You: A Novel (1) (The You Series)

"You" is one of the creepiest and best stories I’ve read in a long time. "You" is the story about you. You’re Guinevere Beck, but you just go by “Beck.” You’re an MFA student and a writer (sometimes, when you’re not busy re-watching Pitch Perfect). You stop into Joe Goldberg’s bookstore one day and he’s immediately attracted to you—as you are to him. He’s charming and always seems to know all the right things to say. He’s smart and savvy even though he never went to college. He reads all the best books, and he’s always in the right place at the right time. If only you weren’t so wrapped up in your on-again-off-again fling with that one awful guy, then maybe you could see that you’re perfect for Joe, and vice versa. Because Joe would never let you down. He sees you and only you—pretty much 24/7. Because what you don’t know is that Joe is watching you, gathering information about you, reading your e-mails, spying in your windows, and discovering everything he needs to know to prove to you that he’s your perfect man. And the more you see him, the more you start to believe that he is the one for you. But with Joe in your life, disaster seems to follow you everywhere, and you can’t help but start to wonder why. Appropriately written in the second person, "You" is told from Joe Goldberg’s perspective as he digs himself into Beck’s life. Even as early as chapter two, it starts to become clear how sick Joe is—how much deeper his obsession goes than a little Facebook stalking. He quickly settles into more than questionable maneuvers to work out where she is, what she’s doing, whom she’s contacting, and why. And whenever you think he’s reached his peak, there’s always shockingly more to come. And worse, as the reader, you almost want him to get away with it. There were a few plausibility issues in this book, some of which I won’t list to avoid spoiling parts of the plot, but what it amounts to is this: everything is all too convenient for Joe. For example, when he manages to steal Beck’s phone early in the novel so that he can read her messages and check her e-mail, Beck never deactivates the phone, so he can keep using it as long as he wants. And not only that—Beck just so happens to use e-mail as her primary mode of conversation between friends rather than texting, so Joe can always spy on her with ease. How helpful. I can think of four or five things along these lines over the course of the book that made me think, “Wow, the author couldn’t have thought of a more believable way around that?” I was torn on how to rate it because of these too-obvious escape routes, but overall, the novel’s can’t-stop-reading quality, well-written narrative, and fascinating character dynamics outweighed the obvious flaws. OVERALL RATING (within genre): 5/5 Stars TL;DR: If you can stomach it, "You" is a totally compelling and creepy stalker story that, in spite of a few technical flaws with the plot, will continue to haunt you for weeks to come. This and more reviews at http://anagiovinazzo.com.

Wow this book was really good and it got into my bones and it really reeled me in and now I am typing in compound compound sentences so great was its effect. Lol. I came to this book via the Netflix (via Lifetime) show. Late in season 1, I discovered the show was based on this book. To my very pleasant surprise, I discovered I own this book on my Kindle (gasp). Kindles are so noveau and fashion forward and snotty and snooty and books should be touched and caressed and creased and written in. Books transfer germs. Don't mind if I reminisce a moment. I bought this Kindle book when it came out. I don't remember doing so. I had only owned my Kindle for 1 month. How did I find it? This author had just written short stories before. My Kindle was VIRTUALLY BRAND NEW and I was mostly using a site to find free books at that time. I just don't know. But I own it and so I finished episode 9 and before watching the finale, I read this book. It is difficult and frankly much less fun reading the book AFTER seeing the show/movie. In fact, I hate it. Had I planned my life more carefully, I would've checked to see if there was a book. But how to do that? Bored one night, I just semi-randomly picked this show on Netflix. What am I supposed to do, research every show on Netflix to see if there's a book, and if so, read the book? How do I know whether the show will be any good? I already read a lot of books. Watching shows is my non-book veg out time. Can these worlds actually coexist? I need some ice cream. Well, once the genie is out of the bottle, you cannot put her back. Unless she is Barbara Eden. And even that is difficult. She puts herself back. When she wants. So I know what Joe looks and acts like and I know what Beck looks and act like and how can I enjoy this book with the MENTAL IMAGES ALREADY IN MY HEAD???? Developing mental images (after all, life is really just a series of visuals, words mean nothing without visuals) while reading a book is really what it's all about. And I couldn't do that because FREAKING NETFLIX ALREADY DID IT FOR ME. So as I began I was perturbed and not a little disturbed and somewhat consternated but thank god not constipated and on my merry way I went, though not merrily. The book is a bit choppy and things skip forward and you get a feel for that but I was not ready for that because the TV show seems more linear and connected. So my first thought was that I didn't like the book that much and THANK GOD FOR THE SHOW. But around 25% the book really dug its claws in and I began analyzing