It’s a new month and the Camden Book Club Pick is Verity by Colleen Hoover.
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer. On the way to a meeting, she sees a man get run over by a truck. At the scene, she meets a real estate agent named Jeremy. They instantly bond over the trauma. He reveals he had to pull his daughter’s body out of a lake five months previously. Upon reaching her meeting, Lowen realises that Jeremy is going to the same meeting as her and learns not only is he married, his wife is Verity Crawford.
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Lowen Ashleigh Is The Next Verity Crawford
In her narration, Lowen explains that she and the publisher, Corey, had been in a sexual relationship that recently ended. It turns out that Lowen loves to write, but doesn’t like talking to the public about her work.
To complete each book of three, Lowen would receive $75k. It’s better than anything else she has gotten for her other books. She declines the offer, but Jeremy convinces her to take it. He says Verity was a fan of hers as their writing styles were similar. He also states that he is willing to pay her half a million and that he’ll make sure she won’t have to do press.
Corey becomes concerned when Lowen says she’ll consider the offer that Jeremy gave her. What’s more, he has every right to be concerned, given that the Crawfords have been plagued with constant tragedy.
Jeremy and Verity had two daughters. One died after having an allergic reaction and the other, as mentioned before, drowned in a lake five months earlier. Then Verity is involved in a car accident where she hit a tree. However, there were no skid marks on the road.
Living Up To Verity
Lowen signs the contract to complete Verity’s series and ends up listening to the audiobook of the first one. She also questions how authors can have so much confidence in their work. It becomes apparent quickly that she’s very cynical of herself. She also doesn’t care about being famous or being rich. All she wants is enough money to live.
Upon arriving at the Crawford family’s house, Lowen meets Crew, Verity and Jeremy’s only surviving child. Jeremy also takes her to meet the vegetable that is Verity.
Jeremy then takes Lowen into his wife’s office where nothing is organised.
After Jeremy leaves, Lowen starts going through boxes of research but ends up finding parts of an autobiography.
Trouble In Paradise?
Verity reveals that she met Jeremy at a charity event in a dress that made her desirable. At the time, she was a struggling author. It is implied that she blames her husband for her misfortunes.
She recounts her first meeting with her husband and how they spent three days having sex between eating and watching television. As Verity continues to recount the early days of her relationship with Jeremy, it becomes apparent that something happened between them.
When Lowen exits Verity’s soundproof office, she hears the creaking of Verity’s bed, indicating that Jeremy is having sex with her, while she is a virtual vegetable, hence not giving her consent. However, it is not want Lowen thinks.
Jeremy says that the creaking is his wife’s hospital-grade bed, which is set up to lift parts of the mattress every two hours.
Jeremy Recounts Meeting His Wife And Verity Creates Her Own Version Of Jeremy
Over leftover pizza, Lowen quizzes Jeremy on how he met Verity, being careful not to let on that she already knows. He mentions his daughters in the present tense and has to correct himself.
Lowen learns that Verity loves the spotlight, yet Jeremy doesn’t and prefers to be with the kids.
Taking the manuscript back to the bedroom with her, Lowen reads another chapter where more intimate details of Jeremy and Verity’s sex life is revealed, including how the bite marks ended up on the headboard of her bed.
It is also revealed that it was Jeremy who encouraged Verity to publish her first book. The night they got engaged was also the night they conceived their daughters.
Verity also warns this is the last time things will be light and fluffy.
Lowen Agrees To Move In When Weird Things Start To Happen
After being rejected for the apartment she applied for due to her eviction, Jeremy offers Lowen a place to stay. While she turns him down, he won’t take no for an answer as he overheard the conversation she’d had with the landlord on the phone.
Giving her an additional two weeks would give Lowen enough time to go through the information Verity has put together over the years.
Watching Crew and Jeremy, Lowen notices the little boy looking up and waving at his mother’s bedroom window. Confused, Lowen remembers what the nurse said about leaving Verity’s TV on. Going up to the room, she notices that the fan is blowing the curtain. While she breathes a sigh of relief, her heart is in her throat again to find that the television is off.
