Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Verity

Like my reviews for other very well-known books and authors, I'm going to skip the usual introduction and pre-amble and get right into my impression and thoughts on Verity. Colleen Hoover is probably one of the most polarizing authors with such big-name recognition that I felt the need to try at least one of her books, picking Verity as the one that had the best match for my reading genre preference. Yet despite that, my feelings while reading Verity ranged from utter bafflement, to eye-rolling embarrassment, to irritation, and finally shock, but not in the way the novel hopes it to be. One of my earliest notes while reading this novel was "Verity reads like the literary equivalent to Stranger Danger, and I don't like this at all." Whether it was an early sign or not, the overall vibe of the novel just felt uncomfortably questionable which is something I very rarely experience, even extensively reading horror and serial-killer murder mystery works. I’ve read and watched a lot of dark series that explore the depths and shadows of the human mind so I had no problems with Verity's content on paper, but the tone and vibe felt all wrong. Paired with surprisingly poor writing quality and down-right disjointed character logic, my experience with Verity was definitely not a good one, but unlike other impassioned reviews, I'm going to attempt to discuss the book in a more level-headed manner.

While Colleen Hoover's books and her reputation have recently come under intense scrutiny, I tried to go into this read with an open mind as well as modest expectations since this is a psychological domestic thriller written by an established author mainly known for romance dramas. While the book has some unexpected developments and is a very quick read, the story felt like it kept ping-ponging between being underwhelming and repetitive, to being tonally off, resorting to shock value to keep the reader invested. The story alternates between Lowen (who I could never remember the name of the entire time reading, I laughed at another review that refers to her as Lemon) and Verity's unpublished memoir. The written memoir, to Hoover's credit, had a very distinctive character voices and style from Lowen’s perspective. The issue with that setup is although Lewon is the main FMC of the story, her narration and perspective is filled with internal thoughts and judgements that are monotonous, irrelevant, or completely obvious that stretches out what should've been a far shorter novel. Verity is written in the style that leaves nothing to the imagination and spells out every single thought process the reader is supposed to have in a highly opinionated manner, subtlety be damned. While her character is intended to be a withdrawn introvert (which in itself, is portrayed like a poor caricature at best), Hoover's execution instead comes off as being a whiny, yet bland and uninteresting social outcast. I constantly felt like the novel was overwritten and dragging when it was written from her point of view and I just wanted Verity to get to the point already. The kindle version is only 333 pages, yet Lowen doesn't even finish the initial job offer meeting more than fifty pages in. While I don't mind a slow-burn pace and appreciate stories that take their time with the details, I found myself wondering how so many pages were wasted on nothing of value except for Lowen's unnecessary and redundant narration. As the story progresses, Lowen's narration shifts from redundant, to preachy and judgmental; I'm not even going to bother mentioning the ironic pot calling the kettle black issue as countless other reviews have covered it in far more... colorful language.

One element that I found particularly noteworthy is the very distinctive difference in tone between Lowen and Verity's perspectives, a common weakness I often notice in split-perspective thriller novels. Verity's perspective had considerably more character (albeit, character that most readers will find unpleasant, completely by design), energy, and intrigue. For all the dark and terrible thoughts that are captured in Verity's unpublished memoir, they're still easily the most interesting aspect (more on that in a few). While it's not a spoiler since it's heavily foreshadowed in the synopsis, as Lowen unknowingly begins to immerse herself in Verity and Jeremy's lives, the mirroring and replacement storyline is written in a way that serves its narrative purpose while crucially keeping the two women distinctive and different.

While the story itself seemed good in theory, the actual execution left a lot to be desired due to the unlikable characters and poor development. While I've already touched on Lowen's unappealing blandness and Verity's contentious portrayal, more important should've been Jeremy and his son crew's character depth. Serving as Verity's husband and Lowen's eye candy, the story needs Jeremy to be appealing and desirable in order for its premise work. Unfortunately, like Lowen, I found Jeremy's character to be very bland and completely one-dimensional. Both Lowen and Verity's memoir repeatedly go on and on about how loving and attractive Jeremy is, how much he cares about his kids, how's he's so nice and deserves better, but it's all superficial and has no depth. Usually, the romantic interest archetype has some sort of attractive quirk, distinguishing quality, or at least witty banter to hook the reader's interest, but Jeremy has nothing apart from being good in bed and a responsible husband figure. Other than the social event that he meets Verity at in the past, the man has almost no personality and it's quite difficult to empathize with both women’s interests. Additionally, as Lowen reads further into Verity’s memoir, there's a sense of danger for Verity and Jeremy's lone surviving son Crew in a possibly unsafe environment. However, because his characterization is so generic, again that dangerous suspense angle doesn't really work well. For better or for worse, Verity is the only character that has any semblance of personality, one that's already meant to be polarizing.

The other biggest issue I had with Verity is Hoover's bizarre overreliance and obsession with sex. While there is a lot of adult content and imagination in Verity's memoir which made sense within the overall story, the constant references to sex in Lowen's perspective was constantly jarring and forced. While I initially found it to be cringe-inducing but also somewhat on-brand, appealing to Hoover’s fanbase and chicklit genre readers, the constant references to sex became increasingly disruptive and confusing. The story would randomly throw in a tangent about Lowen's past sex life, her judgement of her agent that she used to sleep with, wondering how good Verity and Jeremy's sex was in their bedroom, there's so much talk about sex and almost none of it fits the context surrounding it. I've read my fair share of trashy and steamy romance novels as well as romantasy novels with sporadic sex scenes or thirsty gazes, Hoover's implementation of bedroom content makes them seem almost classy, having at least some effort at transitions put in. And it would be one thing if the adult content was steamy or entertaining, but nearly all of it is just kind of awkward and embarrassing distractions that derail the story or make little sense with the character (talking about sex often does automatically make a book sexy or steamy). And aside from two actual sex scenes outside of Verity's memoir, nearly all of the sex talk is decidedly NOT smut and what is actually presented on paper is underwhelming, vague, and lacking in spice.

