Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Verity by Colleen Hoover

42 reviews

sophiaxscherm's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I'm not really sure what I think of this book. The writing is addictive and you want to keep reading, but even though people say that there were so many shocking/surprising things happening - there weren't. Everything happening is predictable. I enjoyed the writing style and I thought some scenes were actually creepy and written well. However, the characters are all horrible, none of them is even a little bit likeable (I mean besides Crew). I hate all of the characters, they are all bad people and are also written poorly, like at least give them a tiny bit personality?
But if you can accept a book with horrible characters for what it is, the story is interesting until you reach the end, where it just feels too predictable and a lot of stuff just not making sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Abortion, Blood, Emotional abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Rape, Gaslighting, and Car accident

planetshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Colleen Hoover used trigger warnings as a checklist and over-explained things too much to maintain the ‘suspense’ aspect of this suspense novel, but I found myself enjoying it and looking forward to reading further.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Violence, Vomit, Death, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Child death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Abortion, Cursing, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Fatphobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, and Body shaming

Minor: Rape, Alcohol, and Drug use

renee14's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

If the phrase “emotional roller coaster” was a book, it would Verity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Murder, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Rape

lindsay424's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This is by far one of the most tense books I have ever read. I couldn't stop reading it. Amazing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Alcohol, Body horror, Cancer, Confinement, Pregnancy, Car accident, Child death, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Stalking, Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical content, Medical trauma, Vomit, Blood, Gaslighting, Gore, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Self harm, and Sexual content

worldofv33's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Gore, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Child abuse, Cursing, Violence, Mental illness, Abortion, Pregnancy, Blood, Car accident, Gaslighting, Grief, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer, Kidnapping, Drug use, and Rape

weaverca's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Most of the time if I don't like a book, I'm quick to say it's a DNF. This book, however, is the first one where even though I was not enjoying it, I still finished it to see just how bad it was as a whole. A "hate read" if you will. First off, Colleen Hoover's writing is pretty bare bones which unfortunately leaves a lot of room for lacking depth or exploration.

Spoiler

Like I thought the skull-crushing car accident at the beginning would be important to the story later, but then it was just... not mentioned again until one short sentence at the end?

Disappointing. That also made it hard to like the characters, and if there's one thing I hate when it comes to books, it's when they have unlikeable "protagonists." Second, I've read better smut on Wattpad for fuck's sake. All of it was so tasteless and repetitive, almost catering to the male gaze instead of the women the book supposedly gears itself towards. Last, even though I somewhat enjoyed the Gone-Girl-flipped-on-its-head ending of it all, I saw it coming from a mile away.

Spoiler

Verity using the "autobiography" as a writing exercise feels like the contemporary equivalent of when we used to write "Then I woke up and realized it was all a dream" to end the stories we wrote when we were children.

All in all, I was not impressed- and often bored in fact- by this book, and I can't say I plan on reading any of Colleen's other garbage fires.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Gore, Grief, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, and Infidelity

Moderate: Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Kidnapping and Gaslighting

lillycrisp's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Child abuse

anielabooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

Very entertaining book. Something very different from Colleen’s romance books that I’ve read. It was very eerie and tense at times, which I loved. This might be my second favorite Colleen book I’ve read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Grief, Murder, Abortion, Blood, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Infidelity, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Cursing, Ableism, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Miscarriage, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

emmashemko's review against another edition

1.0

I’m so angry and disgusted with Colleen Hoover right now. I can say with confidence right now that I’ll never be reading one of her books ever again. 

TW: sexual assault 

I don’t understand how authors can get away with using r/sa as a plot device without consequence. Especially Colleen Hoover who not only used it to advance her plot but consistently glorified and romanticized r/sa in this book. JAIL. 

Verity r/sa Jeremy twice by waking him up with sex. Never in the book does Jeremy consent to this happening to him. When Lowen reads about this happening to Jeremy instead of acknowledging the situation as r/sa she gets jealous of his sex life. r/sa is NOT sexy or romantic. It’s disgusting. 

Then later in the book Jeremy and Lowen have unprotected sex and Jeremy NEVER asks for consent to c*m inside Lowen he just goes ahead and does it. That’s straight up r*pe. 

And on top of all this Colleen Hoover promotes unsafe sex. The first time Lowen and Jeremy have sex he doesn’t have a condom and she isn’t on birth control and they agree the best course of action is to pull out. I’m sorry but there are SO many young people reading Colleen Hoover’s books and I’m disgusted that she’s promoting this to her readers. Especially considering that abortions are not legal everywhere. FU Hoover. 

If you’re going to romanticize r/sa the least you could have done is provide trigger warnings in one of the first pages of this book. Do better Colleen Hoover.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Sexual content, Rape, Child abuse, Child death, Abortion, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, and Blood

chrztnnn's review

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Unsurprisingly dissatisfying. Had pinch of hopes that this would be better, but nope. NOPE.

The story is about a writer who is tapped to continue a well-loved series from a successful yet bedridden writer until all freaking hell sort of made its way to the novel. In this book although they are perhaps illustrated under subtle and normal, some characteristics (both of Lowen and Jeremy) are discouraging given their supposed age and state in the story. Too many sex scenes! The heed to explore the situations and the lenses of the children (who greatly contribute to the 'dynamics' of the main adult characters) are apparently left ignored. Lacking elements of deeply interrogating the trialed marriage, Lowen's just really sexually thirsty, Jeremy's too typical and stereotypical (yes, grandiose loins and general attractiveness have potential to defect storylines), and Verity? Dude, I think the story would have been a real win if she were truly a monster of a mother. The letter thing ended up unnecessary.

Nevertheless, there were parts that were appreciating such as the ventures of writing--its calls and sacrifices just to produce that publishable worth of literary work. That's all I remember liking.

Was glad to finish this in one sitting. It made the agony short and quick. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Murder, Abandonment, and Blood

Moderate: Car accident, Cancer, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Rape