various things, like why did they change certain characters' names and races? Why does the show have a whole set of key characters (Joe's neighbors) that are not in the book? Why do TV writers feel the need to change so many things? I get that TV is different than books and some changes are helpful but anytime I compare a book and a show i ALWAYS see unnecessary TV changes. Alas, alas. Read the book. It's interesting and it's fascinating and it's not the greatest book ever written but it's pretty darn good and I gave it 4 stars and not many books get 5 stars from me. This is a very very long review for me but I broke out my laptop and I'm having fun, even if you're not. Get some ice cream. Normally I write reviews on my phone and the PRIMARY if not ONLY point of writing them is to create a record of the books I've read (which Alex Cross did I read last?) and to record a quick snapshot of how I felt about the book, for posterity, if not posteriors. Now that we have lovely Goodreads (whose reviews don't link to Amazon unless you write them ON YOUR KINDLE, even though Amazon owns Goodreads, shut down its discussion board and pushed us to Goodreads, GRRR), I don't need to write a review on Amazon to remember that I read a book. Goodreads does it for me and I like that very much. But I've been doing it this way for 5 years and i'm just going to keep on doing it. And now I'm copying and pasting my reviews to Goodreads since that is now where I manage my reading habits and what are our kids going to do with our digital products and our digital footprint when we die? All this becomes nothingness but who gets all the Kindle books? Should I include that in my will? And the URLs of all my online accounts and the related user IDs and passwords so they can stop all online subscriptions and get whatever music, books and other content I own??? Why does Amazon give us a small box to type reviews in? This box holds about 5 lines and it's not convenient and maybe Amazon is encouraging short reviews but it seems every Amazon box to type in is too small and in fact it seems that's a phenomenon across the whole WWW. Come on, when is Generation Z or whoever is in charge now going to RISE UP and MAKE TECHNOLOGY BETTER??? So many advances to be made. I liked the book. The end.

For all my reviews- come check out my blog Clues and Reviews [...] When aspiring writer, Becks, walks into a small neighbourhood bookstore, she falls deeply and madly in love with Joe, the operator of the bookstore. She cannot stop thinking about him and hopes that he will get in touch with her right away; find some way to connect with her. After all, Joe is smart, handsome and witty. Joe is also a stalker. This is how Joe imagined their meeting and it really doesn’t matter what Becks is thinking because Joe already has it in his mind that Becks will be his. And he will stop at nothing to have her…even if it means committing murder. You, the psychological thriller by Caroline Kepnes, is, hands down, one of the most delicious books I have read this year. Addicting and ominous, this novel tells the explicit tale of one man’s obsession and how he does anything to obtain it. I found myself savouring each page; to the point that I actually made myself put the book down and read something else so I could enjoy it longer. That takes some serious restraint people! On the cover, a series of words are used to describe this read: “unsettling”, “compelling”, “hypnotic and scary”. I’d have to say I agree with each of them. The novel opens with Becks walking into the bookstore where Joe works. She pays with her credit card and he googles her name from her card. Of course he does. After this, the story floats down a slippery slope as he accesses her social media accounts and then finds her address. I will not give any more details to how this story unfolds, because truly, it is something you have to read for yourself! The story is completely narrated by Joe. This was fascinating; through his narration, we become intimately acquainted with the mind of a stalker. From his initial moments of googling her name to watching her most private moments (from the street outside her window), we watch as Joe progresses from interest to full-blown stalker. We get to watch his mindset and see how he is able to justify his actions and his behaviours based on a smile, a look or an adjustment of clothes. From the first page, I was completely sucked in- and to be honest- I found myself oddly connected to Joe. Even though I knew that this plot was supposed to be disturbing, Kepnes writing kept me drawn in and had me feeling sympathetic towards him. Only some pretty stellar writing can have a perfectly sane girl feeling sorry for a creepy, obsessive, manipulative psychopath and his plight. Sorry Joe, it’s nothing personal. This novel, although sexually explicit, lacks all gore and typical horror tactics. What it does have is complete possibilities, and those, are more haunting. I loved that this novel was completely plausible. It very well could happen to anyone. You could smile at someone walking down the street, and the next thing you know, you could be potential prey. Someone could have access to your social media accounts and could be saving your pictures for their own perusal. Someone you completely trust could be living a completely double life. Now excuse me while I go search my fiancé’s room for locks of my hair… I highly recommend this one. It was fantastic. An absolute must read in my opinion. I cannot wait to read the second installment, Hidden Bodies, and hear more from Joe.

