Verity discussion

SPOILER ALERT!
This book may be one of the only CoHo books i can appreciate, because it has the best character arc and story
Therefore, the question rises, was Verity truly the villian we read about, or did her letter speak the truth at the end.
I think she was the villain, because what mother would really scream hold your breath to one child and only save one?

I think Verity was the villian. You can't just make up a story like her manuscript without it being somewhat honest. So yes she might have said it was just for a book but honestly I don't believe that.

I think Verity was the villian. I just finished the book but I may have to re-read the ending because I wasn't sure if Verity did it or not? I felt confused.

I definitely think she was the villain. It's possible nothing in that letter was true anyway. She could have written it in hopes of SOMEONE finding it. We don't know for sure if Jeremy ever saw the manuscript before either. No part of me thinks any of that manuscript was a lie to better her writing skills.

I think Verity was 100% the villain. Sure she might have over exaggerated certain things in her manuscript, but to just make all of that up is just highly unrealistic. She definitely did everything she wrote about to some extent, and even if she didn't, just writing that is a little bit disgusting in itself.

Verity was absolutely the villain. She wrote that manuscript and there's just too much detail in it for it to not be true, even if some things were exaggerated. Even in her books, she's the villain. I think she's absolutely crazy, too. How could someone ever do that to their kids? Then, she pretended to be a vegetable. Poor Crew, he's going to be so screwed up later in life. No matter if the manuscript or letter was the truth. He gets hurt either way.

she's definitely the villain. I couldn't be sure about her children but her conscience was totally fucked up

Verity is the villain whether the letter or the manuscript held the truth or not. She went to the extent of pretending to be a vegetable to try to make things "better." But the whole manuscript was messed up on a bunch of different levels.

I think they are both villains. In all honesty, I understand that he thought she killed their kids but man literally drove her into a tree like that is a little sinister as well. I don't have children so I don't understand but I think just being capable of that and also you know murdering her makes him a villain as well.
Verity is a villain.. like trying to kidnap your child and take them away from their father, I get why she wanted to but still. Also pretending to be a vegetable, I agree is sinister in its own way.
They both toxic in different ways.

Verity is the villain! I’m team manuscript all the way. How anyone could save one child and let the other one die…and Crew knew she did it also!
Pretending to be a vegetable? Sick! How traumatic for her child! She taught him it’s ok to lie to his dad and made him help her with that secret.
The book was excellent and verity is a psycho!

Mary-Jane wrote: "SPOILER ALERT!
This book may be one of the only CoHo books i can appreciate, because it has the best character arc and story
Therefore, the question rises, was Verity truly the villian we read abou..."

It's a tricky one, but I don't believe Verity to be the villain in this book. I will admit, Colleen Hoover has me convinced that Verity is a sick, cruel woman (you would have to be to pretend to be as disabled as she did) and for the majority of the book I genuinely believed that Verity was the sole villain, however the plot twist at the end was a massive shock to me - it wrapped up the book really well - and has convinced me otherwise.

I have seen many people debate this, and the main argument for why people debate that Verity must be the true villain is that they believe that only a villain could write the words that Verity did. This can not be true though, unless you believe that Colleen Hoover is also a sick, cruel villain, as she is the master of the words in the book. As a result, it would be wrong to assume that Verity is the villain here solely on this basis.

My belief is that Verity really isn't the sole villain, although I'm not sure that anybody will ever find out the truth. One thing that I am sure of though is that Lowen and Jeremy are definitely villains in this book.

Foxtofferson wrote: "Whether the autobiography is true or not, this woman pretended to be a vegetable, Id say yes to her being a villain, this is manipulative behavior in my opinion. It does seem every character has a ..."
I agree even if she didnt do everything she wrote was it not still wrong to write about it with REAL peoples names, people she was supposed to love? And even playing ded when that wouldnt have even been necesarry if it was made up?

I'm still unsure - hadn't he already read the manuscript before Lowen showed him? It was a bit suss.

I was pleased at all who believed Verity was a villain, probably because I wanted her to be. I wanted Jeremy and Lowen to be vindicated for the choices they made. When I think Verity, I think vindictive.

