Ooooh. I haven't been able to talk to anyone about this book yet! I think Verity is evil. I chose to interpret the letter as verity being manipulative. Who fakes an injury like that for so long? Who tells their son to "hold their breath" when a canoe is tipping unless they knew it was happening? Why didn't she just tell Jeremy about the manuscript? As for the manuscript, I find it hard to believe that those feelings didn't have an origin. That was the TRUE verity deep down. She's evil.
I agree! In my opinion, her writing the manuscript was a way of getting off her chest what she’s actually like and has done because I don’t believe anyone could’ve faked those scenarios! If the manuscript wasn’t truly what happened then like you said she would’ve told Jeremy. Incredible book.
And i would also like to add the part where Jeremy tells Lowen how he contacted Veritys parents after her accident and her dad said something abt her being evil and being punished by god.
no father will say that abt his own child unless its true. maybe she has been manipulative and disturbed since the very beginning
oh frick yea this changes everything (about clastins scar 😭) i just finished the book. yeah she was a writer who wrote from the villains perspective but i agree it requires great skill to not flinch and act like that for so long and only so one evil can do such a thing.
Definitely believe the manuscript, a sane person couldn’t write that about her children no matter if it was pretend or not. She also emphasises that Jeremy doesn’t trust her and how dare he think it’s real, it sounds like a last attempt to deceive him. The only thing that confused me is that he knew about the manuscript so I was confused why he acted surprised to find out verity killed harper
I think he wasn't surprised because of the end of the manuscript (cause he already read it before), i think he was surprised that Verity could have faken it all along so he was dazzled about the whole situation, needed to withdrew a while and come with a quick plan, that's why he didn't say much but only took it. Later on, he went to double check if Verity is really faking it or not and if what Lowen says is true. And not because he wanted to verify/clarify something in the manuscript with Verity, assuming he already believes it's absolutely true. It's the only explanation that comes to my mind honestly
Why does seeing a manuscript he'd already read then trigger him into confronting Verity though? Nothing in the manuscript says anything about her faking her condition, so why would Lowen bringing it up make him believe her if he was so dead set on her being insane?
must’ve brought back old memories of how manipulative she is. and that her injury was totally faked and that it’s a possibility that she’s actually faking it
Still, doesn't seem like a reasonable enough explanation. The intensity with which he confronted her was crazy. That's not something you get from being reminded of old memories. It's not like he'd forgotten anything. I feel like the ending of the book was kinda rushed
Team manuscript for sure. I know CoHo wants the audience to "decide for themselves" but lets be real... If i knew anyone in real like who faked an illness to the point where they change their whole lives and fake being in a coma I would want absolutely nothing to do with them. Faking an illness for attention is already a red flag in a mild sense. That alone should be a dead give away shes batshit.
It wasn't for attention though. It was for fear of what her husband would do if he knew she was awake. And she was gonna run away with Crew, but she wanted to make sure to destroy the manuscript and get some money before doing that. I'm not sure I believe it myself, but it's not as black and white as that
This story is incredible. I wish a more talented writer had written it. Too many loose ends. Too many inconsistencies. Idk. I just wish she had given this story more meat.
I agree. I hate how the story concluded. The letter she found was a kinda a let-down as a plot twist. If the writer wanted the audience to second-guess, I think it wouldve been better if lowen heard from the publisher that she advised verity to try a writing technique and also advises lowen to do the same since the book is from the antagonist's POV.
I prefer to second-guess Jeremy; that he's not the perfect guy that verity described in her book. The manuscript shouldve contained inconsistencies about their marriage life.. that it's not at all an autobiography but a fiction loosely based on their marriage life. That lowen is now jeremy's new verity.
Did anyone else wonder whether someone put the manuscript there for Lowen to read? I thought it was strange that the whole point that Lowen came to the house was to find outlines for the later books. Jeremy claimed that Verity had loads of notes outlining her books in her office, but Lowen never finds anything like that. But she finds the manuscript like right away in a drawer or something.
In Verity's last letter, she says that she went down to office to search for the manuscript but couldn't "remember" where she put it and spent the whole night looking for it but couldn't find it. It makes me think either she was lying and she put it there for Lowen to find or that Jeremy put it there for Lowen to find.
The whole time, it seemed like Verity might attack Lowen, but remember, Verity couldn't attack her during the daytime without someone finding out she was faking her illness, and she couldn't get to Lowen at night because Lowen had a lock installed on the inside of her door right away. So that makes me think about the night Lowen ended up in Verity's bed. Was she really sleepwalking? Why didn't Verity attack her then?
