Frances asked this question about
Verity:
Thoughts on the ending?
Marjorie
I think the letter was true. It sounded more like something a real person would write. It just seemed more authentic, while the manuscript was so over…moreI think the letter was true. It sounded more like something a real person would write. It just seemed more authentic, while the manuscript was so over the top that it seemed more like fiction or melodrama.
Before getting to the ending, I had already stared having some doubts about the manuscript. I thought that maybe Jeremy had written it and planted it in Verity's office so that Lowen would read it. I thought maybe he was the one who had killed the girls. I was expecting a plot twist, just not exactly the one that we got.
Lowen comes across as likable because she's the narrator of the book and we're seeing things through her eyes, but there are hints along the way that there may be something sinister about her. Why was her mother so afraid of her? Why did she end up in Verity's bed while sleepwalking? Why was Lowen so scared of her own capacity for doing something evil while sleepwalking? She says her therapist told her that her actions while sleepwalking and her intentions were not connected, but she doesn't really seem convinced. She seems afraid of herself! Maybe we should be afraid of her too.
I'm less sure of what's going on with Jeremy. I think he pretended that he hadn't read the manuscript because he saw an opportunity to get Lowen to help him finally kill his wife. I think, as the letter says, that he did try twice before. Maybe it became harder to try again once she was back in the house with an attendant.
Looking at it this way isn't a perfect fit. There are some holes. But I guess I just don't believe that someone could be the extreme psychopath that Verity was portrayed as being in the manuscript without anyone noticing in real life. And I feel there were just too many clues to sinister things going on with Lowen underneath the surface.
And then the way she tore up the letter at the end confirmed that for me. She was willing to live a lie and cover up a murder to have her perfect life with Jeremy. She was the psychopath who was obsessed with Jeremy -- not the fictional Verity in the manuscript.
Edited to add: I just thought of something. Maybe the whole book was "antagonistic journaling" -- on the part of Colleen Hoover! The character Lowen was similar, in some ways to Colleen. They were both writers and they both wrote suspense novels. But in other ways, Lowen was the opposite. Lowen's mother feared her and tried to limit her. Colleen's mother supports and encourages her. Lowen was a loner. Colleen has lots of people who love, help, and support her. The editor, Amanda, (at least as described in the letter) said that Verity should take events from her own life but make her inner dialogue sinister, the opposite of what she was actually thinking. Maybe Colleen Hoover was doing the same -- writing events or experiences for Lowen that were similar to what Hoover herself had experienced, but with a sinister spin -- turning Lowen into Colleen's twisted alter-ego.(less)
Before getting to the ending, I had already stared having some doubts about the manuscript. I thought that maybe Jeremy had written it and planted it in Verity's office so that Lowen would read it. I thought maybe he was the one who had killed the girls. I was expecting a plot twist, just not exactly the one that we got.
Lowen comes across as likable because she's the narrator of the book and we're seeing things through her eyes, but there are hints along the way that there may be something sinister about her. Why was her mother so afraid of her? Why did she end up in Verity's bed while sleepwalking? Why was Lowen so scared of her own capacity for doing something evil while sleepwalking? She says her therapist told her that her actions while sleepwalking and her intentions were not connected, but she doesn't really seem convinced. She seems afraid of herself! Maybe we should be afraid of her too.
I'm less sure of what's going on with Jeremy. I think he pretended that he hadn't read the manuscript because he saw an opportunity to get Lowen to help him finally kill his wife. I think, as the letter says, that he did try twice before. Maybe it became harder to try again once she was back in the house with an attendant.
Looking at it this way isn't a perfect fit. There are some holes. But I guess I just don't believe that someone could be the extreme psychopath that Verity was portrayed as being in the manuscript without anyone noticing in real life. And I feel there were just too many clues to sinister things going on with Lowen underneath the surface.
And then the way she tore up the letter at the end confirmed that for me. She was willing to live a lie and cover up a murder to have her perfect life with Jeremy. She was the psychopath who was obsessed with Jeremy -- not the fictional Verity in the manuscript.
Edited to add: I just thought of something. Maybe the whole book was "antagonistic journaling" -- on the part of Colleen Hoover! The character Lowen was similar, in some ways to Colleen. They were both writers and they both wrote suspense novels. But in other ways, Lowen was the opposite. Lowen's mother feared her and tried to limit her. Colleen's mother supports and encourages her. Lowen was a loner. Colleen has lots of people who love, help, and support her. The editor, Amanda, (at least as described in the letter) said that Verity should take events from her own life but make her inner dialogue sinister, the opposite of what she was actually thinking. Maybe Colleen Hoover was doing the same -- writing events or experiences for Lowen that were similar to what Hoover herself had experienced, but with a sinister spin -- turning Lowen into Colleen's twisted alter-ego.(less)
by
Colleen Hoover (Goodreads Author)
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