I think Verity was most definitely the villain because there is no way she came up with all of that, it was way too in-depth and way too descriptive to just be made up. Plus if that was all just a writing exercise as she stated in the letter, why didn't she say something to Jeremy about it beforehand? And why fake being brain-dead for so long? I don't believe she's the only villain though, Jeremy and Lowen definitely are too for the roles they played in the story.

Verity and Jeremy

Even if she didn't kill her kid, she was honestly still the villain. Everything was a game to her and it was literally impossible to know the TRUE her. Every action and word had a hidden motive behind it. I think the characters couldn't have had a better ending.
Honestly though, I think that Lowen and Verity were incredibly similar. I feel like Lowen had so many hidden motives too. I feel like she was trying to paint Verity as the villain, regardless of whether or not she was.

I like that we thought Verity was the villain all along, but then Lowen became just as heinous as Verity, just in a different way.

I think both Verity and Lowen were a villain but I think Verity was more than Lowen. She wanted all the attention on her and there is no why she just came up with what she did to the kids, I mean she was faking her own sickness which is crazy to me just to have Lowens attention again.

Jeremy’s attentions*

I truly thought she was until the very end. It definitely threw me for a loop. I read this a year ago and still think about it from time to time. Part of me believes she might not be, and that her letter was true. But realistically, all three main characters were villains. Verity for lying and hiding the truth, saving one child and letting the other drown. Jeremy, for cheating on his wife in their home and ultimately killing his wife at the end. Lowen for sleeping with a married man in the home that is housing his ill wife. The whole book was a mess, but I loved every second of it!

I think the point of the letter at the end was to leave you with the dilemma of was the manuscript true or not.
Remember Verity was a manipulator, a compulsive liar, and was able to move and walk around. so anything is possible.
It was a five star read for me

Antagonistic journaling my ass; like Lowen said in the beginning "Suddenly, i know, without a doubt, that it's true. A mother wouldn't write that about herself- about her daughters- if it weren't the truth. A mother who never had those feelings or thoughts would never even DREAM of them." And she's right - i mean if we take Jeremy height have been just shocked n that's y he said "where did you find this" n i mean his wife attempted aborting his daughters in her uterus n actually managed to kill one so i mean ofc he wanted her dead

I was so onboard with Verity being the villain, but the letter really shocked me.

On one hand she may be lying because how come she didn't find the manuscript after searching the office from top to bottom but Lowen found it on her first day at the office? And when Jeremy read the manuscript Lowen heard him crying which means it was probably his first time seeing it.

On the other hand, she might have been saying the truth also because Jeremy's first question after seeing the manuscript was 'Where did you find this?' And when he confronted Verity about it her first words were 'Please don't hurt me' as if he had hurt her before(choking her and almost killing her in the accident).

Verity is probably my favourite Collen Hoover book.

yup i'm one hundred percent sure that she is the villian

People you have to understand that verity is guilty of killing Harper and the letter is all made up,because the first hint is the scar on chastins face, I mean if it was some antagonistic journaling bs how could she come up with the abortion attempt for the manuscript unless she actually did it, and there's a freaking scar on one of the twins since she was born, secondly why on Earth would crew bite a freaking knife to escape being questioned about the canoe scene unless, verity did her mind controlling and manipulating sh*t to him, thirdly I looked it up Harper couldn't have been "trapped" by the fishing net cause if the net was made out of lead it would have sunk right away and if it's made out of idk nylon then water would have logged in and it would have sunk since it had spent a year in the lake, and seriously if verity wanted to save her dear daughter she could have while she is splashing water around attempting to breath and not when she got to the bottom of the lake,and tbh what kind of mother would entertain the idea of killing her twins

I always wondered that whether verity is really the Villian. i don't know but i always found jeremy's character more disturbing. like he's so Damn okay with everything, his wife's condition , his daughters dead etc.. and Later when he found out what verity did he just decided to get rid of her. like what the heck!! no second thoughts or anything.And if you guys are aware of the bonus chapter then that also added into my suspicision. like he just killed another person without any hesitation and i found it extremely Odd!!!! And his Actions are Kind of similar to what was written in manuscript.what if he wrote the manuscript and later on wrote the letter as well. like what if he actually got rid of the real manuscript of Verity. And what if Jeremy actually always wanted to kill verity but couldn't.

