Verity: The thriller that will capture your heart and blow your mind

4 Reviews For This Product

1. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   04

   by little bookworm August 27, 2023

   Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer, taken by surprise when she receives an unexpected offer – to complete the remaining books in a highly popular series by the author Verity Crawford. Lowen soon finds herself arriving at the Crawford’s family home to sort through Verity’s notes as part of her research. Verity herself has recently been left severely injured after a car accident, and is cared for by her devoted husband Jeremy. However, when Lowen discovers a hidden manuscript for an autobiography written by Verity, she is unprepared for the dark secrets it exposes about the author!

   My first read from Colleen Hoover, I had heard a lot of praise and hype around this book, and whilst I wouldn’t say it was a perfect read, I can certainly understand why it has received such attention. It is also quite apparent that Hoover must have been influenced by Daphne du Maurier’s classic Rebecca, however, I liked that she was still very much able to make this her own story.

   Like Rebecca, this has a gothic feel to it, with a sense of something sinister lurking and a palpable tension throughout the story. Also like Rebecca, it explores themes of love and marriage, jealousy, as well as deceit and justice, and how well you can ever truly know someone.

   Whilst the story is told from Lowen’s perspective, the book is interspersed throughout with chapters from Verity’s autobiography that Lowen is reading, a device which generally works well, and allows the reader an insight into the dark psyche of this now severely impaired woman, and the relationship that existed between Verity and Jeremy.

   In Verity, Hoover creates a truly disturbing character, she is obsessive and manipulative, the chapters written from her perspective chilling and seriously messed up. My only criticism of Verity’s manuscript is that I felt too much of it was wasted on repetitive erotica scenes between her and Jeremy, and whilst I did understand the relevance of this, I just thought it was overdone. Also readers should be prepared for genuinely horrifying content in these parts – warnings of child abuse.

   Reading the manuscript Lowen is increasingly disturbed by it, and the sense of foreboding gradually builds throughout the story, with odd happenings occurring that rouse Lowen’s suspicions. I liked however that Lowen has to question herself, is she genuinely seeing things or is she merely paranoid, her state of mind affected by what she has been reading? If she has reason to doubt herself, then certainly as a reader we do, and her very reliability as a narrator does come into question. Is she for instance too influenced by her growing feelings for Jeremy, and what of some of the undeniable parallels between her and Verity? Furthermore, what of Jeremy himself, is he simply the innocent victim in all that has gone on, the kind and caring father, or is there a darker side to him too? Certainly, all these characters are flawed human beings, the question is to what extent are they who they seem to be?

   The theme of identity and separating truth from lies is explored even further with regards to writers and the writing process – how much of their own identity do authors use in their characters? Furthermore, where is the line between truth and fiction?

   The ending, without giving away spoilers, only raises further questions and causes you to reevaluate everything. Certainly it is not an ending that ties everything off neatly, rather the reader is left to make their own judgement on what they believe to be true.

   I do think the last two chapters were rather rushed, and written in a manner designed to be shocking for the sake of it, as opposed to fully and carefully thought through, and as such whilst I overall like what the author was going for here, I just thought it could have been executed a bit more skillfully, as opposed to the slightly clumsy approach that we got.

   Overall, whilst certainly flawed, and far-fetched to the point of absurdity at times, this was nevertheless a gripping, albeit often uncomfortable read, and one that after the end, still had me thinking about it.

2. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   04

   by Aziza M August 31, 2023

   THIS REVIEW INCLUDES SPOILERS !!! I’ve indicated when they start and end so read at your own risk. This review has also been posted on Goodreads.

   I think Verity for me personally doesn’t tick all the boxes to be considered a 4-star book. The book was mainly plot-driven and whilst the actual writing itself was okay (at times), it’s not enough for me to give it any more than a 3.5 (after writing this whole review I think I might’ve been too generous).

   In terms of how the book was written, it felt like I was reading something on Wattpad (absolutely no disrespect to Wattpad authors) and there were times when I had to stop and stare at the words I was reading in disbelief. And not the type of disbelief you’d want a reader to be feeling. There are a lot of unnecessary sex scenes as well that I just straight-up skipped because they didn’t add to the plot at all and it honestly got quite repetitive. Also, so many plot holes, don’t get me started. I’m starting to think my three stars were generous.