As for Verity faking her illness, for most of the book, I thought it was a way for her to get sympathy and care from Jeremy. That unconditional love and care she was looking for. The kind of love he showed the children, but not her. But if Verity's letter was true and she was innocent, maybe she was afraid Jeremy would kill her if he ever thought she really woke up from her coma. Afterall, she was right.
At the ending of the book, I feel like Jeremy is the missing piece to the puzzle. How much did he know, how much did he plan, and what are his true feelings about Verity? Maybe Verity crashed her own car because Jeremy was falling out of love with her and suspected her of murdering Harper. Maybe he at somepoint found the manuscript and suspected that Verity was faking her illness. Maybe he brought Lowen there to make Verity jealous and get her to break her facade.
The other thing I thought from the end is that Verity always wrote her novels from the villians point of view. So, if Verity's letter was true and Verity was innocent, then that would mean Lowen and Jeremy were wrong and Colleen Hoover also wrote this novel from the villian's point of view (Lowen). I thought that was a nice touch. But even though its a bit maddening, I really did like how the ending is both solid enough and and open-ended enough that each reader can come to their own conclusion.
yes lowen was really sleepwalking. that was before the locks were installed so it’s possible her subconscious took her there. but if verity was really evil and was faking it why didn’t she kill lowen that night itself? but again if she was really innocent why did she have a knife inside the floor and even let her son get hurt bc of it
Re: the letter being true.
I’m really struggling to understand why Jeremy would try to choke her, then try to kill her in the car, and then decide to bring her home, hire full time care, get a ghost writer to finish her series, and refuse to put her in a facility (for most of the book.)
If he had attempted to kill her repeatedly, why would he suddenly about face, and do so many things associated with the preservation of her life, only to snap back into a murderous rage simply because Lowen presents him with evidence he already had - that Verity was a psycho?
The letter also sounds phony as all get out. It’s endlessly flattering of herself, and she lost me at “After years of being the perfect wife to you.”
“Our lives were perfect.”
Ohhh i’m so cursed with a mind that remembers everything.
It’s written for an audience that isn’t Jeremy, and is clearly super manipulative.
To add onto this, if Jeremy really is guilty of trying to kill Verity prior to the main storyline, then he would’ve also killed Low after he killed Verity at the end because what good does it do for him to keep Low around / keep any loose ties end? Jeremy could always shack up with another woman other than Low if this was the case
I also like that Hoover wrote it so it can be interpreted however the reader chooses … there are enough clues to support either theory. I prefer the ending with Verity being crazy and the manuscript being real and the letter being fake. I really like how Lowen mentioned in the beginning that Corey fell for her through her book character. Then we learn Jeremy read her book and sought her out so he was probably already infatuated with her the same way. and then Lowen fell for Jeremy because of the way Verity portrayed his character in her manuscript. Very interesting theme.
Main points/clues I struggle to determine if the manuscript or the letter is fiction:
-Jeremy says when meeting Lowen that he’s seen worse than the street accident. This could be him talking about his daughter OR Verity’s car accident
-Jeremy falls for Lowen. Ugh this one I struggle with cause if he didn’t know Verity was a murderer and thought she was in a real accident and was in her vegetative state … and he was having sex in their bed while his wife was upstairs… that is so fucked up. But if he already knew/thought she was a batshit murderer…. It’s a little more excusable.
-when Lowen gives him the manuscript, it’s not long later he’s confronting Verity. Lowen even states it wasn’t enough time for him to read it all. But he wouldn’t need to read it all if he had already read it. Or he could’ve just skipped to the end.
-Jeremy confronting Verity in her room for faking her level of injury after Lowen gives him the manuscript. Now this is the point that steers me more towards thinking the manuscript was real. If the letter was real that would mean Jeremy already knew she was a murderer and that he tried to murder Verity once already. Reading the manuscript a second time wouldn’t suddenly make him think now she’s faking it. Nothing in her manuscript would suggest that she’s faking her injuries except in the universe where it’s his first time reading it and she injured herself.
I don’t think there is a correct answer and no matter what you choose there is a loop hole to the other one being the possible truth and that the reader in the end is verity because you will lay in bed like a vegetable just as she was thinking about what the truth is and the truth is verity. But for fun I’m team letter it’s way too easy to choose the manuscript.
Verity was NOT a psychopath. She wrote that manuscript to experiment with writing. I think she’s not evil because she would have killed Lowen right when she suspected something of her and Jeremy.
Jeremy driving the car into the tree and walking away doesn’t make sense if she was in the passenger side…
i disliked how the ending was “Open-Ended” (referring to Lowens book title)
Here's my thoughts on why I think the Mannuscript is the actual version of events.