Team Manuscript! It's Verity who's the villain, and I can sense that she's honest on her manuscript, but Jeremy's also a total douchebag.

Finished reading this weekend. Hard to put down book but unsatisfying in so many ways....definitely think Verity is the villian, and her letter at the end was all a lie. She manipulated & lied to everyone & anyone. Most disappointing character is Lowen....expected her to pack her bags & leave & she never did. In her own way, became Verity2, pregnant with Jeremy's daughter & helped Jeremy murder Verity & cover it up. Jeremy, so likable in the beginning, became unlikable as the story moved on. He seemed completely removed from how Verity was treating their baby girls, ie when she was sleeping all day and letting them cry it it out, etc. He is as messed up as his wife was!

Think it would have been interesting to understand why Verity was evil...was she born pathological or was she raised by mentally ill parents, etc? Same with more background details on Jeremy...why did he settle for such an isolated existence with Verity? Aside from their active sex life, they lived in a very small narrow world. Ended up not liking any of the book characters except Chastin, Harper and Crew!

I believe Verity was definitely the person she wrote about in the autobiography.. A mother could never right the horrible things she wrote and kept writing IF IT WASNT TRUE?!.. For experimental purposes to help writers? I think not. Why would you write something so horrific, that could possible be found by someone IF IT WASNT TRUE?!.. #TeamManuscript! I just wished Lowen stayed true to herself and stopped thinking about Verity. Oh and Crew, he obviously inherited some of the psychopathic behaviors from his mother.

I think verity did it.

Why should someone be forced to draw a sharp line between a hero and a villain, for God's sake?! Especially nowadays this is becoming more and impossible.

I mean if the author herself leaves it to the readers to evaluate...
I felt sorry for Verity. She just pushed her lie too far.

jeremy definitely killed the turtle

I believe that Verity is the villain 100%. I just feel bad for the kids, especially Crew. This poor boy literally couldn't tell anyone about what his mom was saying to him. He was too nervous to tell anyone that he cut his mouth with a knife to stop himself from talking. I think she manipulated her own 5-year-old kid so she could still have Jeremy in her life. I don't believe the letter at the end at all and I fully support Lowen flushing it.

I think verity is not a villain because the moment Jeremy tried to kill her ,she knew he won’t love her so she could have taken the money and ran off alone but she didn’t cause she want to take her son with her.in the end she also loves her kids the most so she is not a villain.

I am pretty sure she has

Verity was definitely the villain. It wouldn't make sense for her to fake the illness if she wasn't truly a monster.

I think Verity was the villain, if not fully then she was definitely sick and twisted like one. No one can come up with that type of manuscript and go on living normally, no SANE person could've written what she did. I don't think it was just a play, those were her children she wrote about. Verity is the villain.

Claire wrote: "I think Verity was the villian. You can't just make up a story like her manuscript without it being somewhat honest. So yes she might have said it was just for a book but honestly I don't believe t..."

Horror writers do it all the time, though. I don't believe Stephen King, for example, is a twisted killer. Granted, he didn't write about his children.

Look im just saying in her letter she says that he crashed the car with her in the passenger seat! If that was the case he would be a suspect no one would think she did it herself or it was an accident because why I might ask was the damage in the car on the passenger side if she was found in the drive. Drops mic walks off stage!

Great read! I just finished it. I do not believe Verity to be the sole villain in this book.... In fact there are 3 villains. Verity, Lowen, and Jeremy each are villains in their own way.

Do I believe that Verity did the things that the autobiography outlined?? My answer to that is no. She was perfecting her writing craft by learning to write in a more sinister style to help her growing literary career.

Did Jeremy know about the autobiography before it was given to him by Lowen.....yes!! Why was his reaction so exaggerated given that he did know about the autobiography already...? I don't think he reacted because of what he re-read; I think he reacted more to the fact that Verity was pretending to be a bed-ridden vegetable, and the guilt he probably felt, knowing that he has caused her to be in that state, was finally released again.

Lowen- just villainous in so many ways. Adultery happens....but really.... in the woman's house with her just up the stairs???? Have some morals....Just wrong!! She wanted Verity out of the picture the moment she moved into that house. So of course, she didn't hesitate to assist with the murder. She secured her meal ticket with her own "baby on board" anyway.