   I kept reading though because I wanted to know what happened next and find out what the big shocking ending was. A lot of the transitions from scenes/chapters were also just Lowen saying she needs to do something and then it happening in the next scene. So for example Lowen would say ‘I need to read the manuscript’ and the next chapter would be the manuscript or ‘I need to eat’ and the next scene would be her going to the kitchen.

   Like I said before it’s definitely mainly plot-driven and I think the main reason why the plot is so popular is because of the shock factor and the twist right at the end, which is why I kept reading. Also, it’s lowkey very similar to Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I find quite a lot of the elements in Verity to be drawn directly from the novel by Maurier, so I guess she took inspiration from that.

   **START OF SPOILERS**

   The first half of the book dragged on quite a bit, it went quite slow for me and I found Jeremy’s introduction quite odd. He didn’t seem very likeable to me and I didn’t really trust him at all. The way he was also open to Lowen’s advances and even initiated it just made me not like him even more. This is partly why I believe the letter; if he had in fact read the manuscript before then I get why he’d be more open to cheating on his wife. But if he hadn’t read the manuscript then why on Earth was he behaving that way???? Have some decorum, please.

   There’s also the fact that I wasn’t a big fan of Lowen herself. The way she hyper-fixated on Jeremy at certain parts of the book (actually all throughout the book) made me dislike her; he’s a married man leave him alone. Also, Lowen seems to have psychotic tendencies (amplified in the extended chapter), and some of the things she did just annoyed me? I don’t know, I just didn’t like her much, I’m sorry.

   I did, however, like Verity. I think she was the character that had the most substance and I’d like a separate book that’s just an extended version of her manuscript. The more I read her chapters the more my mouth fell open in shock and I lowkey wanted to skip the normal chapters to find out what happened and hurry up and finish the book so I never have to read it again. With that being said throughout the whole book she was this psychopathic, sex-obsessed, monster of a woman, so while she did have the most substance out of all the characters it wasn’t very good substance.

   Also with the whole manuscript and letter discussion, I feel like Hoover’s done it in a way there’s no actual support for either one because there’s always some plot hole or something that just makes it more confusing. There are quite a couple of loose ends (that don’t get tied up in the extended chapter). I don’t know if this is a good thing (probably not), but it’s one of the many things that frustrates me about the book.

   A lot of the things just didn’t make sense to me. How did she fake the brain scan? Why couldn’t they have just asked the editor/publisher or whoever it was that told her to write that abomination of an autobiography if what Verity is saying is true? Instead of being creepy why didn’t she ask Lowen or April for help? Why did she wait so long to go and look for the manuscript? If she didn’t want anyone to find it why wasn’t it locked away somewhere or hidden (like her letter was) or even password protected? Why on Earth did she print it out? Couldn’t she have just gotten Crew to get it from her office? Why was Jeremy’s first instinct to kill her, on both occasions? I have so many questions about this book.

   END OF SPOILERS

   All in all, it was an okay book. I don’t want to be too harsh and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, to be honest. I’d recommend reading it if you want to read a light thriller but also don’t expect much from the writing and don’t expect to want to finish it. I nearly gave up less than halfway through and I only kept reading it because a friend told me to. Half of the book was just sex scenes as well which was frustrating. But also read Rebecca!! If you’re looking for a gothic romance I’d 100% check that out.

3. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   04

   by Wincy October 3, 2023

   It’s a fantastic story and un-put-down-able.

   My favorite parts of the book are the “So be it” chapters which show a lot of darkness inside Verity (or her mind) to be an obsessed lover to Jeremey. Besides, the storyline between Lowen and Jeremey is also gripping.

   However I would expect to see more details in the ending when Jeremey finally discovered “something” of Verity and the interactions between the 3 people.

   The final letter leaves the fantastic hole for readers to think which story shall be trusted which also surprised me.

   This is my first Collen Hoover book btw, will definitely start reading her other books!

4. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   04

   by Richard Wilson November 15, 2023

   Good read.