What’s Up With the Ending?

For a book that's all about Vera and Charlie's relationship, it might seem weird or jarring that the last chapter ends with Vera taking a road trip with her dad. They both put on labels about their worst traits on their backs—Vera is the daughter of a stripper, and her dad is a cheapskate—because they no longer care what people think about them anymore. Eventually those signs come off:

I see it as symbolic. The label no longer fits. His emotional parsimoniousness just got sucked away by the beautiful blue sky. I lean forward and reach my hand behind my back, then take my sign off, and I toss it out the window too. I am no longer an ex-stripper's daughter, either. I have gone from invisible Vera Dietz to invincible Vera Dietz. (5.14.7)

The end is the first time that we see Vera truly free from the burdens that have haunted her throughout the book, including her own ideas about herself. She's free to be who she is without worrying about what other people think of her, or how her family plays a role in her "fate." Vera's ready to carve her own path.