Do men really believe women are that obsessed with sex?

This is Hoover's own words near the novel's conclusion (also quite comical considering I am a cis man reader and reviewer negatively critiquing Verity’s adult content). There was certainly an intentional takeaway message about sex in Verity that could've been a great thematic moment, but Hoover's own writing and excessive sex-related thoughts in Lowen's perspective undermine that very statement. While I also went into Verity with a blank slate as to not let other reviewers influence my opinion, subsequent points highlighted certainly cast Verity (along with Hoover's other works) under a very different light. The lack of contraceptives explicitly written into the story, Verity's distaste for kids and failure to even consider medical a medical abortion, Lowen's abrupt 180 behavior between the first and second sex scene, I would be outright lying if I said something seems a little suspect. And while Verity does not have any outright sexual abuse or similar topics like some of Hoover's other more infamous novels, it does inadvertently have a form of domestic violence (even if the cause is potentially justified), parental abuse of children, not to mention the premise hinging around homewrecking and cheating. I personally do not mind if books incorporate these topics if they're utilized well for narrative purpose or for strong character development/reflection/introspection. However, there's none of that to be had here and all of these topics many readers would dub problematic are played for pure shock value and clickbait-style branding. While I was previously neutral on my opinion of Hoover's body of work and wouldn't pass judgement after reading only one novel, I can certainly understand the sentiment and reasoning of why many readers call out Hoover's writing for glorifying toxic relationships and profiting off controversial hype. Verity's twist-ending and Lowen’s last actions only further supports that statement.

Despite all the negative and polarizing drawbacks already discussed, some of it would be excusable if the writing was solid or possessed a bit of finesse. Unfortunately, Hoover's writing was anything but quality and further contributed to the underwhelming, unpleasant experience. While not inherently the worst thing I've read (contrary to other angry reviews), the writing style is simplistic at best, unintentionally funny and silly at worst. Perhaps I'm showing my age, but the style reminded me of mid 2010's long-form Tumblr-era storytelling, full of the same controversial tropes and possessing a very juvenile, fan-fiction type of tone (though to be fair to fanfiction, some stories are very well-written and developed). This is most noticeable when it comes to the character logic, numerous plot holes, and details that don’t make sense.

Lowen's impression of her agent flip-flopped constantly over the first 50 pages, the funniest being her offense that Corey did not ask her how she was after her mom passed away despite her avoiding social interaction and finding intrusions into her personal space annoying. She then complained about how Corey wants nothing from her except her money received for representing her (as her agent, that is his primary interest and job), not caring about her or helping her (even though he offered to connect her with a financial advisor and other resources that she promptly refused), and judged him for only wanting her for sex, despite her continuing to sleep with him for the exact same reason until she found out about his girlfriend. When Verity is writing and drafting ideas, she states that she wrote her notes on napkins, water-proof paper in the shower (what water-proof paper is and why she has it in the shower can be a whole other discussion on its own), and wrote possible character names in sharpie on her son's diaper while out and about. Why Verity has a sharpie available but doesn't have, say a smartphone with a notes or voice recorder app is beyond me (this is not historical fiction novel and takes place in the present per pop culture references). And plot twists involving Verity's lack of mental cognition make no sense and ping-pong between being Verity being fully comatose at times (her bed mechanically moving to relieve pressure points), to being physical in-tact but mentally impaired at other moments. Despite being mentally gone, her body can function enough to chew and eat but not enough to move her head on her own? Having had a relative that was mentally disabled due to drugs, leaving her in a child-like state and having another relative left in a paralyzed disabled state, this is NOT how either of these medical conditions work (a far better example of a partially impaired or mute focal character is Riley Sager’s The Only One Left). Furthermore, plot twists involving Verity's state towards the end of the novel have zero plausibility and are downright ridiculous from a medical or scientific standpoint. I originally thought Jeremy was drugging her to induce her comatose-like condition which would've made considerably more sense than what Hoover came up with. On top of that, the ending has so many plot holes, gaps in character logic (particularly those involving Verity and the open-ended miscommunication resolution with Jeremy) and unresolved details, there is so much going on and none of it is positive.

It goes without saying that I did not enjoy Verity at all. From overall weak writing, to questionable material played merely for entertaining shock value, to the numerous plot holes and poor character logic, I genuinely struggle to understand how so many readers love and rate this book so highly. I can see this potentially being an interesting introduction to thriller novels for readers new to the genre, the only way I can see a reader being able to overlook the story's numerous shortcomings, but the way the controversial material is executed makes it an even more off-putting recommendation to support. I honestly struggled with the rating for Verity as objectively I had it somewhere around a 2-3.5-star rating due to its compelling premise and ideas. However, when I reflect on how much I disliked reading this novel from start to finish and having read other books that incorporate these dark elements far more tastefully and effectively (see Matt Haig's The Possession of Mr. Cave for an intense yet thought-provoking novel about child abuse), I cannot rate Verity higher than 1.5 stars. The fact that Verity was also the best shot I had at enjoying one of Colleen Hoover's novels only proves that I'm far from the type of reader her books are written for and am once again at odds with booktok and influencers.

Content Warnings

rrileyt's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Couldn’t put this book down. So many twists and turns, I never knew what was coming with every chapter.

Content Warnings

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