Book Review: Verity by Colleen Hoover

Overview
Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer, is offered the chance of a lifetime: to complete the bestselling thriller series of famous author Verity Crawford. Verity, left incapacitated after a car crash, can no longer write. Lowen is invited by Verity’s husband, Jeremy Crawford, to stay at their home so she can go through Verity’s notes and outlines. But while digging through Verity’s office, Lowen uncovers a hidden manuscript—one that reveals horrifying truths. As she falls in love with Jeremy, Lowen is torn between exposing what she’s found or keeping it secret, knowing it could destroy Jeremy’s world.

My Findings
I couldn’t put this book down—I finished it in just three days. Every chapter pulled me deeper into the mystery. The manuscript Lowen finds turns out to be an autobiography written by Verity, filled with shocking confessions.

Verity and Jeremy had three children: twin daughters and a son. The manuscript paints Verity as jealous, obsessive, and disturbingly unhinged. She admits she tried to abort the twins when she discovered Jeremy was just as in love with them as he once was with her. Later, she becomes obsessed with one twin, Chastin, while resenting the other, Harper. Believing Harper posed a threat, Verity even attempted to kill her as a baby.

Chastin eventually dies from an allergic reaction at a sleepover. Verity’s bitterness toward Harper only grows, culminating in a chilling scene where she takes Harper and their young son, Crew, on a boat ride, tips it over, and saves only Crew. Jeremy suspects the truth when Crew tells him that Verity instructed him to hold his breath before the boat capsized. In her manuscript, Verity ends with the intention of crashing her car into a tree—eerily aligning with her real-life accident.

As Lowen continues reading, her disgust toward Verity intensifies. At the same time, she notices odd signs suggesting Verity may be faking her coma-like state. When Verity frightens Lowen one last time, she shows Jeremy the manuscript, insisting his wife is not who he thinks she is. Jeremy confronts Verity, and when her façade crumbles, he kills her—with Lowen complicit in the act.

Months later, Lowen is pregnant with Jeremy’s child, living with him and Crew in a new town. While sorting through the old Crawford home, she discovers a hidden letter from Verity addressed to Jeremy. The letter flips everything upside down: Verity claims the manuscript was never real but rather a writing exercise suggested by her editor—to get inside the mind of an antagonist, a perspective that made her famous. She insists Jeremy had already read it long before Lowen arrived, and that it was Jeremy who caused her car crash after misinterpreting her words. Verity writes that pretending to be ill was her only way to protect herself from Jeremy, who might otherwise expose her. She even reveals she knew about Jeremy and Lowen’s affair and had planned to run away with Crew once the books were complete.

Lowen is shaken by the letter but ultimately destroys it, choosing to protect her new life with Jeremy—even if it means burying Verity’s version of the truth forever.

My Interpretation
I have to admit, I don’t like Lowen. While the book was brilliantly written and captivating, her choices left me frustrated. For one, she takes Verity’s manuscript as absolute truth, despite being a suspense writer herself—someone who should know better than to accept every word at face value. She acts on it, leading to Verity’s death. Then, when she finds Verity’s letter, which presents a completely different side of the story, she hides it. Perhaps it was to protect her new family, but the act feels selfish and cowardly.

Jeremy, too, is questionable. If he had already read the manuscript before Lowen, why didn’t he reveal that? Why did he wait until Lowen confronted him with it to kill Verity? His motives are murky at best.

In many ways, Lowen takes over Verity’s life—her career, her husband, and her son. It feels like she stepped into Verity’s shoes and erased her entirely.

Still, Verity is a masterful read. It forces you to wrestle with the idea that every person holds both good and bad within them. Was Verity a monster, or was she misunderstood? Was the manuscript the darkest side of her, while the letter revealed her innocence? We’ll never know for sure. And maybe that’s exactly what the author intended.