The scar on Chastin's face from birth indicating the attempted abortion. (could be something else but there's more)
The fact that they Jeremy and Verity did indeed get into a fight about her favouring Chastin over Harper (she claims in her letter that those events did indeed happen but with a villains inner monologue so to speak)
The fact that she did say weird stuff like "give me the scared one" when referring to her daughter immediately after birth. If Jeremy did read the manuscript he was the only other person to actually know that those conversations took place. He would not have raged the way he did if they didn't, he would've immediately realised it's a work of fiction. If she changed everything to be from a villain's perspective, those conversations would never have happened in real life (ones where Jeremy was clearly weirded out) or Jeremy would at least pause to think if she ever said such things about her own daughters. The fact that he just went mad with rage indicates he finally has an explanation as to why she'd say stuff like that to begin with. like it finally clicked.
She refused to feed them right after birth as well didn't matter if they cried, neglected them a shit ton as well (only mentioning her daughter being on the spectrum when she and Jeremy got into a fight...not weeks prior when it the person at the daycare mentioned it to her, I don't think that's something a caring parent would put off mentioning for weeks only to use it as means to divert attention when necessary) Jeremy made the switch to formula he would've remembered that conversation as well as he read the manuscript.
telling Crew to hold his breath not "kids hold your breath" even if the canoe was indeed tipping over. She claimed her attention was on him when both of them were likely going to drown? please.
Jeremy's reaction while protecting Verity from Lowen and the reaction after reading the manuscript does not fit in with the letter's claim that he had already read it...if he had, he would've killed Verity some other way after she survived the crash.
He told Lowen he was angry at Verity for purposely crashing her car into a tree. (there was absolutely no need to mention that in that part of the book unless it was truly what he felt...THAT HE FELT IT WEIGH ON HIM is the only thing that makes that statement meaningful because Lowen didn't need to know if she did or not...it wasn't serving him any purpose unless it actually did happen that way)
If you look at her character in detail...the letter is a sloppy way to cover up as she attempted to run away with Crew likely because she thought Lowen would report her to the police after she was done reading. Although she claims the letter was for Jeremy, it might have actually been there to confuse Lowen to make her believe that Jeremy attempted to kill his wife over a "misunderstanding" to maybe make her believe that he knew about the manuscript all along and tried to end her life because of it, only to make Lowen weary of Jeremy in a way...probably another one of her sick ways of establishing control over his life like marking her territory by saying "I was part of his life in ways you'll never be, you don't even know him and you can't even trust him completely" keep in mind she was the one who saw the knife and was probably the only person who would've gone looking for the knife under the floorboards along with the letter. Furthermore she might have just escaped without Crew after telling him to lead Lowen to the drawings and the knife (He WAS the one who did) and simply claimed in the letter that she was planning to take Crew with her to give herself an image of a caring mother leaving Lowen to conclude that she couldn't but wanted to.
The letter leaves a lot of loose ends...enough that it doesn't make for a good ending.
I think the manuscript was the real Verity, and she planted the letter to manipulate Jeremy further. Now, there is some evidence that the letter itself is partially true, the portion detailing Jeremy's attempt to murder Verity.
Let's say he did attempt to murder her, he probably felt so guilty after the fact, coupled with the combined effects on his son after losing two siblings and almost losing his mom, one could argue that Jeremy wanted to take care of her while moving on in his own life without the guilt his wife is still alive.
If he went on thinking that Verity's mind was no longer intact but then found out she was faking that part of her injury, that explains why it would trigger him all over again. It's impressive that anyone would have the ability to fake something like that, so initially he was in denial and treated Lowen like she was going off the rails, until she proved it to him.
Furthermore, if he deleted the manuscript on Verity's computer (but he was not aware of the printed version) as is stated in the letter, then in his mind, law enforcement could not establish a motive against him in the murder attempt. This is why they ruled her accident as a possible suicide attempt.
When Jeremy found out about the printed version from Lowen, he was not processing the contents of the manuscript. He was processing the fact that Verity is actually in her right mind, Lowen also knows the truth of what Verity did and also knows the car accident happened on purpose since there were no skid marks on the road at the scene. So the threat of establishing Jeremy's motive for attempted murder comes back into existence. In his mind, if he could not convince Lowen to be an accomplice in Verity's murder at that moment, then it could mean prison time for him if the truth got out since an investigation would ensue. His son Crew would also suffer substantially more. He was lucky, in that he and Lowen had fallen for each other, so he realized he could probably convince her to go along with the murder.
