{"id":326,"date":"2025-09-22T14:52:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lilacly.co.za\/?p=326"},"modified":"2025-09-22T14:52:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:52:04","slug":"book-review-verity-by-colleen-hoover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lilacly.co.za\/index.php\/2025\/09\/22\/book-review-verity-by-colleen-hoover\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Verity by Colleen Hoover"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Overview<\/strong>
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\u2019s husband, Jeremy Crawford, to stay at their home so she can go through Verity\u2019s notes and outlines. But while digging through Verity\u2019s office, Lowen uncovers a hidden manuscript\u2014one that reveals horrifying truths. As she falls in love with Jeremy, Lowen is torn between exposing what she\u2019s found or keeping it secret, knowing it could destroy Jeremy\u2019s world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Findings<\/strong>
I couldn\u2019t put this book down\u2014I 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chastin eventually dies from an allergic reaction at a sleepover. Verity\u2019s 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\u2014eerily aligning with her real-life accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 fa\u00e7ade crumbles, he kills her\u2014with Lowen complicit in the act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months later, Lowen is pregnant with Jeremy\u2019s 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\u2014to 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\u2019s affair and had planned to run away with Crew once the books were complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lowen is shaken by the letter but ultimately destroys it, choosing to protect her new life with Jeremy\u2014even if it means burying Verity\u2019s version of the truth forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Interpretation<\/strong>
I have to admit, I don\u2019t like Lowen. While the book was brilliantly written and captivating, her choices left me frustrated. For one, she takes Verity\u2019s manuscript as absolute truth, despite being a suspense writer herself\u2014someone who should know better than to accept every word at face value. She acts on it, leading to Verity\u2019s death. Then, when she finds Verity\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremy, too, is questionable. If he had already read the manuscript before Lowen, why didn\u2019t he reveal that? Why did he wait until Lowen confronted him with it to kill Verity? His motives are murky at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many ways, Lowen takes over Verity\u2019s life\u2014her career, her husband, and her son. It feels like she stepped into Verity\u2019s shoes and erased her entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019ll never know for sure. And maybe that\u2019s exactly what the author intended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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