Verity

Mystery and thriller

First published: 2018
Print length: 368 pagesGrand Central Publishing, 2022

Description

Struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh accepts an unusual assignment: complete a bestselling series whose author, Verity Crawford, can no longer work. Verity's husband, Jeremy, brings Lowen to the family's remote lake house, where Verity lies apparently comatose after a car accident and the household remains shadowed by the recent deaths of two daughters. Searching through Verity's notes, Lowen discovers an unpublished autobiography filled with obsessive love, resentment, and accounts of disturbing acts within the family. Suspicious sounds and a recorded movement make her question whether Verity is truly incapacitated, even as her attraction to Jeremy deepens into an affair. The psychological romantic thriller makes every manuscript, gesture, and confession part of an unstable contest between truth and invention.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Atmospheric · Conversational · Direct

Pace

Fast

Tone

Dark · Suspenseful · Tense · Unsettling

Structure

Braided · Framed

Focus

Mystery · Plot · Relationships

Emotional intensity

5 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

GriefKnowledge and truthLoveObsessionTrauma

About Colleen Hoover

Colleen Hoover is an American novelist whose career began with Slammed, written initially without plans for publication and later taken up by Atria Books. After earlier work in social work and teaching, she became known chiefly for romance and young adult fiction; in 2022, her books occupied six of the top ten places on the New York Times paperback fiction bestseller list. Her novels tend to be character-centered, conversational, and dialogue-driven, using intimate relationships to examine trust, autonomy, grief, guilt, and forgiveness. It Ends with Us places romantic attachment against domestic violence and a woman’s effort to establish limits, while Reminders of Him connects love with bereavement, punishment, motherhood, and the difficult prospect of rebuilding a life. Ugly Love and November 9 likewise begin with deliberately constrained arrangements, allowing concealed histories and changing expectations to pressure the bond. Hoover has also moved into suspense: Verity retains a romantic element but shifts toward a remote household, hidden writings, and mounting uncertainty.