Down the Rabbit Hole

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity’s recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.

A couple of people have recommended this one to me and boy did it not disappoint. I had no expectations going in and honestly I didn’t even know it was a thriller until I started it. Overall it was a fantastic surprise and I can say it really was one of the best (or at least most exciting) thrillers I’ve read in a while, that really elicited some emotional reactions.

Verity is a story of a struggling thriller writer who is suddenly whisked away to write for a an author (Verity) renowned for writing thrillers from the perspective of the villain. Our protagonist, Lowen, arrives at Verity’s house to do research for the upcoming writing projects, but the home is the site of many recent tragedies, including the death of their twin daughters followed by Verity’s accident, leaving her unable to finish writing her series. Lowen finds Verity’s autobiography, detailing the events of meeting her husband and even through the deaths of her children, hidden away in her office. The house gives Lowen an eerie feeling, and maybe or good reason. Just what happened with Verity, and is there something much more sinister lurking behind each corner? What is the truth, and do we really want to know what it is?

The characters were all great in this book. Honestly I found most of them at least some base level of despicable. However, it was still written in such a way that I really enjoyed reading and I struggled to put it down (though I did, explained later). Usually in a book where I can’t really relate to any character or “get behind” their perspective, I usually don’t enjoy the book. However, the characters in this novel were all flawed in believable ways, and it just made me feel like an innocent bystander who couldn’t help but watch the train wreck unfold. For a thriller, we got a lot of time to dive deep into many of the characters because of the nature of having the autobiography retelling everything. This was definitely unique to the book and I really enjoyed the dual perspectives.

The plot was very good. I was instantly enraptured and it was really hard to put it down, because I just needed to know the ending or at least discover what the truth was. The suspense was extremely well executed. Just enough paranoia, mixed with the protagonist’s sleepwalking history, mixed with the accident-prone family, and the fact that the deal was too good to be true really had me suspicious from the very start. The book really leads you down a path which seems normal at first but with each page becomes more of a shocking horror. Kudos to the author for genuinely spooking me with this book (in a good way!)

The ending was also phenomenal. One of the best thriller endings I have ever read to be honest. On the spectrum of too much left hanging versus everything tied up too well, it reached a very very happy medium. Overall it just really baffled my mind and was a type of ending that I really didn’t see coming. The author really took the train of thought I had and then turned it around halfway and jammed it onto itself–can you tell I was really affected by it? Anyway, I wouldn’t want to spoil the ending, but I really felt that it added a whole extra level of horror that I haven’t experienced in a while.

Overall Recommendations

Verity is a suspenseful thriller novel revolving around a struggling writer, Lowen, who gets asked to finish a famous series of thrillers written in the perspective of the villain. As Lowen enters into the headspace of the original author, Verity, especially by reading her unpublished autobiography, dark things begin to become clear. What is the truth behind the tragedies in Verity’s life and is it more sinister than what it appears to be? Find out in this exciting thriller that you won’t want to put down!

Top Ten Tuesday: Memorable Book Titles

August 8, 2022August 8, 2022 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

I don’t know about you, but I feel the summer months have just been flying by so quickly. I barely have time to do much here with you all, but I try to never miss out on a TTT. This week’s topic was about hilarious titles, but I’m not one to read a lot of funny things (also, I think my sense of humour is super specific?) so I have tweaked the topic to memorable titles (that may or may not be funny in some people’s eyes).

If you laughed or at least smiled at any of these titles, please give a thumbs up or something in the comments below! It’d totally make my day 🙂

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discussion

Let’s Talk Bookish – All about E-Books

August 5, 2022 Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Aria @ Book Nook Bits will be the new host for Let’s Talk Bookish! If you aren’t following her yet, good check out her blog and give her a follow!

August 5: All about Ebooks (suggested by me!)

Prompts: Are ebooks the future of books? What are the advantages and disadvantages of ebooks? Are ebooks strictly better than physical books? Do all avid readers prefer real, paper books? Do you use an e-reader, or read on a phone/tablet? Do you ever find yourself missing one or the other?

Welcome to another week of LTB here at DTRH! This week, it’s a topic suggested by yours truly. I actually don’t really remember what I wanted to say about this topic, but I certainly want to hear all your thoughts on this. So without further ado, let’s dive right in.

I don’t think e-books are strictly the future of books. But I do believe that e-books (and audiobooks) will by and large become a very large market for books, or at least big niches. That being said I don’t think they will either will ever “replace” the other. They really just aren’t the same thing, and there will always be a place in this world for both medias I think!

The main advantages is and will likely always be price and convenience for an e-book. Just nothing beats having unlimited books at your fingertips, limited only really by the memory of your device (although that is also expanding). One disadvantage that I find is that I’m also quite scared to damage my e-reader just as much as a book. So stuffing it randomly in a bag (especially with keys around, etc.) would make me similarly nervous as stuffing a physical book in a bag randomly. It just seems a little bit fragile! Another slight inconvenience is that I like the slightly larger handheld size of the e-reader (book-size), but that means it doesn’t really fit well in my pocket either. Small details, but still.

E-books are definitely not strictly better than regular books, but it definitely depends who you ask and when you’re asking. For example they may be slightly more impervious to water but I still don’t think I’d be swimming with an e-book.

I think generally avid readers do prefer physical books…in the sense that in a perfectly world with unlimited resources and space (and perhaps no environmental impact), people do like physical books a lot. That being said, literally none of those things are true in the real world so there are so many reasons why e-books take the advantage. This doesn’t make e-books any “worse” than regular books though, and in the spirit of this prompt I’d say actually avid readers probably prefer whatever “book” they can get their hands on. The reading experience is important yes, but not at the cost of being able to read the story at all, if you’re an avid reader I think!

I usually do use an e-reader but I also read off the library app on my phone. The phone is definitely slightly more tiring, but it helps a lot when the background is black with the white text (equivalent of dark mode). Of course this slowly drains my phone battery and is still slightly worse for my eyes, but it works in a pinch when there’s something I want to borrow and read. The convenience of these two media are just unmatched!

I am one of those people who will always miss the other when I’m using one. The inconveniences of a real book remind me of an e-book (even something as simple as returning the book to the library, or finding a bookmark), whereas the mechanical feel of an e-reader sometimes makes me feel like missing the feel of turning actual pages in a book. Another inconvenience of an e-reader is being unable to easily flip back and forth between chapters as easy as I could with a physical book. Does anyone else relate to that?