Verity

Verity came out in twenty eighteen. Our narrator is Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling suspense writer in Manhattan. In one week her mother dies, she gets an eviction notice, and she ends up covered in a stranger's blood after watching a man die under a truck. That's chapter one.

A fast, nasty, almost impossible to put down thriller with a manuscript you will not forget, held back by a repetitive middle, extremely explicit sex and dark content. Four out of five. Read it if: you like fast thrillers with unreliable narrators; you enjoyed gone girl or rebecca; explicit scenes and dark themes don't bother you; you want a twist to argue about with friends. Skip it if: you want a slow, clean mystery; explicit sex scenes put you off; harm to children is a hard line for you; you need every question answered. Review: Verity →

Our ending explained covers the final chapters in full, with spoilers. Verity ending explained: the manuscript, Verity's hidden letter, how she dies and which version of the story is true. Full spoilers. Ending explained: Verity →

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney, The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Books like it: Verity →

It is a psychological thriller with a strong romance thread. Colleen Hoover is best known for romance, and she describes Verity in the acknowledgments as a departure from her usual love stories.

Very. The book has frequent, graphic sex scenes in crude, direct language, in both the present story and the manuscript. It is written for adult readers; this is the reviewer's assessment, not an official rating.

Yes. Verity is a standalone novel, published in 2018. The series mentioned inside the story is fictional.

Yes. As of October 2026, the Amazon MGM Studios film is in US theaters (it opened on October 2, 2026) with Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, directed by Michael Showalter.

Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling suspense writer, is the narrator. She is hired to finish the bestselling series of Verity Crawford, an author badly hurt in a car accident, and moves into the Crawford house in Vermont with Verity's husband Jeremy and their little boy Crew.