From the first page alone my initial reaction was, “What…what….WHAT!?” By the second chapter I was still like, “This is…weird….” Just from two chapters alone my thoughts on this book were “interesting”. There is no other way to describe You, it’s just, interesting. However, after finally finishing this book all I really have to say is, “WHAT THE MOTHER EFF NNNNNN FFUUUUU DID I JUST READ!?!?!” This book ended up being more than just interesting, it turned into a serious mind eff (because I won’t swear). Now I can see the praise behind this amazingly chilling and a little bit disturbing novel. When Guinevere Beck walks into a bookstore, as if it’s an average day, she doesn’t know that those few steps are going to start a chain of domino effects that are going to change her life forever. For inside the bookstore she meets Joe Goldberg and she is everything he has ever wanted in a woman. She’s smart, sexy, funny and he’d do anything in his power to have her. Literally anything. After a string of dark events draws them together everything seems perfect and Joe is as happy as can be. But Beck isn’t what she seems either, and their happiness is forever ruined when he finds out the truth about her. Now Joe has to try and fix their relationship before it’s too late, but can Beck really be with someone with so many secrets? Let’s be honest for a minute… I really didn’t like this book when I first saw it. I wondered what all the hype was and after the reading the blurb I just wasn’t impressed. Finally after so many authors started raving and praising this novel I figured it couldn’t be as bad as I thought. At first I was EXTREMELY SCEPTICAL. The second person, or whatever you want to call it, POV was really hard to get used to at first, but after a while you hardly notice it. And yes within the first few pages and first few chapters you’re probably thinking, “This book is twisted and sick and wrong….” but after a while you sort of….get caught up in it. The one thing I PRAISE about this book is its ability to FULLY IMMERSE AND CAPTIVATE THE READER. As I kept reading, despite how twisted I thought everything was, I found myself turning page after page wondering how far was this guy going to go…and would there be a happily ever after. The scariest thing was that after a while you start to sympathize with Joe and suddenly you’re rooting for him! Because things that he’s saying start to make sense and you start to question your morals and make you want to question people… You leap up and straddle me and I could walk from here to China with you wrapped around me and I walk across the tiny room and I have you against the wall and I’m kissing you and owning your ass and I like your heels in my back and your bed in a box and there’s a horrible sound at the door, metal on metal and a whistle and your legs drop to the floor and you straighten my hair and there is someone at the door. What can I say, I sympathize with the crazies? Everyone is crazy in their own little way, some people show it more than others. In You, I believe the cast of characters is so colourful and also so honest about how people act today. People are selfish, and cruel, and needy and sometimes it takes crazy people to help you figure that out. This book in itself was CRAZY and perhaps not for the faint of heart. It’s twisted, it’s downright sick at times, but definitely worth reading. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t typically read Fiction or Thrillers, I mean I haven’t even read a Stephen King novel…or seen The Shining shhh…. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves Thrillers and maybe wants something a little different than what they’re used to. I’m sure this book with leave you with quite the impression. 5/5 Hearts of Love

Kepnes is a talented author and she manages the second person singular present tense narration quite well. That's a feat in and of itself. Her narrator, Joe, is indelible, as is her depiction of a psychopath "in love". The scare factor incorporating modern tech stuff and the tendency for many people to narcissistically tweet and facebook everything about themselves is a nice twist. However there are a couple of things that keep the rating from being higher. One is that it is too long. Over four hundred pages. This is a problem from two angles. One is that the narrational perspective is wearying at that length. Two is that it just doesn't need to be that long. The narrator gets wearying too, as compelling as he is. I just felt like the narrative was belabored at times, and whole blocks could be cut out. The other is that if you're at all a thinking person, who ponders the logic of things, and especially the logic of certain crimes, the novel totally fails. It is not at all a successful crime novel, and if you're going to put crimes in your novel, you need to be