The Verity film removed one of the Crawford children from Colleen Hoover’s original book

If you’ve read Colleen Hoover’s book Verity, you’ll know the Crawford family tree is already pretty complicated.

When the psychological thriller made its way from the page to the big screen, one member of the family was erased from the story altogether.

Via Amazon MGM

The Verity movie has arrived with plenty of the sinister secrets, suspicious behaviour and huge twists that made Hoover’s novel such a BookTok favourite. However, director Michael Showalter made one significant change when adapting the story: There are fewer Crawford children.

In the book, Lowen arrives at the Crawford family home after Verity has been involved in a serious accident. The family has already been through another devastating loss, having recently lost both of their daughters.

First, Chastin dies after suffering an allergic reaction to peanuts at a sleepover. Six months later, her twin sister Harper dies in a boating accident.

Via Amazon MGM

Things get even darker when Lowen searches Verity’s office and discovers what appears to be an unfinished memoir. The manuscript contains a confession in which Verity admits she resented the attention her daughters received from her husband.

She reveals that she preferred Chastin to Harper and blamed Harper for her sister’s death, as the girls had been together at the sleepover when Chastin died. Verity then admits to taking Harper and her younger son Crew out on a boat and deliberately tipping it over. Crew survived because he could swim, while Harper drowned.

The film simplifies the Crawford family by removing Chastin entirely.

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Instead, the movie has Verity and Jeremy with just two children: Twins Harper and Crew. Verity still resents the children for taking her husband’s attention away from her, but in this version, she plans to kill both of them during the boat trip.

Via Amazon MGM

Crew manages to survive, while Harper dies. So why did the adaptation ditch one of the Crawford children?

Hoover herself has explained that the decision actually helped the story work better on screen.

Speaking to Variety, she said: “I think that that was actually a really good change. I had read all the versions of the script before you had even come onboard, and I remember them asking us to remove one of the children because it felt different due to the time allotted on film, and it gave the story a different vibe that was almost too dark and unrealistic.

“I was nervous about that, but when I read the next version of the script I was like, oh, that’s the best change we could have made. I am very open to changes, and I think readers are too when it comes to thrillers as opposed to romance.”

Basically, even Colleen Hoover thought the Crawford family had suffered enough.

The change also means the film has fewer tragic accidents to explain while keeping the central mystery surrounding Verity and her children intact. 

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Featured image via Amazon MGM