Release date: December 7, 2018
What you read will taste so bad at times, you’ll want to spit it out, but you’ll swallow these words and they will become part of you, part of your gut, and you will hurt because of them.
Colleen Hoover, Verity
I’ve been hearing so much about Colleen Hoover on BookTok lately so I decided to finally pick up one of her books, and to start I chose Verity. I honestly didn’t read much into what the book was about, I just knew that Colleen Hoover writes a lot of really great romance novels. If you’ve read Verity, you must know how shocked I was when I read this and quickly discovered it was a thriller. I was pleasantly surprised with this. Verity was so good, and perfect if you’re looking for your next spooky book for October!
Synopsis
Verity follows Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer who receives a job offer from a man named Jeremy Crawford at just the right time. She’s asked to finish the series of famous author Verity Crawford (Jeremy’s wife), who is no longer able to write due to injury. Lowen writes these novels at Jeremy and Verity’s home, where she finds more than she expected, including an autobiography by Verity herself which no one else has seen. The chapters get more and more terrifying as Lowen continues reading, unable to stop, and she learns all sorts of horrors about the Crawfords. On top of all this, Lowen develops feelings for Jeremy – making quite a chaotic story.
The writing
I’ll start by saying that Colleen Hoover’s writing had me hooked from the very first page – first line even! She’s really able to get into the minds of her characters and make you believe what she is writing. After learning that Verity is more on the thriller side than romance, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it as much, since I was expecting something different, but I was proven wrong. The writing is so gripping and terrifying, and just like Lowen can’t put down the autobiography despite its horrors, I couldn’t put this down – I absolutely devoured it.
Plot
There was never a slow point in this book, and I think that was in part due the back and forth between the plot of Verity and the chapters of Verity’s autobiography. This made the book fly by so quick, as every chapter offered something new and the horrors only intensified. It was so interesting to read the autobiography – which could’ve been a whole book itself – and then also read about how Lowen reacted to the new developments she learned about the person she was supposed to be writing for, the person laying in the bed a few doors down. We got to see two completely different forms of Verity, while never really knowing who the real one was.
And that ending – wow.
So, just how scary was it?
This isn’t a horror novel, but I always find mind-bending thrillers to be much more real, and as a result, scarier. I had to start reading two books at once because I wasn’t able to read this book at night without going to bed feeling uneasy. That being said, if you get scared easily, you’ll be fine. It’s not so much scary as it is disturbing, and I think this is such a great read and you should definitely pick it up (what’s the point of reading in October if not to pick up a creepy book?!).
Final thoughts
It’s been a while since I enjoyed a book this much – hence why I haven’t made a review in a while (sorry!). Pick this up, read it with a friend and make your guesses as you go – it’s really fun. This is a must read for October, and for those of you who have read this make sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Also, check out my most recent TikTok about Verity.