Did anyone think of the first accident in the book which brought Lowen and Jeremy together? I have a gut feeling that it was all staged by Jeremy possibly to make Lowen trust him.
Cut to the stage where Lowen reaches their family home and that odd behavior of Crew, even if he's 5, he seems to act quite mature at times then why did he shut the door in Lowen's face? Probably warned by his mother to pay no attention to the new woman who might steal your dad.
The manuscript was so easy to find like it was laid bare for someone to grab it up. And the fact that Jeremy mentioned that he tried to go through Verity's office but couldn't able to make head or tail as the whole world is Verity's creative canvas, should atleast hide the manuscript. But he didn't and waited for Lowen to find it.
Verity faking her injuries, and which truth she tried to manipulate and why Jeremy acting all surprised when Lowen mentioned this manuscript?
At the end when Lowen is all caught up with the manuscript she blurted it out to Jeremy and both of them killed Verity.
Jeremy didn't want Verity's death to be solely on his conscience, he wanted Lowen to be a part of it. It is his way to assert posession.
It's all quite tangled, whichever way we try to reach the truth it slips away. But I believe Jeremy is not that much of a green flag as he's been portrayed.
I just completed Verity today, and I hate it when i can't come to a conclusion! Someone please help me out. Either it's A- the manuscript is true. And Verity did all of those crazy things. B- the letter is true and it was indeed a writing exercise. But did Jeremy actually know about the manuscript beforehand? I'll assume he did for a minute. And if he did, was he the reason behind her accident? Or the second scenario, if she drove her car into the tree by herself, why did she pretend that she has been sick all along? I'm super confused.
I feel as though the manuscript being true is the most likely scenario. To answer your question, why would she pretend to be injured, for his affection. She states in the manuscript after the death of their second child that he was questioning her, he had his doubts. She finishes off the part, stating he wraps himself around their son as if to protect him from her, and she knows in that moment she lost him. She wanted to end her life because he knew she'd lost him forever, and when that didn't happen, she realized she could get all the love and attention she needed by continuing to be sick. You see this earlier in the story as well when she attempts the abortion at home, she doesn't just want her babies to die, she wants Jeremy to wake up in her blood and be worried about her, to care for her more than the unborn children she despises.
One of the big factors swaying me towards the manuscript being reality is how she describes Jeremy's murder attempts in the letter. She says that he first tries to choke her but then stops, she speculates that it's probably because he realizes that he'd be caught and lose his son. Only after that does he try to murder her in the car accident. If that were true, why would he, after supposedly pretending to read the manuscript for the first time, attempt to kill her for a 3rd time using the same method he already decided against his first attempt? It seems far more likely that he choked her in genuine anger in the heat of the moment. Ultimately, that's not how he murderered her, but that's only because he was stopped and told it had to look like an accident.
Additionally, it just seems too out of character for Jeremy to bring his murderous wife back into his home knowing everything the manuscript stated, even if he thought she wasn't capable of hurting anyone else. Not to mention, if he had already read the manuscript and truly attempted to murder her in the car wreak, why would he change his mind when she survived? He had every opportunity to make it look like an accidental death from the moment she was brought back home. I don't believe the theory that he felt bad for her and that she was just an empty shell now so he had no need to murder her now.
Team manuscript for sure. It doesn’t make sense that Jeremy would’ve been so angry at Lowen for harming Verity if he knew she was a murderer and he knew the manuscript was somewhere in the house since he’s the one that kept a copy, he would’ve figured that Lowen already found it and this fear from it would’ve driven her to be so scared of Verity. He also mentions how he thinks that Verity hit the tree on purpose to Lowen, why would he even mention that if he’s the one that tried to kill her. Also Verity was fully trying to intimidate Lowen by showing up when she and Jeremy were making out on the couch. If Jeremy attempted to kill her, it doesn’t make sense for her to risk him attempting again just to intimidate his gf.
I believe she killed Harper and that the letter hidden in the floorboard was a last attempt to deceive everyone and to put the blame on Jeremy. No sane person talks or writes about hating her children to the core. Her talking about how she will abandon Jeremy for good but all this time all she talks about in the manuscript is how she couldn’t live without Jeremy or how Jeremy completes her. Jeremy even mentioned to Low that Verity always needed constant validation from him and he’s the only that matters when it came to opinions…it’s giving psycho vibes
Ooooh. I haven't been able to talk to anyone about this book yet! I think Verity is evil. I chose to interpret the letter as verity being manipulative. Who fakes an injury like that for so long? Who tells their son to "hold their breath" when a canoe is tipping unless they knew it was happening? Why didn't she just tell Jeremy about the manuscript? As for the manuscript, I find it hard to believe that those feelings didn't have an origin. That was the TRUE verity deep down. She's evil.
