[Editor’s Note: the following contains spoilers from Colleen Hoover’s Verity]
If you haven’t read the recently released “extra chapter” of Verity by Colleen Hoover and are planning on it, I highly recommend doing so. If reading the entire extra chapter does not interest you, but you are curious of what it entails, I have summarized some major plot points and details below in Q&A style.
Refresh on where the original chapters of Verity ended: The original ending of Verity left readers still torn between team manuscript and team letter. Lowen revealed Verity’s secret haunting manuscript that seemed like a dark and horror filled autobiography. After the passing of Verity, Lowen and Jeremy seem to take on the next chapter of their lives together, expecting a baby on the way. With everything that Verity, Jeremy, and now Lowen have gone through, it’s difficult to believe that there will be a happily ever after. Or will there be?
Did lowen have her baby?
Lowen did in fact have her baby, Nova, with Jeremy. The extra chapter focuses on Lowen’s insecurities of her postpartum body and frequent comparison of her own physical and sexual appearance to Verity’s. Hoover illustrates Lowen’s internal thoughts to emphasize how she feels like she is always in competition with Verity, even when she is gone. Lowen is drowned in thoughts of how she can be even a better partner for Jeremy than Verity was, even after the end of his tragic marriage.
Where are Lowen and Jeremy now?
Lowen and Jeremy moved away to a coastal town in North Carolina. They decided to move further away from the New England area to avoid any contact with people they know.
What is THe state of their relationship?
Lowen and Jeremy are still very much “together” since they have built their own family. However, another reason why they decided to move further south is to avoid people recognizing and seeing them together as a couple. With all the tragedies in the old Vermont house, including the children and Verity, Lowen and Jeremy as a couple raise suspicions in anyone that knows of them. Crew, Jeremy, and Verity’s son all have difficulty bonding with Lowen. Lowen feels Crew is distant which is another reason why she feels insecure, being in this family.
Are there any major incidents in this timeline?
The major twist of the “extra chapter” shined some character’s true colors and may have given us some clarity on whether to be “team manuscript” or “team letter.” Picture this: Lowen, Jeremy, Crew, and Nova spending some time at the beach on a colder day. As Jeremy goes on a run, a woman casually strolls by Lowen and recognizes her because she recognized Crew first. The woman was a local from their old quaint VT town. Lowen feels uneasy, but Jeremy soon comes back. Him and the woman exchange words before Lowen and him rush to leave. And the rest lies the twist. Jeremy may have shone his true colors because he proceeded to murder the women in the “extra chapter’s” following scene.
“Team Manuscript” or “team letter”?
Reading this scene had me questioning Jeremy’s sanity and if he is not so innocent as he seemed in the past. This overreaction to being spotted with Lowen was rather unexpected. Considering the circumstances, seeing someone you recognize after being in an incriminating situation would usually cause someone to feel at least a little uncomfortable. Starting a new family in a new place is just what Jeremy wanted, so he tries to get rid of any instance of the past, quite literally.
So, seeing how Jeremy is rather not the most sane person on Earth, the manuscript started to feel questionable. At the end of the day, I am still “team manuscript.” From a personal perspective, it was difficult understanding how Verity could even “make up” her horrific thoughts and actions, like harming her own children and denying them ever being true. I fully believe that both Jeremy and Verity were two unstable people that were bound to bring each other down, and unfortunately their children had to suffer.