Annika’s Reviews > Verity > Status Update

8
*Not reading the autobio is one of the few good choices Lowen's made!
*Lowen's referring to Verity's office as hers. Yikers.
*Verity writes from the villain's pov + main character is based on J. Not that hard to see where this is going.
*Mentioning every brand in full reads like product placement.
*Lowen is not the kind of character who knows specific models of car. She calls J a "man in a suit," and assumes he drives cars like businessmen, but nothing explains her knowledge. It's like Hoover googled "expensive cars" and "cheap cars" and assigned them to her characters based on income.
*I've never once trusted a publicity announcement, but somehow, Lowen has.
*Epic burn should not be something that is written in a book, unless it's ironic. And maybe not even then.
*Given how Lowen's wiggling her way into J's life, their reactions are totally justified.

9
*This chapter, instead of food or water. We need a xanax. It's always written the same way. I need a ____. CHANGE IT UP A BIT
*This whole plot is so contrived. Lowen wouldn't be afraid of Verity if she'd been less nosey. Her just happening to find the autobiography is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
*"Being evil is all [Verity] knows." She's just mentally ill. Again, not loving how this book is vilifying Verity and her actions. She needs HELP not this judgmental BS.

10
*More Verity hate-train. Lowen thinks she'd be a better mother than Verity, but I think she'd be just as shitty.
*Are we supposed to like Lowen? If not, I can vibe with that, but I think we're supposed to be rooting for her.
*I'd noticed this previously, but there's lots of mini tangents that are supposed to be descriptive, but are just distracting.
*Referring to high-masking autism as Asperger's in 2018 was still bad. Considering this got republished in 2021 and (presumably) looked at by an editor, it's even worse.
*Also, as Autism is genetic, she had to receive it from one of her parents. I'd bet on Verity, simply because of how she "fakes" her reactions in the hospital. She's masking. This also aligns with her interests and career. Of course, I doubt the book will say as much, but I'm gonna take that little nugget and save it for later.
*J seems to understand Harper's emotions which is more common of an Autistic parent-child bond. But still. Autism + mental illness + a form of post-partum (I think? can't be sure on that one) would explain all of Verity's actions.

You're so right in your comments on the autism descriptions being a big yikesy oversight, but I do think it is giving too much credit to Hoover to assume that she was aware of the genetic links in autism. I suppose if we are instead giving her some benefit of the doubt, because it is a genetic variance, a parent wouldn't *necessarily* have to present with autistic symptoms to pass along the genes.

That said, reading Verity as autistic is an interesting--- if almost certainly unintended--- analysis of her as a character. If anything, it makes everything that comes after more of a yikes, especially all of the characterizations of her a cold, detached, and evil.

I agree that there are specific actions and choices that it would recontextualize and perhaps give some kind of logical backing to, but I think it also paints Lowen in an even more villainous light considering what is to come. While it is fair to view her as a villain, I highly doubt it is the intended reading. 😅