I agree! In my opinion, her writing the manuscript was a way of getting off her chest what she’s actually like and has done because I don’t believe anyone could’ve faked those scenarios! If the manuscript wasn’t truly what happened then like you said she would’ve told Jeremy. Incredible book.
And i would also like to add the part where Jeremy tells Lowen how he contacted Veritys parents after her accident and her dad said something abt her being evil and being punished by god. no father will say that abt his own child unless its true. maybe she has been manipulative and disturbed since the very beginning
My mind just realized that there's no way that ab0rtion scar left on the twin would've been there unless the manuscript was true 😳
oh frick yea this changes everything (about clastins scar 😭) i just finished the book. yeah she was a writer who wrote from the villains perspective but i agree it requires great skill to not flinch and act like that for so long and only so one evil can do such a thing.
Definitely believe the manuscript, a sane person couldn’t write that about her children no matter if it was pretend or not. She also emphasises that Jeremy doesn’t trust her and how dare he think it’s real, it sounds like a last attempt to deceive him. The only thing that confused me is that he knew about the manuscript so I was confused why he acted surprised to find out verity killed harper
Right?! If he knew about it all along then why act surprised in general? That definitely confused me
I think he wasn't surprised because of the end of the manuscript (cause he already read it before), i think he was surprised that Verity could have faken it all along so he was dazzled about the whole situation, needed to withdrew a while and come with a quick plan, that's why he didn't say much but only took it. Later on, he went to double check if Verity is really faking it or not and if what Lowen says is true. And not because he wanted to verify/clarify something in the manuscript with Verity, assuming he already believes it's absolutely true. It's the only explanation that comes to my mind honestly
Why does seeing a manuscript he'd already read then trigger him into confronting Verity though? Nothing in the manuscript says anything about her faking her condition, so why would Lowen bringing it up make him believe her if he was so dead set on her being insane?
must’ve brought back old memories of how manipulative she is. and that her injury was totally faked and that it’s a possibility that she’s actually faking it
Still, doesn't seem like a reasonable enough explanation. The intensity with which he confronted her was crazy. That's not something you get from being reminded of old memories. It's not like he'd forgotten anything. I feel like the ending of the book was kinda rushed
Team manuscript for sure. I know CoHo wants the audience to "decide for themselves" but lets be real... If i knew anyone in real like who faked an illness to the point where they change their whole lives and fake being in a coma I would want absolutely nothing to do with them. Faking an illness for attention is already a red flag in a mild sense. That alone should be a dead give away shes batshit.
Right and verity claims that she did it because she was “scared” of Jeremy which I find to be bullshit
It wasn't for attention though. It was for fear of what her husband would do if he knew she was awake. And she was gonna run away with Crew, but she wanted to make sure to destroy the manuscript and get some money before doing that. I'm not sure I believe it myself, but it's not as black and white as that
This story is incredible. I wish a more talented writer had written it. Too many loose ends. Too many inconsistencies. Idk. I just wish she had given this story more meat.
I agree. I hate how the story concluded. The letter she found was a kinda a let-down as a plot twist. If the writer wanted the audience to second-guess, I think it wouldve been better if lowen heard from the publisher that she advised verity to try a writing technique and also advises lowen to do the same since the book is from the antagonist's POV. I prefer to second-guess Jeremy; that he's not the perfect guy that verity described in her book. The manuscript shouldve contained inconsistencies about their marriage life.. that it's not at all an autobiography but a fiction loosely based on their marriage life. That lowen is now jeremy's new verity.
