Colleen Hoover self-published her psychological thriller Verity back in 2018. Almost a decade later, the novel is back in the spotlight.

After spending 111 weeks on Amazon‘s most-sold fiction chart, the book has surged to No. 4, just behind Allen Levi’s Theo of GoldenRebecca Yarros’ Threshing Dayand Kathryn Stockett’s The Calamity Club. No doubt, part of the reason for the spike is owed to the film adaptation hitting theaters this weekend on Oct. 2.

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Colleen Hoover Wrote ‘Verity’ After Watching a Scary Movie

A dark and deeply unsettling story about love, loss, and lunacy, Verity follows Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer, as she moves into the home of famous author Verity Crawford to finish the novels Verity can no longer write. Incapacitated and confined to a bed after a car accident, Verity has also written an unpublished autobiography full of disturbing confessions. As Lowen continues ghostwriting and getting deeper into Verity’s memoir, the lines between fact and fiction begin to blur.

Hoover shared in 2018 that the idea for Verity came after she and her mother left a horror film. Disappointed by the ending and the supernatural aspects of the story, she said, “Paranormal things don’t scare me. Real-life situations—things that can actually happen to you—are what scares me.”

She explained that she went straight home and started writing the foundation for what would become Verity.

The New Film Adaptation Made Colleen Hoover Rethink Her Book’s Ending

When it was released, the novel did not initially achieve the level of mainstream success associated with some of Hoover’s later books, including Regretting You and It Ends With Us. Still, it gained significant momentum later, particularly around 2021when Grand Central Publishing picked it up and republished it, and it gained renewed viral traction among TikTok’s BookTok community.

That newfound buzz helped propel the book to a movie deal that same year, with Amazon Studios acquiring the rights to develop the thriller into a feature film. Starting in November 2024, the star-studded cast was announced, with Anne Hathaway playing Verity, Dakota Johnson taking on Lowen, and Josh Hartnett as Verity’s husband, Jeremy.

Behind the camera, Hoover helped Channel Zero‘s Nick Antosca adapt the screenplay, with The Idea of You‘s Michael Showalter directing.

Known for her twist endings, Hoover said that the film made her rethink the ending of her book.

“It did give me food for thought,” Hoover told AND! News. “I thought a certain way for so long after writing the book, that seeing the movie and seeing how Michael dove into every point of view, I started to find myself feeling sorry for the character I thought was more evil in the book.”

She added, “Not that the movie shifts you in one direction or another, it was just really fun seeing everyone’s opinions of the truth. I’ve been all over the place now.”

When Amazon’s next chart snapshot is available, the film will have been out for a weekend. It’ll be interesting to see where the novel goes from there.

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This story was originally published by Parade on Sep 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the Books section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.