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challenging
dark
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Gross. On the surface, Verity poses as a thriller: a ghostwriter discovers a disturbing manuscript written by the comatose author she’s replacing. But once you strip away the plot devices and the twists, what’s left is a deeply troubling pattern of emotional exploitation, graphic abuse, and what can only be described as a fetishistic obsession with trauma.
This was genuinely so weird. Who writes about a mother being sexually aroused while breastfeeding her infant son. It doesn't seem to be metaphorical. It’s not subtle either. It’s incestuous — and not in the way a psychologically complex novel might engage with taboo to interrogate morality or identity. It’s presented with zero narrative consequence, zero critique, zero distancing. It’s just there.
This isn’t the only time the author's wandered into incest-adjacent or ethically perverse terrain. In her novel Too Late, Hoover writes graphic scenes of rape and coercion, and at one point has a character hallucinating about sexually abusing his own child. In Hopeless, a love interest is later revealed to be adopted family — after a romantic and sexual relationship has already formed. And in It Ends With Us, which she calls her most “personal” novel, she presents domestic abuse in a framing that many argue romanticises the cycle of violence.
It would be one thing if these topics were handled with care. But her writing lacks the psychological nuance or critical self-awareness to justify the extremity of her content. There’s no emotional or intellectual infrastructure around her horrors — just trauma as aesthetic. Just violence and sickness as entertainment. It's genuinely disturbing how I've only seen
previews of the aforementioned books, yet find such content already.
Please stop this madness.
previews of the aforementioned books, yet find such content already.
Please stop this madness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment