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stephbakerbooks 's review for:
Verity
by Colleen Hoover
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Whew, this book. I flew through it. Looking back at it, it didn't have any of the things I usually like in books, yet was somehow addictively readable. This was my first Colleen Hoover bookâare all her books like this??
Okay let's talk about the characters first, because they are all pretty terrible. It's written in first person from Lowen's POV, but then we get snippets of the manuscript she's reading, which is written from Verity's first-person POV. Verity is endlessly mysterious and, much like Lowen, I wanted to keep reading her manuscript to see what terrible thing she'd do next. Lowen was less interesting, mostly because she made herself so by making dumb decisions that she knows are mistakes. There is a love triangle here, but it's the kind of weird love triangle where you find yourself rooting for the other woman...and then you find yourself rooting for none of them because they are all equally terrible choices lol.
The plot though...the plot kept me reading. Even as I only sometimes liked Lowen, I was just as curious as she is and I wanted to know what was going on in this house. And that ending...no spoilers but you've got to read to the end for that last plot twist!
I will say, there is a bit of "no one believes this woman and thinks she's hallucinating things and crazy" to this plot...which I am not a fan of. But I think the fact that there were so few characters to this story made it work better here. The story is pretty contained to the house and the main characters of Lowen, Jeremy, and Verity. But I still wish thrillers wouldn't rely on the "is she crazy" plot device, so I couldn't give this one five stars.
Overall though, I enjoyed finally reading this and I understand the hype around it now. I think it's worth reading if you also have FOMO, but do be wary of the content warnings, as this is a dark book.
Okay let's talk about the characters first, because they are all pretty terrible. It's written in first person from Lowen's POV, but then we get snippets of the manuscript she's reading, which is written from Verity's first-person POV. Verity is endlessly mysterious and, much like Lowen, I wanted to keep reading her manuscript to see what terrible thing she'd do next. Lowen was less interesting, mostly because she made herself so by making dumb decisions that she knows are mistakes. There is a love triangle here, but it's the kind of weird love triangle where you find yourself rooting for the other woman...and then you find yourself rooting for none of them because they are all equally terrible choices lol.
The plot though...the plot kept me reading. Even as I only sometimes liked Lowen, I was just as curious as she is and I wanted to know what was going on in this house. And that ending...no spoilers but you've got to read to the end for that last plot twist!
I will say, there is a bit of "no one believes this woman and thinks she's hallucinating things and crazy" to this plot...which I am not a fan of. But I think the fact that there were so few characters to this story made it work better here. The story is pretty contained to the house and the main characters of Lowen, Jeremy, and Verity. But I still wish thrillers wouldn't rely on the "is she crazy" plot device, so I couldn't give this one five stars.
Overall though, I enjoyed finally reading this and I understand the hype around it now. I think it's worth reading if you also have FOMO, but do be wary of the content warnings, as this is a dark book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Abortion, Murder, Gaslighting
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail