‘Verity’ Cast Opens Up on Favorite Reads as Colleen Hoover’s Book-to-Screen Adaptation Tops Charts

The latest Colleen Hoover book-to-screen adaptation has done exactly what Hollywood hoped it would: send readers scrambling back to the source material while putting fresh names atop the box office charts. “Verity,” starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, has been drawing crowds since its release, and now the film’s stars are using their newfound spotlight to talk about the books that shaped them as readers.

In an exclusive clip shared with Variety from Amazon News, the trio sat down for a rapid-fire Q&A designed to tease out what makes a story impossible to put down. Hathaway framed the exercise neatly, noting that since “Verity” revolves around the act of finishing a story, the cast would spend the segment completing sentences about the books that keep them hooked.

Inside the Twisted World Driving the Book-to-Screen Adaptation

“Verity” centers on Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer played by Johnson, who is hired by Jeremy Crawford (Hartnett) to finish a manuscript left unfinished by his comatose wife, bestselling novelist Verity Crawford, played by Hathaway. What begins as a professional arrangement spirals into a tangled, unsettling love triangle layered with secrets, suspicion and manipulation — the kind of psychological hook that made Hoover’s 2018 novel a sleeper hit years before cameras ever rolled.

That slow-burn dread carried directly into the cast’s answers during the Amazon segment. Asked what qualities make a great villain on the page, Hathaway pointed to interiority above all else. “It has to be somebody even if you’re not agreeing with what they’re saying, you want to listen to them,” she said, adding that a compelling antagonist needs “a great inner monologue” to keep readers — or viewers — leaning in rather than tuning out.

Johnson, for her part, was asked what “Verity” might leave audiences questioning. Her blunt response — “your sexuality” — drew attention as a nod to the film’s more provocative undercurrents, while Hartnett’s answer skewed toward the story’s central tension: trust. He suggested the film could leave viewers questioning “your partner,” predicting plenty of post-credits debate once audiences reach the twist-heavy ending.

A Novel’s Second Life Thanks to the Film

Originally published in 2018, Hoover’s novel spent years as a word-of-mouth favorite before this latest book-to-screen adaptation sent it rocketing back up bestseller lists. The surge mirrors a now-familiar pattern in publishing and entertainment: a strong film or streaming release doesn’t just draw new viewers, it resurrects backlist titles, often propelling them higher than their original release ever managed.

It’s a dynamic that has become central to how studios market literary properties in 2026. Rather than treating the book and the film as separate products, studios and retailers increasingly lean into the overlap — pairing premiere buzz with curated reading lists, author tie-ins, and cast-driven content like the Amazon segment, which doubles as both promotion and a genuine glimpse into what these actors read for pleasure.

Hathaway, when asked which recommendations she trusts most, pointed straight to the Man Booker Prize shortlist, signaling a taste for literary fiction well outside the thriller genre she was there to promote. Hartnett took a more personal route, crediting a longtime friend whose taste he trusts because, as he put it, that friend simply “knows me” and “knows things” — a reminder that even amid a glossy studio rollout, reading recommendations often come down to something as old-fashioned as a trusted friend’s opinion.

What the Cast’s Picks Reveal About the Genre

The books suggested alongside the cast’s answers trace a clear through-line connecting “Verity” to the broader psychological thriller boom currently reshaping both publishing and film. Ashley Elston’s “First Lie Wins,” a Reese’s Book Club pick about a woman living under a false identity, was offered as the answer to Hathaway’s villain prompt. Freida McFadden’s BookTok sensation “The Housemaid” — itself already adapted into a 2025 feature starring Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney — matched Hartnett’s “question your partner” theme, reinforcing just how thoroughly domestic-suspense thrillers have colonized the pipeline from page to screen.

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s “Atmosphere,” a GMA Book Club selection about a NASA engineer navigating forbidden romance and identity, was tied to Johnson’s answer, while two Booker Prize shortlisted titles — Susan Choi’s “Flashlight” and “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” — rounded out Hathaway’s literary-fiction leanings.

Taken together, the recommendations underline why “Verity” landed as it did: the novel sits at the intersection of soapy, binge-worthy suspense and the kind of morally ambiguous character work that keeps serious readers engaged, a combination that has made Hoover one of the most adapted authors of her generation. With streaming platforms and studios still hungry for the next twisty bestseller, this particular book-to-screen adaptation likely won’t be the last time audiences see a Hoover title make the jump from paperback to premiere.

For now, “Verity” remains in theaters, with its box office momentum and the novel’s resurgent sales suggesting that whatever Hollywood is doing to court bookish audiences in 2026, it’s working.