A review by parchment_and_papyrus
Verity by Colleen Hoover

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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