In book one, it was clear Joe genuinely believed he was in love with Beck and working towards her greater interests, but I refuse to believe Joe “loved” any of the women he claimed to love in book two. Additionally, his overall characterization was watered down. I get that a large part of You is following Joe as he gets more involved with stalking Beck and takes increasing risks to achieve his goals, but it’s as if we hit the height of his character at the end and there was nowhere else for him to go in the second installment. In Hidden Bodies, if a character breathes wrong, he goes off on a tangent about all the different ways he’d like to murder them. In You, he has reasons behind his violent acts - albeit, deluded reasons - but he leads the reader to believe he’s acting out of his own perverse conscience. The only words I could use to describe Joe in Hidden Bodies is straight up homicidal. It’s clear he is a very twisted man who does horrible, irredeemable things, yet there are moments that make him seem a little less terrible which keep you fascinated enough to keep reading. In You, Joe has a unique path of development. I was deeply disappointed with the direction of Joe’s character. This is one of my least favorite books I’ve ever read.ĬW: stalking, violence, murder, substance abuse I don’t think it’s possible for me to be more disappointed. A super unnecessary sequel that lost absolutely everything that made You such a hit. I’m sorry, but this book was not good at all. But if she ever finds out what he’s done, he may not have a choice… He doesn’t want to hurt his new girlfriend-he wants to be with her forever. And when he finds it in a darkened room in Soho House, he’s more desperate than ever to keep his secrets buried. They re-emerge, like dark thoughts, multiplying and threatening to destroy what Joe wants most: true love. The problem with hidden bodies is that they don’t always stay that way. But while others seem fixated on their own reflections, Joe can’t stop looking over his shoulder. He eats guac, works in a bookstore, and flirts with a journalist neighbor.

In Hollywood, Joe blends in effortlessly with the other young upstarts.

Now he’s heading west to Los Angeles, the city of second chances, determined to put his past behind him.

In the past ten years, this thirty-something has buried four of them, collateral damage in his quest for love. Joe Goldberg is no stranger to hiding bodies. In the compulsively readable sequel to her widely acclaimed debut novel, You, Caroline Kepnes weaves a tale that Booklist calls “the love child of Holden Caulfield and Patrick Bateman.” THE RIVETING SEQUEL TO THE HIT BOOK YOU, NOW A NETFLIX SERIES

Hidden bodies novel