Lowen reassures herself by reading another chapter of Verity’s autobiography. She finds that Verity was very body conscious so being pregnant was hit to her perfect body. It almost sounds like Verity blamed the babies growing inside her for that loss and for “stealing” Jeremy away from her. Also, she secretly hoped for a miscarriage because she wanted her then-financée’s attention to be on her. She was jealous of her own unborn babies. Verity even tried to force a miscarriage.
Verity’s Hatred For Her Daughters
Lowen is left shaken by what she reads. She questions what type of mother would hate her children so much. It even makes her wonder how the girls actually died. It’s not until she’s sitting with Jeremy at the kitchen table and Crew jumping onto his father’s lap does she questions whether Verity hated her son too.
Upon a trip to the supermarket, Jeremy introduces Lowen to two of Verity’s snooty friends, Patricia and Caroline. She also watches an epic burn when Jeremy “accidentally” mentions one of the women’s lovers rather than her husband.
It takes a couple of days for Lowen to get back to the manuscript. Verity refers to the girls as babies as “things” like they’re pieces of trash she can’t get rid of. She is more concerned about her breasts than her daughters when they start feeding for the first time.
Lowen appears to see the evidence that Verity is vain and more in love with Jeremy and having him to herself than their children. When Jeremy returned to work, Verity would allow them to cry it out during the day and then care for them as he was walking through the door.
Psychopath?
Lowen begins to fantasise about Jeremy due to his kindness towards her. To relieve herself of this, she reads another chapter of the autobiography where she gets another sex scene from Verity.
It begins to dawn on Lowen that Verity might be a psychopath. She then has an episode where she envisions herself in Verity’s bed.
Lowen explains to Jeremy that she has had issues with sleepwalking since she was 10 and that her mother was scared of her. Jeremy then suggests putting a lock on the outside of the door, rather than the inside. She then reads another chapter of Verity’s autobiography and learns that Chastin, the twin with the scarred cheek from the attempted abortion, became her mother’s favourite. Harper was hated.
Verity’s favouritism towards Chastin is triggered by a vision she has of the baby at an older age dying. She blames Harper and tries to kill her by forcing her to choke.
Lowen learns while watching the meteor shower with Jeremy that Verity didn’t read her book. He had.
The Diagnosis
Lowen learns by reading yet another chapter of the autobiography that Harper was tested for autism. She also finds out why Verity favoured Chastin which was because she thought she was smarter than Harper.
Verity also lies about being pregnant to end a fight she and Jeremy were having. Not long after this, she learns she’s pregnant for real with Crew.
Lowen skims several more chapters and finds it repetitive as all Verity talks about is sex with Jeremy. The kids are only mentioned a handful of times. There are only a couple of sentences about Crew’s birth.
Jeremy then caves and starts making out with Lowen and is about to have sex with her when she pushes him off her and claims she saw Verity standing at the top of the stairs. Just the look on Lowen’s face tells him she’s telling the truth. He bolts up to his wife’s room and finds her in bed, asleep.
Could Verity Be Faking?
Panicked, Lowen questions if Verity could be faking her injuries. Jeremy assures her that he saw the scans and there is no way that Verity could fake it.
Jeremy is still unaware of the type of person his wife truly is, leading to Lowen wanting to tell him about what she knows.
The manuscript reveals that Chasten died of anaphylaxis after she, Harper and their friend Maria had snuck into the pantry during a sleepover and taken snacks that contained nuts.
Verity still believes that Harper killed her sister and it becomes apparent in that moment that she hated her surviving daughter. She even thought up a dozen ways to kill her.
Lowen decides to test if Verity is faking by throwing a wooden ball in her direction. She doesn’t flinch.
Jeremy and Lowen finally sleep together.
The next morning, Jeremy and Lowen realise they’ve been locked in the master bedroom as there is a lock on the other side of the door. Lowen’s concern is for Crew who could have been taken by his mother.
The Day Harper Dies
In another chapter of the autobiography, Verity reveals what happened the day Harper dies. Chastin had been dead six months to the day and their mother had built up a torrent of resentment towards Harper, still blaming her for ‘murdering’ her favourite child.