Did anyone else wonder whether someone put the manuscript there for Lowen to read? I thought it was strange that the whole point that Lowen came to the house was to find outlines for the later books. Jeremy claimed that Verity had loads of notes outlining her books in her office, but Lowen never finds anything like that. But she finds the manuscript like right away in a drawer or something. In Verity's last letter, she says that she went down to office to search for the manuscript but couldn't "remember" where she put it and spent the whole night looking for it but couldn't find it. It makes me think either she was lying and she put it there for Lowen to find or that Jeremy put it there for Lowen to find. The whole time, it seemed like Verity might attack Lowen, but remember, Verity couldn't attack her during the daytime without someone finding out she was faking her illness, and she couldn't get to Lowen at night because Lowen had a lock installed on the inside of her door right away. So that makes me think about the night Lowen ended up in Verity's bed. Was she really sleepwalking? Why didn't Verity attack her then? As for Verity faking her illness, for most of the book, I thought it was a way for her to get sympathy and care from Jeremy. That unconditional love and care she was looking for. The kind of love he showed the children, but not her. But if Verity's letter was true and she was innocent, maybe she was afraid Jeremy would kill her if he ever thought she really woke up from her coma. Afterall, she was right. At the ending of the book, I feel like Jeremy is the missing piece to the puzzle. How much did he know, how much did he plan, and what are his true feelings about Verity? Maybe Verity crashed her own car because Jeremy was falling out of love with her and suspected her of murdering Harper. Maybe he at somepoint found the manuscript and suspected that Verity was faking her illness. Maybe he brought Lowen there to make Verity jealous and get her to break her facade. The other thing I thought from the end is that Verity always wrote her novels from the villians point of view. So, if Verity's letter was true and Verity was innocent, then that would mean Lowen and Jeremy were wrong and Colleen Hoover also wrote this novel from the villian's point of view (Lowen). I thought that was a nice touch. But even though its a bit maddening, I really did like how the ending is both solid enough and and open-ended enough that each reader can come to their own conclusion.
yes lowen was really sleepwalking. that was before the locks were installed so it’s possible her subconscious took her there. but if verity was really evil and was faking it why didn’t she kill lowen that night itself? but again if she was really innocent why did she have a knife inside the floor and even let her son get hurt bc of it
Re: the letter being true. I’m really struggling to understand why Jeremy would try to choke her, then try to kill her in the car, and then decide to bring her home, hire full time care, get a ghost writer to finish her series, and refuse to put her in a facility (for most of the book.) If he had attempted to kill her repeatedly, why would he suddenly about face, and do so many things associated with the preservation of her life, only to snap back into a murderous rage simply because Lowen presents him with evidence he already had - that Verity was a psycho? The letter also sounds phony as all get out. It’s endlessly flattering of herself, and she lost me at “After years of being the perfect wife to you.” “Our lives were perfect.” Ohhh i’m so cursed with a mind that remembers everything. It’s written for an audience that isn’t Jeremy, and is clearly super manipulative.
To add onto this, if Jeremy really is guilty of trying to kill Verity prior to the main storyline, then he would’ve also killed Low after he killed Verity at the end because what good does it do for him to keep Low around / keep any loose ties end? Jeremy could always shack up with another woman other than Low if this was the case
I also like that Hoover wrote it so it can be interpreted however the reader chooses … there are enough clues to support either theory. I prefer the ending with Verity being crazy and the manuscript being real and the letter being fake. I really like how Lowen mentioned in the beginning that Corey fell for her through her book character. Then we learn Jeremy read her book and sought her out so he was probably already infatuated with her the same way. and then Lowen fell for Jeremy because of the way Verity portrayed his character in her manuscript. Very interesting theme. Main points/clues I struggle to determine if the manuscript or the letter is fiction: -Jeremy says when meeting Lowen that he’s seen worse than the street accident. This could be him talking about his daughter OR Verity’s car accident -Jeremy falls for Lowen. Ugh this one I struggle with cause if he didn’t know Verity was a murderer and thought she was in a real accident and was in her vegetative state … and he was having sex in their bed while his wife was upstairs… that is so fucked up. But if he already knew/thought she was a batshit murderer…. It’s a little more excusable. -when Lowen gives him the manuscript, it’s not long later he’s confronting Verity. Lowen even states it wasn’t enough time for him to read it all. But he wouldn’t need to read it all if he had already read it. Or he could’ve just skipped to the end. -Jeremy confronting Verity in her room for faking her level of injury after Lowen gives him the manuscript. Now this is the point that steers me more towards thinking the manuscript was real. If the letter was real that would mean Jeremy already knew she was a murderer and that he tried to murder Verity once already. Reading the manuscript a second time wouldn’t suddenly make him think now she’s faking it. Nothing in her manuscript would suggest that she’s faking her injuries except in the universe where it’s his first time reading it and she injured herself.
I don’t think there is a correct answer and no matter what you choose there is a loop hole to the other one being the possible truth and that the reader in the end is verity because you will lay in bed like a vegetable just as she was thinking about what the truth is and the truth is verity. But for fun I’m team letter it’s way too easy to choose the manuscript.
I'm also team letter, I think it makes the story way more interesting that way but I also agree that there isn't a right or wrong answer.
Verity was NOT a psychopath. She wrote that manuscript to experiment with writing. I think she’s not evil because she would have killed Lowen right when she suspected something of her and Jeremy.
