Spoiler-Free Blog
If you spend any time on BookTok or Bookstagram (the lovingly labelled bookish sides to TikTok and Instagram, respectively), then you’ve heard of Colleen Hoover.
Hoover (dubbed CoHo online) took an astounding eight spots in the top 20 bestselling books of 2022, including a clean sweep of the top three spots.
But not everyone loves CoHo – and those on the hater side have taken to the “NoHo” alternative label. While I don’t necessarily want to call myself a designated member of NoHo – I will say that Verity was at the bottom of my 2022 reads and I’m not inspired to read any of her other books.
What’s Verity about?
Verity is a thriller about a down-on-her-luck writer, Lowen, who takes up the mantle of ghostwriting for an ultra-successful author named Verity.
Verity has been in a terrible car accident and appears to now be in a vegetative state, unable to move and not appearing to be present mentally either. So, her husband Jeremy hires Lowen to finish the job of writing Verity’s popular book series.
But as Lowen digs through Verity’s office for any notes or references for the series, she happens across a manuscript that appears to be a very dark, very disturbing memoir of Verity’s life. At first she decides to keep it to herself to protect the grieving family, but as she starts developing feelings for Jeremy, she begins to wonder if he should know the truth.
I almost didn’t finish this book.
While at times creepy and full of shock value, I found the plot itself lacking and the writing boring.
I was halfway through, lost interest, put it down for a whole month, and almost didn’t come back but forced myself to skim through the rest since this book has received so much hype. I wasn’t sure if maybe the end would redeem it, maybe there was a twist I didn’t see coming – but I predicted most of the ending.
The writing itself was mostly exposition, and my number 1 pet peeve is writing that is more telling than showing. And it was so much that.
I also found the main character uninteresting. Most of her headspace is her just waffling about whether she should leave and pitying herself, which got old really fast. But of course, she had to stay or the plot couldn’t happen. In all honesty, I might’ve liked it better if she really was forced to stay, rather than choosing to stay. Perhaps if a storm washed out the roads, or if she broke a leg. But in this case she had a choice, and her inconsistent thoughts about it were annoying to read.
On top of all that, I felt we got no closure on the parts about her sleepwalking and her relationship with her mother. These elements did little for the plot except to be an excuse for her to have a lock on the outside of her door, which was relevant for only one scene and they never brought it up again after that. Also, April, the nurse, just disappeared near the end.
Overall, very little happens in this book. Once I passed the inciting incident, there seemed to be no plot at all. Things were just happening; we had some creepy moments for atmosphere, but really we just read the manuscript and watched the MC react afterwards.
Should you read Verity?
Sorry, CoHo fans – this one’s not for me. It might be for you if you haven’t read a lot of thrillers. Or if you like romance and want to try thriller, because this had an absurd amount of gratuitous sex for a book that isn’t supposed to be a romance.
But I can’t honestly say I recommend it.
Check out some of my other recent blogs:
2 responses to “Verity: My first (and probably last) CoHo book”
Sorry that wasn’t a great read but I’m like you, I keep reading thinking there is twist at the end that will make it all better! I love a book review thats save me from reading something that doesn’t come through. MANY THANKS 😉
Happy to help! 😉