A Recap of Colleen Hoover's 'Verity' Extra Chapter (2024)
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Conn chapter.
[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?
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 circ*mstances, 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.
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.
The biggest reveal in the letter was that, prior to the events of the book, Jeremy had found Verity's manuscript and tried to kill her, framing it as an accident. There was no hint of Jeremy's flaws in the manuscript, likely because Verity's biases bled into it.
Was Verity ever telling the truth? Another Colleen Hoover novel is coming to the big screen. Hoover's bestselling thriller "Verity" is currently in development at Amazon MGM Studios, the Hollywood Reporter reported.
Shelby Trautman 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.
At the end of the novel, Jeremy, Crew, and a pregnant Lowen are in the process of moving out of the Vermont house to start a new life in North Carolina.
It turns out that Verity has been faking her injuries and Jeremy, in a fit of rage, kills Verity with Lowen's approval. Lowen later finds a letter in the room from Verity addressed to Jeremy explaining that the whole autobiography was just a writing exercise, not to be taken seriously.
Lowen coached Jeremy how to kill her so that it would look like she choked on her own vomit. That's a lot to take in, but the pace of the novel only quickens. Fast-forward seven months, and Verity's killers — Jeremy and Lowen — are living happily ever after, about to welcome a baby girl.
When Lowen finds the manuscript of So Be It, Verity's secret autobiography, the truth of her situation becomes even more tangled. The autobiography paints Verity as a psychopathic killer, while the letter she leaves for Jeremy at the end denies all the events in it, and shows her to be a loving mother and devoted wife.
Events ensue and ultimately it comes out – Verity has been faking the extent of her injuries and Jeremy kills her by asphyxiating her in a similar manner that she described trying to kill Harper as a baby.
The novel's protagonist and a struggling author. Lowen is an attractive woman in her early thirties who is not particularly sure of herself. Her self-possession grows as the novel progresses, as do her sexual appetites and her fear of the truths hidden in the Vermont house.
While Hoover self-published Verity in 2018, Grand Central Publishing acquired the novel in 2021. The book spent 103 weeks on The New York Times Best Sellers list and in 2023, more than one million copies were sold.
In this new chapter, more things were revealed about Verity's husband, Jeremy, who is now romantically involved with Lowen. Lowen and Jeremy had another baby girl and moved away with his and Verity's son after Verity's murder, which was covered up as her passing in her sleep.
Jeremy extends an offer to lock Lowen into her room at night from the outside. He promises that he will let her out if she calls. April, the nurse, catches them speaking intimately to each other in the hallway and Lowen feels humiliated.
It turns out that Verity has been faking her injuries and Jeremy, in a fit of rage, kills Verity with Lowen's approval. Lowen later finds a letter in the room from Verity addressed to Jeremy explaining that the whole autobiography was just a writing exercise, not to be taken seriously.
Introduction: My name is Kimberely Baumbach CPA, I am a gorgeous, bright, charming, encouraging, zealous, lively, good person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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