Verity by Colleen Hoover
My Review
I thought I read crazy when I read Caroline Kepnes’ You but Verity is high up there on the crazy scale. It’s no coincidence CoHo shouted her out in the acknowledgements. No lie, my jaw actually dropped. It comes with graphic nature warning for Christ’s sakes. I’m not even going to sugar coat this because I need you to understand the level of heinous things that are described in this book (sorry for the language mom): there’s some fucked up shit in here. Like royally fucked up to the point that I look at Colleen sideways but still applaud her for imagining this shit.
This is a level of creative that I aspire to be.
This ruthless story follows Lowen as she takes on finishing a highly successful suspense series written by the currently incapacitated Verity Crawford. After meeting with Verity’s husband Jeremy, whom was the one offered Lowen the job since Verity is unable to complete it, Lowen travels to Vermont to find anything to help her with her task at hand. But what she finds instead is a horrifying autobiography depicting troubling tragedies and unsettling confessions of major events that happened from the moment Verity met Jeremy to shortly before her car accident. And this unfinished autobiography is only the tip of the iceberg.
It’s dark, twisted, a bit vile, a tad sexy, a lot more creepy, and everything that I could have hoped for in a romantic thriller. But more importantly, it will have you questioning the difference between truth and lies, and the lengths a person will go to keep their secrets a secret.
Final Rating: 5++ Stars
***SPOILERS BELOW***
Steam Scale Deliciously Disturbing
Comments & Side Notes
§ Lowen’s pretty savage too. Nowhere near as deranged as Verity, but the fact that you’re purposely keeping your hips lifted so that the married man you just had sex with’s semen stays in you has me seriously shaking my head.
§ I have to give it to Verity. I knew from that incident with Crew what was up, but the whole time until the last few chapters I could never guess the why. I don’t like saying “I called it” when I’m reading a book, but I’m glad that was the only thing I guessed correctly because the why’s and the how’s I never would have figured out.
§ I thought reading Verity’s So Be It was the game changer but then there’s her Dear Jeremy letter, and know I have no ideawhat was actually true and what wasn’t. Was the autobiography really just an antagonistic journaling exercise (which I’m going to have to try) and this letter is actually the truth? Or was So Be It what really happened and the letter was written to save her ass after everything was all said and done?
Truthful Highlights
It’s what you do when you’ve experienced the worst of the worst. You seek out people like you…people worse off than you…and you use them to make yourself feel better about the terrible things that have happened to you. -ch. 1
#True
I don’t want to call him an asshole. He’s a little kid, and he’s been through a lot. But I think he might be an asshole. -ch. 4
Crew actually wasn’t an asshole but kids in general really are sometimes
The good thing about sins is they don’t have to be atoned for immediately. -So Be It: ch. 1
Thank God for that!
And that’s what love at first sight is. It isn’t really love at first sight until you’ve been with the person long enough for it to become love at first sight. -So Be It: ch. 1
This is why I never know how to answer if I believe in love at first sight because I feel like you only really know that with time