Verity by Colleen Hoover

Every now and then I read a book that makes me completely useless because I just need to know what happens next. Verity by Colleen Hoover was absolutely one of those books. I loved this.

It is dark, uncomfortable in places, incredibly suspenseful and one of those stories where you spend most of the book trying to work out who on earth you can actually believe. I genuinely didn’t want to put it down.

The story follows Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer who is offered what could be the opportunity of her career. Bestselling author Verity Crawford has been seriously injured and is no longer able to complete her hugely successful book series, so Verity’s husband, Jeremy, asks Lowen to step in and finish the remaining books.

To do that, Lowen travels to the Crawford family home to go through Verity’s notes and unfinished work. And this is where everything starts getting very strange.

While searching through Verity’s office, Lowen discovers an unfinished autobiographical manuscript that was clearly never intended to be published. What she reads inside it completely changes her understanding of Verity, Jeremy and the tragedies that have affected their family.

I won’t tell you much more because this is one book where knowing too much beforehand would genuinely spoil the experience. What I will say is that the manuscript contains some deeply disturbing revelations, and from the moment Lowen begins reading it, you start questioning absolutely everything.

Who is telling the truth?

This was probably my favourite part of the book. You think you’ve worked it out. Then you’re not sure. Then something happens and you’re convinced you were right all along. And then Colleen Hoover throws something else at you.

The suspense is brilliant because it isn’t dependent on huge dramatic moments happening on every page. A lot of the tension comes from simply being inside that house with these characters and knowing that something isn’t quite right. There were several moments where I genuinely thought, nope, I don’t trust you.

The problem was that I kept changing my mind about who “you” was. It’s also much darker than I expected from Colleen Hoover. She’s probably best known for books such as It Ends with Us and Ugly Love, but Verity is a psychological thriller with elements of romance rather than a traditional romance novel. It was actually Hoover’s first thriller, originally self-published in 2018 before becoming a huge bestseller.

If you’re somebody who likes a thriller that makes you question the narrator, the characters and eventually your own judgement, you’ll probably fly through this.

The ending

Obviously, I am not spoiling it. But we need to talk about the ending without actually talking about the ending. I finished the book and immediately wanted somebody else to have read it so I could ask them what they thought. That, to me, is usually the sign of a really good thriller. So I recommended it to my Chief of Staff, Kathryn, so we could talk about it, and oh, we did.

There are books where the final twist explains everything neatly and you close the cover satisfied that you know exactly what happened. Verity isn’t really interested in giving you that comfort.

Instead, it leaves you with another version of events and forces you to decide what you believe. Readers have been arguing about that question for years, and I completely understand why. I have my theory. You’ll have to read it and decide yours.

This needs to be a film

One of my first thoughts after finishing Verity was that somebody absolutely needed to turn it into a movie. Apparently Hollywood agreed with me. A film adaptation has already been made, starring Anne Hathaway as Verity Crawford, Dakota Johnson as Lowen Ashleigh and Josh Hartnett as Jeremy Crawford.

Even better, we don’t have long to wait. Verity is due to arrive in cinemas on 2 October 2026. I genuinely cannot wait to see it.

There are certain scenes in this book that I think are going to be incredibly unsettling on screen, and Anne Hathaway as Verity is casting I am very intrigued by. I’ll also be interested to see how the film handles one of the things that makes the book work so well: we spend so much time trying to determine whether what we’re reading is true.

My verdict

★★★★★ 5 out of 5 stars.

Definitely. I loved the suspense of Verity. It kept me guessing, it made me uncomfortable, and every time I thought I understood what was happening, something made me question it again.

This was also my first real introduction to Colleen Hoover’s darker writing, and it certainly won’t be my last. I’ll definitely be looking out for more of her books now.

If you like psychological thrillers, complicated characters and endings that leave you desperately wanting to discuss the book with somebody else, put Verity on your list. And if you’ve already read it, you’ll understand exactly why I’m so excited for October.

Jill Hudson

Editor-in-Chief

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