Again great read!! :)

I once saw a very interesting theory on tiktok about this.
A therapist had read this book, she indicated that she thinks Jeremy wrote the manuscript instead of Verity. If you think about it it makes quite a bit of sense, in the manuscript Jeremy is portrayed as a perfect man and his bedside achievements are also highlighted very well, especially after I had read the bonus chapter I am convinced that Jeremy is the villain.

Tanisha wrote: "I always wondered that whether verity is really the Villian. i don't know but i always found jeremy's character more disturbing. like he's so Damn okay with everything, his wife's condition , his d..."
Wow that sure is a different angle! A definite possibility. I would never have thought of that, but it does make a lot of sense.

Verity was 100% the killer!
The baby monitor part had me freaked! I live alone, luckily in a building block with friends! BUT OMG, we had some intense discussions as to whether or not she was or wasn't the psycho, but we all agreed at the end she was, especially when it came to the part of her telling her son to hold his breath and her son having signs of some very disturbing behaviour.

Deborah wrote: "People you have to understand that verity is guilty of killing Harper and the letter is all made up,because the first hint is the scar on chastins face, I mean if it was some antagonistic journalin..."

YES FINALLY! Someone mentioned the scar!! Totally agree. The manuscript is just too telling.

That letter was another manipulation tactic in the end because she knew she was close to being caught. By that point, she knew Low saw her angrily watching them on the couch. She was messing with Low by muting the television when no one was around. She had a knife hidden in the floorboards for no reason. A mother desperate to flee unnoticed wouldn’t have done that. And there was no other explanation for Chastin’s deep scar. Verity knew she was about to get called out by Low and in turn caught by Jeremy, so it was her way of trying to manipulate him again.

I think either way if Verity was telling the truth or not, what we need to be looking at is Jeremy. he either killed his innocent wife, or he became as evil as Verity to kill her in cold blood and not even hear what she had to say. Any sane person would have turned her in with the manuscript, instead of killing her. Which definitely leads to Jeremy being more guilty because why wouldn’t he just do that?

If he’s such a good guy and “gentle” even in his anger as described with Lowen throwing her on the bed, then how can he become a killer just like that? Him being good dad does not justify premeditated murder of the mother of his children. If your kids lives are in danger and you’re NOT a murderer, you would call the cops immediately. I think that’s all we really need to know.

The theory of Jeremy writing the manuscript actually makes sense, because if Verity was the villain i don’t know why she would speak so highly of him especially in bed, if she was the dominant one. Her view of Jeremy doesn’t really make sense if she was a psychopath (it sounds more like severe BPD) which is funny because Lowen pointed that out in the beginning, and it was never mentioned again. Very interesting. I see you, Colleen.

The ending letter was Verity trying to mess with Jeremy. Don’t forget her parents won’t speak to her and said she was evil. Sounds like she always had problems. If she was scared of Jeremy she had plenty of opportunity to leave with crew.

I still think that Verity is still the villain. To fake being sick and not all there the whole time is just not normal. it's kinda psychotic just like the way she sounded in her autobiography. i also truly don't think she loved her other daughter Harper. she could have done more before seeing her own child pass away. I dont believe one bit that Jeremy put her in the car for the car accident. or that he already knew about the autobiography. none of that made clear sense to me.

i feel that since verity already saw lowen in the house being with her husband she wrote the letter in hopes that lowen would see it. and maybe be mad and end things with Jeremey.

Grateful for this thread because I really didn't like that final twist in the book. I hate books that don't have clarity and closure and I believe this twist was meant to force the reader to decide for themselves. But I am glad I am not alone that Verity is the villain. I don't believe even the most dedicated writer could write the things she did about her pregnancy and children without there being some truth to it. Also, while I REALLY like Jeremy, he lost some points with me for the fact that he continued to care for his wife with the knowledge he had from the manuscript. I would have loved some clarity on that. Is it terrible that I wanted Lowen and Jeremy to test Verity by showing affection/intimacy in front of her? And that is also a reason I believe her to be a villain due to the faking of her injuries. REALLY enjoyed the book until the final twist.