YOU by Caroline Kepnes | Review

Amazon | TBD | Goodreads

422 Pages

When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.

There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting.

As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder.

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I walked by this book in my library, and it managed to catch my eye. I had heard through the grapevine about the show on Netflix and have almost watched it once or twice, so I was very very wary of the book. Every time I seem to pick up a hyped thriller, I always seem to be disappointed (if there are any The Girl on the Train lovers here, I’m sorry).

After about the first page of You, however, I was hooked.

I think, throughout the course of this book, it’s really hard to say there’s a definite protagonist, as the main POV is definitely from someone who you would consider antagonistic. But, I was reading the reviews on the inside cover and one of them mentioned how you can’t help but root or feel sympathy for the main character (who is clearly a “bad” guy), and I cannot help but agree.

I feel this book was a perfect balance for a thriller — there was sex, violence, mystery, and characters you could really dig your teeth into. I could not put this book down, and I read it in an amount of time that I hardly ever experience with my university, now it seems. I just found this book strangely erotic and un-put-downable.

This book is constantly keeping you on your toes, and I felt the ending was exactly the ending I could have academically and unprofessionally hoped for.

(Now, I know there’s a sequel . . . so we’ll see on what we do with that now.)

Nevertheless, if you love Dark Places by Gillian Flynn or any fast-paced thriller, I think you’ll devour this one like I did.

Rating

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Have you seen the Netflix show? If you have, what did you think of it? What’s your favorite thriller? Let’s chat in the comments!