creating a crime and an aftermath that is actually believable. You can't just put the crimes in there as plot points and expect the audience to nod along. This book has been compared to Gone, Girl but Flynn actually takes great pains there to legitimize everything, and make her story hold water. The only way the protagonist of You could accomplish his crimes and remain free is for basic police work as well as forensic science to cease to exist. SPOILER ALERT: 1) Coroners can actually tell if a person was strangled to death before they were dumped in the ocean. It's not even hard. 2) The idea that you could just go out to Brighton Beach or some beach around NY, set a body on fire, and burn it to bone fragments and ashes is kind of ludicrous. 3) If a woman has been brutally strangled after a rough physical fight with someone she's also recently had sex with, forensic evidence will be found. When that evidence is matched to the current bf/spouse (who is also the most likely suspect anyway, as any rookie cop knows), I can tell you what will NOT happen. What will NOT happen is the conviction of the woman's other lover. That is also highly ludicrous. Obviously it's important for the author's main theme for the protagonist to get away with it. But if you can't make it believable, that's worthless. One other silly thing the author wants us to take for granted, which is even less believable: that a mother who pays for her daughter's phone bill won't ever figure out that her daughter's phone was stolen, and her daughter has gotten a new phone. WTF? I realize it's imperative for the author's purposes for the protagonist to have his victim's phone, but seriously! That requires we believe that this mother, who pays the phone bill, does not ring up or text or leave a phone message for her daughter for months on end! The daughter doesn't call her mother either! For months? You can't get a new phone and keep your old phone number unless that old phone is rendered unserviceable. Again, ludicrous. The author should not write any more books where anyone commits a serious crime and gets away with it, because obviously she can't handle that. If she sticks to just creating her characters and their non-criminal plotline, her next novel will be much better, because she's whizbang at that. We don't need the protagonist to get away with murder for him to be scary. We really don't. What would have been a much richer theme would have been to present Joe using technology to mold himself to the desires of his victim, knowing what she seems to want and to like, all the time remaining a hollow to himself and to her. Now that's REALLY scary.

This. Book! What a ride. I felt a bit manic while reading YOU, and had a hard time removing myself from the story when I wasn’t reading it. I became obsessed with Joe and his obsession. This book is seriously fantastic! I hate saying stuff like this, but I really hope people “get it.” It is brilliantly effed up, and I was absolutely giddy about the insanity of it all. This is not a romance, yet it is. But it’s not. I know, that’s confusing. Joe is a stalker, and he is in love with Beck. He will do anything to make her fall in love with him. He knows what’s best for her and will protect her from not only other people, but herself, as well. Everything he does is for Beck. Joe is an absolutely wonderful anti-hero. His voice is intoxicating, and the way the author wrote his narration is very clever. I love him! But listen, there’s a difference between loving the character itself, and loving what the author has created. You can love a character who is a bad person, because the author did such an exceptional job. So when I say I love Joe, I love what a phenomenal job the author did with him. You start out thinking Joe is such a creep, but then start getting sucked in by him. It gets to where you’re rooting for him, not wanting him to get caught in certain situations, but then step back and think “wait, why am I rooting for him?” You start sympathizing, then BAM you’re reminded how dangerous and messed up he is. What’s also so great is, while we are in Joe’s head and know what he’s really thinking and doing, we see how he comes off as so normal to other people. He’s delusional, yet some things he’s intuitive and actually spot-on about. I found him and his train of thought absolutely fascinating, addictive and humorous. The twisted, dark humor in YOU is perfect! The irony of some of the situations he found himself in are hilarious. I can’t even tell you how much I love this aspect of the book. There is so much about You that I love, that it has made it to my list of all-time favorites. It’s one of those books that I want everyone to read and experience its brilliance. At the same time, I feel protective over it. I just hope readers can appreciate what the author did here.