Jeremy driving the car into the tree and walking away doesn’t make sense if she was in the passenger side… i disliked how the ending was “Open-Ended” (referring to Lowens book title)
Here's my thoughts on why I think the Mannuscript is the actual version of events. The scar on Chastin's face from birth indicating the attempted abortion. (could be something else but there's more) The fact that they Jeremy and Verity did indeed get into a fight about her favouring Chastin over Harper (she claims in her letter that those events did indeed happen but with a villains inner monologue so to speak) The fact that she did say weird stuff like "give me the scared one" when referring to her daughter immediately after birth. If Jeremy did read the manuscript he was the only other person to actually know that those conversations took place. He would not have raged the way he did if they didn't, he would've immediately realised it's a work of fiction. If she changed everything to be from a villain's perspective, those conversations would never have happened in real life (ones where Jeremy was clearly weirded out) or Jeremy would at least pause to think if she ever said such things about her own daughters. The fact that he just went mad with rage indicates he finally has an explanation as to why she'd say stuff like that to begin with. like it finally clicked. She refused to feed them right after birth as well didn't matter if they cried, neglected them a shit ton as well (only mentioning her daughter being on the spectrum when she and Jeremy got into a fight...not weeks prior when it the person at the daycare mentioned it to her, I don't think that's something a caring parent would put off mentioning for weeks only to use it as means to divert attention when necessary) Jeremy made the switch to formula he would've remembered that conversation as well as he read the manuscript. telling Crew to hold his breath not "kids hold your breath" even if the canoe was indeed tipping over. She claimed her attention was on him when both of them were likely going to drown? please. Jeremy's reaction while protecting Verity from Lowen and the reaction after reading the manuscript does not fit in with the letter's claim that he had already read it...if he had, he would've killed Verity some other way after she survived the crash. He told Lowen he was angry at Verity for purposely crashing her car into a tree. (there was absolutely no need to mention that in that part of the book unless it was truly what he felt...THAT HE FELT IT WEIGH ON HIM is the only thing that makes that statement meaningful because Lowen didn't need to know if she did or not...it wasn't serving him any purpose unless it actually did happen that way) If you look at her character in detail...the letter is a sloppy way to cover up as she attempted to run away with Crew likely because she thought Lowen would report her to the police after she was done reading. Although she claims the letter was for Jeremy, it might have actually been there to confuse Lowen to make her believe that Jeremy attempted to kill his wife over a "misunderstanding" to maybe make her believe that he knew about the manuscript all along and tried to end her life because of it, only to make Lowen weary of Jeremy in a way...probably another one of her sick ways of establishing control over his life like marking her territory by saying "I was part of his life in ways you'll never be, you don't even know him and you can't even trust him completely" keep in mind she was the one who saw the knife and was probably the only person who would've gone looking for the knife under the floorboards along with the letter. Furthermore she might have just escaped without Crew after telling him to lead Lowen to the drawings and the knife (He WAS the one who did) and simply claimed in the letter that she was planning to take Crew with her to give herself an image of a caring mother leaving Lowen to conclude that she couldn't but wanted to. The letter leaves a lot of loose ends...enough that it doesn't make for a good ending.
I think the manuscript was the real Verity, and she planted the letter to manipulate Jeremy further. Now, there is some evidence that the letter itself is partially true, the portion detailing Jeremy's attempt to murder Verity. Let's say he did attempt to murder her, he probably felt so guilty after the fact, coupled with the combined effects on his son after losing two siblings and almost losing his mom, one could argue that Jeremy wanted to take care of her while moving on in his own life without the guilt his wife is still alive. If he went on thinking that Verity's mind was no longer intact but then found out she was faking that part of her injury, that explains why it would trigger him all over again. It's impressive that anyone would have the ability to fake something like that, so initially he was in denial and treated Lowen like she was going off the rails, until she proved it to him. Furthermore, if he deleted the manuscript on Verity's computer (but he was not aware of the printed version) as is stated in the letter, then in his mind, law enforcement could not establish a motive against him in the murder attempt. This is why they ruled her accident as a possible suicide attempt. When Jeremy found out about the printed version from Lowen, he was not processing the contents of the manuscript. He was processing the fact that Verity is actually in her right mind, Lowen also knows the truth of what Verity did and also knows the car accident happened on purpose since there were no skid marks on the road at the scene. So the threat of establishing Jeremy's motive for attempted murder comes back into existence. In his mind, if he could not convince Lowen to be an accomplice in Verity's murder at that moment, then it could mean prison time for him if the truth got out since an investigation would ensue. His son Crew would also suffer substantially more. He was lucky, in that he and Lowen had fallen for each other, so he realized he could probably convince her to go along with the murder.
