Summary
Lowen, a broke writer was offered a job to write an already famous series because Verity the author who wrote that series lost two of her daughters and was left incapacitated due to a car accident, so Lowen had to stay in Verity’s house with the tragic stricken family for few days to complete her research on how she should continue with the series. So during her stay there she finds Verity’s autobiography while rummaging through her stuff.
My Book Review for Verity
This was my first read of 2021 and every year I try my best to pick up a book that I am most certain that I will enjoy and take it as a good omen for the rest of the year, this time of course I had to pick Verity since it is my friend’s favorite read and I’ve personally adored all the books he has recommended me to read so far, which is why I’m uncertain to write this review but I’ll try to be as honest with it as possible to explain why I couldn’t reciprocate the same amount of love and excitement he has for this book.
I tried to enjoy Colleen Hoover’s books before but I always end up getting frustrated with the main character’s line of thinking and at times the gushy elements gets so ridiculous that even I can’t help but roll my eyes at their absurdities even in dire situations, take these examples:
“I flip through the pages of Verity’s manuscript, hoping to find an intimate scene with Jeremy.”
Verity by Colleen Hoover
“I sit down next to him, partly because I’m starting to feel really bad for this kid, but also because we have a clear view of Jeremy from this spot in the yard as he works on the dock.”
Verity by Colleen Hoover
I mean– come on! I understand that she’s attracted to him but 1) The man is married 2) He’s still getting over the tragedy of losing both of his daughters. But all you can think about are ways to get together with him like wth? Where’s the guilt? That’s my biggest pet peeve while reading romance novels – all the cheating without remorse! And the worst part is that she even find ways to justify all this.
The sleepwalking element felt like an extra detail which added nothing much to the story except that it it came across an attempt to make Lowen’s character seem interesting. That said I still take Hoover’s book as her romance novels where she added some dark scenes and gory details with twists to pass it off as pretext of mystery thriller where it was a sub plot which is a pity since it started off with such a promising opening line.
Having said that it did get me hooked in the storyline Verity’s chapter were the most interesting ones for me, these past few days has been sort of rough and reading this book did feel like a release, granted the characters in this did annoy me but I shouldn’t be focusing on insignificant details where the story was gripping. Maybe it was intentional from Hoover’s part to make her characters unlikable and unreliable, that would make alot of sense.
How come Lowen allowed (and even suggested ways!) for cold blooded murder to kill Verity like that? It wasn’t like Verity overpowered them in any way and after killing her so brutally its really a wonder how they were both able to recover from all this so quickly.
I can see myself loving this book few months ago, I lived and breathed for romantic thrillers like these but I feel like my reading taste has changed significantly. Point is–writing down dark and twisted things you can come up with doesn’t equate it to become a good thriller book.
Sincerest apologies to my for giving a brutal review for one of my friend’s favourite book but I had to be honest here, right? I was so ready to love it since our reading taste is so similar, but I felt like this is just a tip-in for the thrillers, maybe because I recently read Choke, The Butterfly Garden and American Psycho and they all messed me up so much, that’s why trust me when I say this ain’t it, chief.
I still don’t get that there are countless reviews on Goodreads all raving about this book, maybe it’s just me and this book is great, or maybe this was not the right time to start this book. I’ll never be sure. Will recommend it to those who wants to get into psychological thrillers.
3/5 stars
Spoiler alert: When you asked me to guess my favourite scene from this book is: when Lowen discovers the letter written by Verity in the end and when Verity tried to choke her own child– literal chills!