I approached this book without much in the way of expectations. I knew the gist of the plot from reading the description and thought it sounded intriguing, and the book came highly recommended by enough people that I gave it a try even though I'd never read anything by this author before. Right from the start, I found it quite gripping. Not only does this book tell the story of an obsessed, lovestruck stalker, but it's written from his perspective. Furthermore, it's written in the second person, as the narrator directly addresses the object of his affections. Were the author less skilled, this could easily be a mistake, but in Kepnes' hands, it actually makes for a fascinating literary experience. Not many authors would want to write a book in the second person, and fewer could pull it off. For that alone, this book is worth reading. But that's not all it offers. Indeed, You provides a fascinating peek behind the curtain of a severely disturbed (if not actually monstrous or evil) person. The opening chapters promise a book unlike anything you've ever read and the rest of the book delivers on that promise, particularly the ending, which I'll not spoil but will say is satisfying. You boasts a unique cast of characters, from the narrator (Joe) to the object of his affections (Beck) to all of the side characters who come and go throughout the drama. Almost to a person, these characters alternate, sometimes quite rapidly, between being completely sympathetic and utterly unlikable. The narrator himself is clearly a disturbed individual but the reader is prompted regularly to find him more pitiable than evil, and occasionally even to find him more admirable than terrifying--at least until he does something to remind the reader that he is a card-carrying member of the Crazy Folks Tribe. Because the other characters are all viewed through his perspective, one could write at length about unreliable narration (though I suspect anyone who ever sat through an undergraduate creative writing course has had his or her fill of conversations centered on unreliable narrators, and I think Joe the Crazy Narrator would probably agree with me), but more interesting is the thought (and the correct one, I think) that Joe's narration actually is fairly reliable and that the other characters really do also oscillate between being likable (or at least normal) on the one hand and quite contemptible on the other. The result is a novel populated not merely by realistically human characters but by a fascinating cross-section of the dysfunctional. Unfortunately, while the book opens and ends quite powerfully, it did drag for me a little bit during the middle third. While there was always some interesting event taking place, I couldn't help but feel that the novel's tension wavered slightly. I was never really bored with it and I never considered putting it down, but I do think it's probably a little longer than it needed to be and that it could have just as much impact for the reader if some of the middle were left out. Still, despite some flaws, it *does* pack a punch. I have found this book on a lot of lists of the supposedly scariest books in print. I respectfully disagree. I didn't honestly find it scary at all. But I did find it thought-provoking and emotionally-loaded in other ways that make it quite a memorable read.