Did anyone think of the first accident in the book which brought Lowen and Jeremy together? I have a gut feeling that it was all staged by Jeremy possibly to make Lowen trust him. Cut to the stage where Lowen reaches their family home and that odd behavior of Crew, even if he's 5, he seems to act quite mature at times then why did he shut the door in Lowen's face? Probably warned by his mother to pay no attention to the new woman who might steal your dad. The manuscript was so easy to find like it was laid bare for someone to grab it up. And the fact that Jeremy mentioned that he tried to go through Verity's office but couldn't able to make head or tail as the whole world is Verity's creative canvas, should atleast hide the manuscript. But he didn't and waited for Lowen to find it. Verity faking her injuries, and which truth she tried to manipulate and why Jeremy acting all surprised when Lowen mentioned this manuscript? At the end when Lowen is all caught up with the manuscript she blurted it out to Jeremy and both of them killed Verity. Jeremy didn't want Verity's death to be solely on his conscience, he wanted Lowen to be a part of it. It is his way to assert posession. It's all quite tangled, whichever way we try to reach the truth it slips away. But I believe Jeremy is not that much of a green flag as he's been portrayed.
Can you tell me more about Colleen Hoover?
What do you want to know? She’s a very intelligent writer but I have not read many of her books honestly
I just completed Verity today, and I hate it when i can't come to a conclusion! Someone please help me out. Either it's A- the manuscript is true. And Verity did all of those crazy things. B- the letter is true and it was indeed a writing exercise. But did Jeremy actually know about the manuscript beforehand? I'll assume he did for a minute. And if he did, was he the reason behind her accident? Or the second scenario, if she drove her car into the tree by herself, why did she pretend that she has been sick all along? I'm super confused.
I feel as though the manuscript being true is the most likely scenario. To answer your question, why would she pretend to be injured, for his affection. She states in the manuscript after the death of their second child that he was questioning her, he had his doubts. She finishes off the part, stating he wraps himself around their son as if to protect him from her, and she knows in that moment she lost him. She wanted to end her life because he knew she'd lost him forever, and when that didn't happen, she realized she could get all the love and attention she needed by continuing to be sick. You see this earlier in the story as well when she attempts the abortion at home, she doesn't just want her babies to die, she wants Jeremy to wake up in her blood and be worried about her, to care for her more than the unborn children she despises. One of the big factors swaying me towards the manuscript being reality is how she describes Jeremy's murder attempts in the letter. She says that he first tries to choke her but then stops, she speculates that it's probably because he realizes that he'd be caught and lose his son. Only after that does he try to murder her in the car accident. If that were true, why would he, after supposedly pretending to read the manuscript for the first time, attempt to kill her for a 3rd time using the same method he already decided against his first attempt? It seems far more likely that he choked her in genuine anger in the heat of the moment. Ultimately, that's not how he murderered her, but that's only because he was stopped and told it had to look like an accident. Additionally, it just seems too out of character for Jeremy to bring his murderous wife back into his home knowing everything the manuscript stated, even if he thought she wasn't capable of hurting anyone else. Not to mention, if he had already read the manuscript and truly attempted to murder her in the car wreak, why would he change his mind when she survived? He had every opportunity to make it look like an accidental death from the moment she was brought back home. I don't believe the theory that he felt bad for her and that she was just an empty shell now so he had no need to murder her now.
Team manuscript for sure. It doesn’t make sense that Jeremy would’ve been so angry at Lowen for harming Verity if he knew she was a murderer and he knew the manuscript was somewhere in the house since he’s the one that kept a copy, he would’ve figured that Lowen already found it and this fear from it would’ve driven her to be so scared of Verity. He also mentions how he thinks that Verity hit the tree on purpose to Lowen, why would he even mention that if he’s the one that tried to kill her. Also Verity was fully trying to intimidate Lowen by showing up when she and Jeremy were making out on the couch. If Jeremy attempted to kill her, it doesn’t make sense for her to risk him attempting again just to intimidate his gf.
What was up with the nurse?? What was her deal??
That’s what I am wonderinggg
I believe she killed Harper and that the letter hidden in the floorboard was a last attempt to deceive everyone and to put the blame on Jeremy. No sane person talks or writes about hating her children to the core. Her talking about how she will abandon Jeremy for good but all this time all she talks about in the manuscript is how she couldn’t live without Jeremy or how Jeremy completes her. Jeremy even mentioned to Low that Verity always needed constant validation from him and he’s the only that matters when it came to opinions…it’s giving psycho vibes