "autobiography" as a writing exercise feels like the contemporary equivalent of when we used to write "Then I woke up and realized it was all a dream" to end the stories we wrote when we were children.
All in all, I was not impressed- and often bored in fact- by this book, and I can't say I plan on reading any of Colleen's other garbage fires.
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