Shel: You know what? It's been days since I read You and I'm still thinking about it. It feels like an epic fail to even try to articulate all of the things that I'm thinking about this novel because they're all twisted and knotted on each other. But, for you, I will try. Court: As you can see, I took a million days after Shelley to finish this one. Not for lack of love though, but for surplus of procrastination in other life affairs. BUT...You. Holy (edit). I am so in love with this author, and I absolutely adored the second person POV. I think it added a huge spice to the dynamic of the story, and I can just gush and gush from there. Shel: Joe is...well...I have conflicted emotions about good ol' Joe. Some of the observations he makes about our culture--the digital age/social media--are so interesting to me. They're perceptive and disdainful and cynical and amusing and as I'm thinking this, I'm also thinking that for someone who looks down on it all, he sure does know his way around them. Even with his ornery self, I liked him. And then I didn't like myself for liking him..for reasons. When you read, you'll see. For instance, he has boundary issues. Serious boundary issues. And just like with the characters in You, he repels me as he draws me in. Maybe it's because I know people like him in real life--fascinating even as they creep me out. He does this--creeps me out because he's a stalker extraordinaire but then I'm fascinated by his obsession and his justification for his obsession--Beck. Court: I...I just...I can't even describe how I feel about myself liking Joe out of almost every other character in this book. Every single person had a purpose, and to what end with 'ole Joe...but...yeah. He's absolutely psychotic, but again like Shel said his observations are (flawed) but accurate. He has a way about him that makes him endearing. It could be the long soliloquy about Stephen King (which had me rolling...especially knowing Mr. King read the book!) that makes me think..yes, he is a book person I could get along with. And then I remembered...oh yes! He's (edit) stalking this person! Like. Whoa. Heady thing, this book. Shel: Beck is not my favorite which sucks; I don't like her because of her flaws and, honestly, her flaws are magnified realism and I shouldn't be annoyed by her for them, but I am. (Wow..that was a really long and really awful sentence. Keeping it anyway). She strikes me as manipulative from the start (and it doesn't help that we KNOW that she is because of Joe's masterful stalking) and I'm not a huge fan of manipulators, so you can imagine how I feel about her. Also? Her weaknesses make me annoyed with her even as I want to like her and isn't this the way with REAL people? We dislike them because they're human, with human frailty, and we want them to be better. Well, that exactly my problem with Beck--I disliked her for being too close to reality. What's interesting, I think, is that while I didn't really like her, I liked the way she was characterized; I didn't like her precisely because of the way she was written--Caroline Kepnes wanted us to not like her, and I didn't. Court: Honestly, I really kind of hated her too. She is the ultimate frenemy surrounded by other frenemies...and I just couldn't even begin to fathom the way she treated Joe. And...yes. I KNOW he was stalking her, but some of the things she does and says and then does again and again and again. She was difficult for me. She is the ultimate anti-heroine though, so there are some more conflicted feelings in my head right now that I can't even formulate a coherent thought about. Every one in this story is so very anti-everything, but their observations and way about them was special. I agree too, Shel that our feelings end up being purposeful. So, we feel conflicted for hours, and probably days afterward. Well played, Caroline, well played. We heart ya. Shel: The secondary characters add annoyance to Joe and therefore add much comedy for me. His snarking comments about them are so perfectly nasty and jealousy filled and just as I'd find myself disliking him, I'd like him again. Sigh. Court: I know, right? Joe has an opinion about just about everything. Whew. It must be exhausting to be him. But...if it came to Benji, Curtis, Beck, Peach, or any other character we met...he did indeed have an opinion in which in impart with us. Shel: So, the moral to this story, for me, is that I was thoroughly engaged in the running commentary Joe made about our society's obsession with all things technology; his elitist, cynicism struck a chord with me and I found myself nodding my head in agreement with many Joe-isms. And, I was also conflicted with how I felt how about Joe..perhaps because I liked him when I didn't want to and at other times I wanted to throttle him and other times hug him and other times murder him. (another stellar sentence, there. Not). And Beck was just, well, Beck. Court: I have thought about this a lot since finishing the book, and the way that he was just so...on his path...has to be admired. But...obviously this is surreal fantasy, and I hope that you give it a go anyways...We like the dark and twisty an insurmountable quantity, and all of the book references, and the book store, and the writing made me so happy I couldn't help but shout from everywhere (ask my Dad...he had to hear all about Joe while chained to his hospital bed today...). I can't wait to see this turned into a sitcom. Shel: I saw today that Kepnes is writing a sequel; this should be interesting. I'm thinking I know where this one may pick up..but who knows? I could be very surprised. Court: Yes, this now even has a blurb. And it looks so freaking intriguing. Hhhmmm, I say. I can't wait!