Six years into her career, Colleen Hoover published the novel Verity. The book opens with an absolute horror scene, and careens from one shock to the next for the duration of it’s 350-odd pages. If you want to be completely startled over and over again, this is the book for you.
Verity is ostensibly the story of Lowen Ashleigh, an author who has been recruited to finish a series of novels by the titular Verity Crawford. Verity has become incapacitated due to a terrible car accident, and is currently receiving nearly round-the-clock care in her rural home. In addition to enduring the pain of seeing his wife in this condition, Verity’s husband Jeremy is still reeling from the deaths of his twin daughters in the year prior to the accident.
Jeremy and Verity’s publishing company offer Lowen the job, and request that she visit the Crawford’s home to read Verity’s notes and previous novels. While sorting through the papers in the office, Lowen finds an unpublished manuscript that appears to be a sort of journal of Verity’s. The contents of the manuscript, and the truth of what is happening in the house, are wrapped up together in a twisting web of mysteries.
I often find that I’ve guessed the “plot twist” before it happens in film and books. In the case of Verity, I was left in suspense until the absolute final page of the novel. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a little mystery in their lives.