Before You Watch
The film is out, the book is still on every shelf, and the question I keep getting is simple: should I read the book first? So I went back through all of Verity, by Colleen Hoover, and counted what a viewer should know before choosing.
I did it the slow way, by chapter, so the numbers on screen are ours and not a guess. My answer comes in three parts. Read it first if you are comfortable with very explicit scenes and dark themes involving children. Skip the book if either of those is a hard no. And everything here is spoiler free, because I only point to later chapters by number, never by event.
The Film, as of October Thirtieth
Let me start with the film facts, and I will tell you which are official and which are reported. I have not seen the movie, so I will not tell you what it changed.
Amazon’s own page, updated on October twenty seventh, twenty twenty six, is the official source. It lists Anne Hathaway as Verity Crawford, Dakota Johnson as Lowen Ashleigh and Josh Hartnett as Jeremy Crawford. Michael Showalter directed, and the screenplay credit goes to Nick Antosca and Colleen Hoover.
That same page says the theatrical run is complete and the film can be rented or bought on Prime Video in the United States. Rental was nineteen ninety nine and purchase was twenty four ninety nine, with no Prime membership needed. It does not give a date for when it will be included with Prime.
The theatrical date is reported, not official on that page. Two outlets, JoBlo and Tbreak, report that Amazon MGM Studios opened Verity in United States theaters on October second, twenty twenty six, after moving it from May fifteenth. As of October thirtieth, twenty twenty six, that is the whole timeline I can confirm.
The Setup
Now the book. Verity came out in twenty eighteen, and it opens fast. In chapter one, our narrator Lowen Ashleigh watches a man die under a truck in Manhattan.
Lowen is a struggling suspense writer. Her mother has just died, she faces an eviction notice, and a stranger named Jeremy helps her in a coffee shop bathroom. By chapter two her agent and former boyfriend, Corey, brings her an offer from Pantem Press.
Verity Crawford is a bestselling author who can no longer finish her series. Lowen would write the rest, and to do it she must go through Verity’s notes at the family home in Vermont, where Jeremy lives with his young son Crew.
By the end of chapter four she has met the nurse, been introduced under a pen name, seen Verity lying in a hospital bed, and found a hidden manuscript called So Be It. Its author’s note promises an uncomfortable distaste. That is all the setup I will give you. Everything after chapter four stays locked, and when I mention a later chapter in this guide, it is only so you can find a content warning, never to hint at a plot turn.
How the Book Is Built
Here is something a movie trailer cannot show you. Verity is built from two voices. Lowen narrates twenty five numbered chapters in the present tense. In between, the manuscript speaks in Verity’s own voice, looking back.
I counted ten manuscript sections after the author’s note, and I number them in reading order for this guide. Together with the note, they run about nineteen thousand words, nearly a quarter of the story.
That quarter matters for your decision, because it carries a lot of the content. Of the book’s explicit scenes, six sit in the manuscript. Forty two of the seventy three strong swear words sit there too.
I want to be fair about that. A reader who skips the manuscript sections would miss a lot of the book’s reputation, but the numbered chapters alone still carry tension, a creepy house and two more explicit scenes. So when you hear that the book is dark, the manuscript is where that mostly lives. The heaviest material arrives through those ten sections.
Meter One, Spice
Now the content meter. These ratings are my opinion, but the counts and chapter numbers come from our own copy of the text, and I will keep everything non graphic.
First, spice. I count eight explicit scenes in the whole book. Two are in the numbered chapters, chapters eighteen and twenty. Six are in the manuscript: two in section two, one brief one in section three, and one each in sections five, six and seven.
There is also a make out in chapter sixteen that is not fully explicit, and a one line recap in chapter nineteen. Some of the scenes are blunt and crude, and a couple involve unprotected sex.
Is it spicy? In my view, five out of five. This is an adult book, and if explicit scenes put you off, the film cannot be assumed to be gentler, because I have not seen it.
Meter Two, Violence and Dark Themes
Second, violence and disturbing themes, which I rate four out of five for violence and five out of five for disturbing themes, as my draft opinion.
The most important warning is harm to children. The book contains harm to babies and young children, including deaths. I will not say who or how, but those scenes sit in manuscript sections three, four, six, eight and nine.
The numbered chapters have a fatal street accident in chapter one, a child hurt in minor ways in chapters nine and twenty one, and physical violence in chapters twenty two and twenty three that I will not describe.
Other flags: a pregnancy resented and put at risk in sections three and four, a passing worry in chapter five about a helpless patient being abused, in which nothing happens, and one thought of self harm in manuscript section ten. Grief runs through the whole book.
Meter Three, Language
Third, language. I counted every form of the f word in the story text, from chapter one to the last chapter, and found seventy three. In a story of about eighty thousand words, that is roughly one every eleven hundred words.
They are not spread evenly. By reading order, the first stretch has twenty six, the middle has thirty, and the last stretch has seventeen. The busiest single section is manuscript section one, with nine, tied with section six at nine.
Shit appears too, and whore shows up four times, all in manuscript section six. One chapter uses a strong insult for another woman, in chapter eighteen. I found no racial slurs.
My draft rating is four out of five for language. It is steady and crude, not constant, and it often sits in the manuscript sections.
The Meter At a Glance
Here is the whole meter on one board, and every number is my draft opinion for you to weigh. Spice, five out of five. Violence, four. Language, four. Disturbing themes, five. Suggested age, eighteen and up.
The facts behind it are counted from our copy. Eight explicit scenes, seventy three strong swear words, and harm to children in five manuscript sections. The average of my four meters is four and a half.
Remember that those numbers do not move with the plot. They describe the book as a whole, which is why I would rather you see them now than meet them in chapter eighteen.
Who Should Skip It
Let me be plain about who should skip this book, again as my opinion. Skip it if explicit scenes are a deal breaker. Skip it if harm to children is a hard line, because it is part of the plot and not a passing mention.
My age suggestion is eighteen and up, as a draft opinion. It is written for adults, and in the acknowledgments the author asks her own three sons not to read it.
If you want a slow, clean mystery, this is not it. And if you need every question answered neatly, know that the book is built to leave you arguing with friends.
One small note: the story keeps you unsure whom to believe. I am keeping that intact for you, which is why the ending video lives separately on the channel for after you finish.
Three Things to Bring to Film Night
Since I have not seen the film, I will not judge it. But I can hand you three things the book sets up, so you know what to watch for.
One, the voices. In the book Lowen speaks in the present tense and Verity speaks in the past tense, and you are asked to decide which one you believe. Watch how any version handles two people telling their own story.
Two, the house. The Crawford home in Vermont has a hospital bed upstairs, a nurse named April, and a five year old boy named Crew. Notice who is in each room, and who is only said to be asleep.
Three, the manuscript itself. Its author’s note promises the reader an uncomfortable distaste. When Lowen reads it, ask what the writer wants you to feel, and why she wants it.
So, Read It First?
So, here is my pick, with the usual caveat that I have not seen the film. If you can handle the content meter, read the book first. Its pull comes from not knowing which voice to trust, and the book gives you both.
If you cannot, the meter above is your map. You can skip the book, or pick it up later, and I would rather you know what is coming than be surprised in the dark.
Either way, if you have finished the book and want the answers, the ending explained video is waiting for you, and the page for this guide is at book explained dot com.
What is your call: book first, or film first? Tell me in the comments. If this guide saved you a surprise, tap like and subscribe, and I will see you in the next one.
