*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Verity, a novel by New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, is a horror/psychological thriller fiction. The story is about a young writer named Lowen struggling to make money and sell books, mainly because she hates dealing with the press. However, her agent tells her about a meeting discussing a new job opportunity that she may be up for but knows nothing about. Before the meeting, Lowen meets a stranger named Jeremy after witnessing a tragic death in the middle of the road together. So when she walks into the room her meeting is in, she is surprised to see Jeremy waiting there for her.
The job discussed in the meeting is finishing a book series for a world famous and bestselling author, Verity Crawford, as she is parlized after enduring a tragic car accident and can't finish them herself. Lowen is a little hesitant to take the job at first, but eventually agrees.
Lowen later finds out that Jermey, the stranger she met in the beginning of the story, is Verity’s husband. The story follows Lowen staying at Verity and Jeremy's house to look through Veritys office and do research so she can finish her book series. She uncovers an unpublished manuscript, hidden in Verity’s desk, that Lowen can't help but read. The manuscript uncovers the horrifying and shocking things Verity thought and did to her children before the accident, and Lowen begins to believe she may be faking her paralyzation. As her relationship with Jeremy grows, she decides to show him the manuscript she found.
Near the end of the story, Verity is killed after it is discovered she was in fact faking her paralyzation. But it doesn't end there. Lowen uncovers a letter hidden under the floorboards that Verity had written to Jeremy. The letter basically uncovers that Verity’s manuscript was fiction, and was her practicing narrating in the villains shoes: something she did in her novels.
The end of the novel leaves it to the reader's interpretation- was the letter or the manuscript true?
When I read the last line of this nail biting novel my jaw was on the floor. I have given the story an immense amount of thought and have come to the conclusion the manuscript was true, and here is why. To fully understand my conclusion, reading the novel is a necessity as I dig into the hidden details I uncovered after reading. My conclusion will not make any sense if you have not read the book.
My first reason is Verity did not tell Harper to hold her breath along with Crew. Based on what Verity wrote in the manuscript, when she was planning on killing Harper she only told Crew to hold his breath before she flipped the canoe. Crew still remembers his mom telling him to hold his breath and even told his dad about this after the incident. So if she wasn't evil, and it was an accident, why would she tell Crew to hold his breath and not Harper? Or, if it was an accident, how would she have time to say “hold your breath?” When did she say that? As the boat was tipping over? After it tipped over and they were submerged under water?
My second reason is, how did Chastin get the scar or her disease? In the manuscript, Verity recalls how when she was pregnant she hated the idea of losing the attention from Jeremy and didn't like how he was giving the babies more attention than her. So she, well, wanted them gone. She did awful things like throw herself down stairs and drink alcohol as she was pregnant so they would be gone. This resulted in a scar on Chastins eyebrow and a disease given to her where she can’t express emotion on her face. If Verity never did the things to the twins, how did this happen to Chastin?
My third piece of evidence is, why would Verity only write the letter after she found out Lowen read the manuscript and not when Jeremy read it? In the letter Verity recalls how Jeremy found the manuscript and read it but before she could tell him it wasn't real he crashed them into a tree. However she never sustained injury from the crash and faked being paraized. So why didn't she write the letter to Jeremy after that? Instead she waited until Lowen read it and then decided to write it. Why would she do this? Why wasn't she eager to explain herself? Also, why would Jeremy be so nice to her if he thought what he read in the manuscript was true?
My last reason I believe the manuscript is the truth is that the letter is the perfect way to seem innocent again after one was to read her manuscript. Verity, as Colleen Hoover stated, was a master of hiding the truth. What I think is after Lowen talked to her and set up the monitor she realized the jig was up and she must've read the manuscript. That is when she created the escape to basically gaslight everyone and make herself seem innocent once again.
So after my evidence, do you agree with me that the manuscript was the truth? Or do you still believe in the letter?
All in all, Verity was an amazing book that I gave four and a half stars. It was a genius concept that must've taken so much thought even before starting to write. It was an easy read that had a good thrill and the perfect romantic aspect. The characters were well set up and there was genius characterization, as we got to know Lowen as we went through traumatizing experiences with her. However, there were some plot holes in the concept of the letter. Other than that, it was an amazing book.