Colleen Hoover Left Me Questioning my Sanity in ‘Verity’

• Title: Verity
• Author: Colleen Hoover
• Publisher: Hoover Ink, Inc.
• Pub. date: 7th December 2018
• Series: none
• Pages: 324
• Genre: psychological thriller, romance, mystery, adult fiction

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity’s recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.

Content warning: child abuse, murder, sexual content

This is my first dig into a Colleen Hoover book. I realised that I picked up a book that is a new genre to her as well after I had read up to around the halfway point. But otherwise, I had no idea about anything in Verity other than that it is Colleen Hoover.

The storyline here was pretty straightforward: Lowen gets employed to finish up a bestselling author’s series. She meets the husband, Jeremy Crawford, and gets disturbingly intimate with Verity’s unpublished, secret, tucked-away-in-a-dark-drawer autobiography. There are many revelations, shocking and disturbing, that pop up throughout the whole book, including a mindblowing ending.

Lowen is the protagonist and a lesser-known author who gets enmeshed in the Crawford family drama. I found her to be a very average character, which I liked. I have read so many books with standout characters; this normal, average, introvert character was a breath of fresh air to me. Lowen was also very relatable because of the whole ‘holed up in an office, reading’ vibe she had going throughout.

Jeremy is the grieving husband of Verity Crawford, the well-known writer who’s series needs completing. He seemed like such a laidback guy until the autobiography literally spat out tonnes of dirty secrets that left Lowen and me reeling. Even with his questionable actions, I still really liked the guy.

And then there was Verity! There are many spoilers I am wary of, so I can’t really go in-depth into Verity. She was a very disturbing character. Very creepy, and I kept questioning who she actually was till the very end of the story. In a very disturbing way, she might be even my favourite character is this whole book!

CoHo kept the plot simple but intricate in Verity. That sounds like a huge paradox but let me explain. The main plotline is Lowen getting to know Verity and her family, and another half is Lowen reading Verity’s autobiography. The big picture was just that! But to make it a psychological thriller, CoHo added in these fun twists and cliff-dives.

What I liked about the writing was how CoHo incorporated dual POVs: Lowen’s take on what’s happening currently and Verity’s take on what already happened. It is not an uncommon technique, but I haven’t read a book that used this for a while. I found it pretty darn great to ramp up the suspense.

There were not many characters or locations in Verity. Most of the story was at the Crawford house and whoever was there at the time. This made it so much easier to focus on the mystery of it all because personally, I felt like I did not know any of the characters that well until I had made it through a good part of the story.

And can we talk about how bad I wanted to start writing after I finished this book? Especially after that mind-shattering ending?

I think one prominent theme here was mental health. I don’t want to spoil too much of the book’s contents but, as a medical graduate, I was constantly trying to dissect Verity’s character. And I liked how CoHo didn’t make it easy, so it was very realistic.

Also, I felt that love is an important theme here, both romantic and familial. Most of the twists and turns in this novel arose from some emotion of love in a sense, but different people equated it to different things.

I would not recommend Verity as a good book to read to start on Colleen Hoover. But I would recommend it as a creepy psychological thriller. Gave me goosebumps multiple times and I am still questioning that ending. Did that really happen? Did I seriously read that?

Do you know any good psychological thrillers I should get my hands on next? Let me know in the comments below!