A review by cassroberts89
Verity by Colleen Hoover

dark mysterious sad 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

2.0

I hate giving low ratings for many reasons, not least of which is because I have a harder time articulating why I don’t like a book than why I do. 

1) Characters. I just couldn’t connect with any of them. Like, at all. Lowen is supposed to garner my sympathy and support, but I just couldn’t get behind her. Not because I didn’t like her as a character, but because she is not well-written. There’s a big difference. Jeremy is completely flat. Apparently he’s hot and amazing enough in bed to result in bite marks on the headboard (ouch??), but that’s literally all there is to him as a person. Okay, he had a couple of sweet moments with his son. That’s all I got. No idea why these two women were so obsessed with him. Verity was… not even a character?
If we are to accept that ridiculous letter twist at the very end, then we know absolutely NOTHING about the title character and the reason for everything that happens in the book. I guess that’s the point, but it’s weird. And if her story is real, writing all of those horrific scenes with her now-dead daughters is completely unrealistic for a sand person. I don’t care if it’s a writing exercise, there is simply no way a grieving mother would be able to stomach writing those things. And even without that letter at the end, if we base our knowledge of her on her “manuscript” alone, she’s a seriously disturbing person. More on that below.


2) Trauma for NO apparent reason. I’ve seen this mentioned with CoHo as a whole. This is my first of her novels and while domestic abuse doesn’t really play a part, I thinkI see what people mean. There are quite a few traumatic events that serve no purpose whatsoever. The very first scene with the pedestrian getting hit by the truck? It was jarring and traumatic, both for Lowen and the reader, but was never actually dealt with. Had any normal person witnessed that, they would be dealing with shock and emotions for much longer than what, an hour? And Lowen’s mom dying? Is she even affected? Was that just to give her a talking point with Jeremy? Sure, her relationship with her took a dive after her sleepwalking incident, but there was zero depth to that situation.
The girls’ deaths were obviously major plot points, but Jeremy’s grief just didn’t seem realistic enough. For a minute there I wondered if that was another twist, that he has written the manuscript and done it all himself or something.


3) I still have no idea what reason there was for Lowen’s sleepwalking issue. Maybe just to have an excuse to put locks on her door? There is literally no other possible reason I could think of. It served no purpose and added nothing to the story except one creepy but unnecessary scene. 

4)
The stupid last twist. I docked an entire star just for the letter at the end. The story was stronger (less weak?) as it was. It was plenty twisty and disturbed without that last jab. As I mentioned above, her manuscript character (disturbing as it is…) actually makes a lot more sense WITHOUT the letter.



I’ve heard mixed reviews of CoHo as a whole, but I had also heard that this was better/different than her other novels. I’ll admit it was digestible and a quick read, but I can’t get behind all the issues with her actual writing. I don’t think I’ll bother to find out if her other novels are any different after reading this one.
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