Verity

All of Hoover’s characters carry with them a burden that hinders them from connecting in meaningful ways. The long-lasting effects of these traumas impact each character’s ability to communicate effectively and build strong relationships. Ultimately, the impact of trauma leads to both the novel’s central romance and tragedy. 

Verity’s tragic downfall is intrinsically linked to her experience of trauma. Even though the sudden, back-to-back deaths of her twins were accidents, she blames herself. This is especially true of Harper’s drowning because Verity was present but unable to save her daughter. Verity attempts to process her grief and guilt by creating a fictionalized account of her family’s lives in which all their tragedies and traumas are the result of her villainous plots. While this is intended to be a therapeutic writing exercise, her own husband takes it for a true confession, showing how trauma can warp people’s understandings of one another. The devastating losses Verity and Jeremy experience drive them apart, and this distance ultimately leads to her death at his hands.

As the protagonist of the novel, Lowen is also deeply shaped by her painful history. She navigates the trauma of her mother’s recent death, her experiences as a caregiver in the last year of her mother’s life, and her ostracization as a child due to her sleepwalking. These experiences render Lowen detached from the world around her. She praises the anonymity of New York City as it offers her the ability to avoid connecting with those around her. She limits her success as a writer due to the fear of rejection she carries from childhood. This all changes when Lowen is forced to accept her new role as a co-writer for Verity. She is removed from her comfortable environment into the less crowded setting of Vermont, where she faces the direct consequences of her trauma responses. 

The novel’s love story is founded on Lowen and Jeremy’s shared experiences as survivors of trauma. He understands her feelings of loss due to the deaths of his daughters, and the commonality in their experiences allows them to find refuge in each other. However, Hoover complicates the conventional narrative of love offering healing and redemption to those impacted by trauma. In this thriller, Lowen and Jeremy’s traumatic experiences damage their trust in others and darken their view of the world, making them more susceptible to mistaking Verity’s fictionalized “autobiography” for an authentic confession of guilt. As a result, Verity’s murder is a misguided attempt to avenge Harper’s traumatic death and claim connection after the isolation they’ve suffered. Hoover’s novel offers a cautionary tale about the far-reaching effects of trauma on individuals’ self-images, relationships with others, and even their sense of morality.