Book Review: You

YOU (You #1)| Caroline Kepnes
09.25.2014 | Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Rating: 5/5 stars

Joe Goldberg is living an average New York life, working at a book story in the East Village tending to customers who pretend to be well versed in the classics, when in reality they’re just there for the latest Dan Brown or Stephen King. His attentions are immediately peaked when a stunning, aspiring author breezes through the store one day. Wanting to know more about this perfect woman, Joe does what anyone in today’s times would do and Googles her. Sure he only knows her full name because he read it on her credit card, but what’s the harm in that?

If we were teenagers, I could kiss you. But I’m on a platform behind a counter wearing a name tag and we’re too old to be young.

As luck would have it, there’s only one Guinevere Beck living in New York City and her life is an open book across her social media accounts. Through her public Facebook profile and active Twitter account, Joe learns that Beck is a student at Brown University, living in a house paid for by the school through a contest she won, and that she’s going to be reading some of her work at a local bar. What could make for a better spot to bump back in to each other? Joe’s plan is a success and soon he is a part of Beck’s world, but his role isn’t quite as he would like to have it and in order to make their relationship perfect Joe starts stalking Beck. Joe’s motivation is simply to become the perfect boyfriend for Beck, but things soon spiral out of control. Just how far will Joe go to have Beck in his life?

The only thing crueler than a cage so small that a bird can’t fly is a cage so large that a bird thinks it can fly.

Caroline Kepnes blew my socks of with YOU! The minute I opened the pages and stepped in to Joe’s mind, I knew I was going to be hooked. Joe is one of the most fascinating characters I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know. He might be a crazy stalker, but the guy has some valid points on the way society works. I found myself more disturbed at times with Beck’s behavior than Joe’s, which is not to say I in any way condone stalking! It’s hard to go in to too many details for this one because I want the reader to go in as blindly and unassuming as I did. Just know that Joe is waiting, he’s plotting, and he’s about to make you say “Did he really just do that?”. I cannot wait to get back in Joe’s world and will be adding the follow up, HIDDEN BODIES, to my summer TBR. Caroline Kepnes, you are a genius!

The problem with books is that they end. They seduce you. They spread their legs to you and pull you inside. And you go deep and leave your possessions and your ties to the world at the door and you like it inside and you don’t want your possessions or your ties and then, the book evaporates.