With Jeremy busy, he recommends that Verity take Harper and Crew outside. She takes them down to the rickety dock. She even fantasises about both the kids dying, and wanting her husband back to herself. Instead, her mind settles on ‘getting rid’ of Harper so it is just her, Jeremy and Crew.
She takes the kids out in the canoe to the middle of the lake. Verity then pushes all of her weight to one side and allows Harper to fall into the water. The little girl screams. Her mother does nothing to save her as she pulls a screaming Crew back to shore.
Verity believes in her mind that Jeremy will thank her for making them a family of three. She’s not even remorseful.
The Coming
Lowen is shocked and appalled to the point she takes a Xanex with alcohol which knocks her out. When she awakens, Jeremy reveals he has found a care facility that will care for Verity to the point where she can come home three weekends a month.
Sitting in the kitchen with Crew, Lowen asks him questions about the day Harper died. She asks about the canoe. He responds that his mother doesn’t want him telling Lowen anything. Crew then cuts his mouth on the butter knife he’s licking. Jeremy takes him to the hospital while Lowen is forced to remain behind with Verity.
Lowen remembers the baby monitor that she saw in the basement when she was helping Jeremy with the fish tank. Despite her fear, she goes down and grabs it, before setting it up.
As she waits, Lowen grabs the last chapter of Verity’s manuscript and continues to read.
Verity was interviewed by the police twice and lied about what happened with Harper. She claims Harper leaned over the side of the canoe, prompting it to tip over. She even silently applauds herself for putting on such a good act.
Jeremy Questions Verity About Harper’s Death
A few days after Harper’s death, Jeremy, Verity and Crew sleep together as a way of grieving. He questions why the kids weren’t wearing life vest and if she knew the canoe would tip over. As they lay together, there is one more question.
Jeremy asks why Verity told Crew to hold his breath. It’s in this moment that Verity realises he’s suspicious. She knows how dedicated he is to the kids and that he would hold their opinions above hers.
After going to her office, Verity decides what she’s going to do.
Lowen finishes the manuscript just as Jeremy arrives home. She realises now that he suspected his wife killed Harper. As she heads back to the office with a cup of coffee, she checks the monitor to find Verity on her hands and knees on the floor.
Jeremy pulls Lowen from the room and orders her to leave the house. Lowen tells him Verity has been lying to him since the day she met him. Then, Lowen gives him the manuscript and has him read the last two chapters. He then goes to confront his wife.
Verity stops playing the comatose victim. Jeremy is so shocked, that he tries to kill her, but Lowen stops him, making him think about Crew. Verity does not deserve to live after what she did to Harper. Lowen tells Jeremy they need to make his wife’s death look like an accident.
They then come up with a plan for what to do next. Jeremy and Lowen agree that they’ll call the police in the morning and claim Verity died in her sleep.
Ending
Seven months pass and Lowen and Jeremy are together, expecting a child, having conceived before Verity’s death.
Verity’s death is believed, by the public, to have happened in her sleep. The only people who know the truth are Lowen and Jeremy.
Thanks to the advance from the novels Lowen has to complete and Verity’s life insurance, they have enough money to buy a house in South Carolina, away from Vermont, where so many terrible memories happened.
Two months before the baby is born, Lowen, Crew and Jeremy return to Vermont to finish clearing out the house. Crew runs into the room that used to be his mother’s, revealing that she would hide things under the floor as she kept his drawings there.
Lowen finds the knife that Crew cut himself with and a handwritten letter addressed to Jeremy, basically blaming him for everything. Verity explains in her letter that she was told by her editor to get into the headspace of a villain, by writing evil journal entries. She also wanted to take Crew away from him and that Harper’s death was an accident.
The letter continues. Apparently, Jeremy had read the manuscript and he flew into rage so blinding that he doesn’t remember it. Also, he almost killed Verity. She woke up in her car with her mouth taped and hands tied.
Jeremy then put her in the driver’s seat and waited for the police to notify him she had died.
Panic
Upon reading the letter, Lowen panics believing she just helped Jeremy murder his wife. It is a secret she will take to her grave.
Themes Of The Book
To end this book club post, the themes of this book are abuse of position, cheating, infanticide, attempted murder and homicide.
