You: A Novel (The You Series)

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!

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.

"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.

So, I have this book on my kindle, hardback and now, audio. But, this was my very first audio book and I am glad I dived in with Santino Fontana's interpretation of Joe Goldberg. He captured the essence of the character perfectly. I began reading this book about a year and a half ago and never finished it for some reason. I liked the book and the way it was written, so not sure what it was that made me put it down. But once I heard Santino as Joe, I knew I hit the jackpot. He nailed it! Joe is just a normal guy living a normal life in NY. He is the epitome of an "average Joe" , but with better looks ;) He works at and bookstore and is obviously very well read. He never graduated from college so that apparently puts him behind his peers. But what he lacks in an education he makes up for in his inner dialogue. He is witty and smart and knows his way around just about anything. Including finagling his way into Beck's life, which isn't easy with all the outside sources (her friends and somewhat boyfriend). The side characters were just as important as the main characters and the tone of the story is what kept me coming back for more. It's not crazy slash 'em 80's horror. It's a psychological thriller that makes you think. That makes you look at the inner part of everyone's thought process and what they do with their life. The difference is, that Joe thinks what he does is bettering the world. Almost like Dexter in some ways. He rids the world of people that dirty those around them. But "reading" this book by audio was completely different than turning the pages. Santino Fontana just nailed his performance of Joe. The way he captured Joe as normal yet with a huge side of crazy was perfection. He was the guy you could count on and think nothing of it. He wasn't crazy, he wasn't psychotic. He was Just Joe. But Santino has a way of reading into each character and making you believe he IS Joe. Fantastic job to him and to Ms Kepnes for making us believe that all is normal in NY. :) Can't wait for more!

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.

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

Awesome psychological thriller! Could not put it down!!!!! SYNOPSIS Joe manages at a NYC neighborhood bookstore with a hip, indy vibe. The now retired owner hired Joe as a young boy, showed him the ropes and trained him to run the store. Although Joe didn't even graduate from high school, he is extremely well read and smart in a snarky, fox-like sort of way. One day a very pretty, intriguing girl named Beck walks into the bookstore and flirts with Joe. That's when we start to see him for what and who he is; an obsessive stalker who is capable of some pretty insane things. What makes this book so great is that it's told in first person from Joe's point of view as he narrates an internal letter to Beck detailing the story of their relationship. Best of all, Joe has no idea he's crazy. He describes his daily activities like there is nothing wrong with watching Beck through her window from the street or reading her email. He talks about all this like most people talk about picking up their dry cleaning and meeting a friend for coffee. The book walks us through several months of Joe's life as he tries to establish a relationship with Beck. It's a fascinating yet disturbing journey. WHAT I LOVED The greatness of the book was being inside Joe's head and hearing his narrative. The story was told so darn well; with a delicate mix between his irrational and normal responses to the point that when things were going well in his world, I could forget at times that he was certifiably crazy and I would find myself rooting for him and wishing Beck would just give him a chance. Come on Beck, he's so into you! Why can't you like guys who like you back?? A couple pages later, I would be reminded that he is the definition of the term 'stalker' and that she needed get far, far away from him. In keeping with the whole concept of Joe having no idea that Joe is crazy, author Caroline Kepnes did a fantastic job casually having Joe bring up past incidents like there was nothing wrong with them; like, for example, sneaking into Becks apartment. Joe just mentions it nonchalantly, like it's commonplace. Like everyone just sneaks into the apartment of a girl they would like to date vs trolling them on Facebook or following them on instagram. How else are you going to get to know about them? Doesn't everyone take a pair of panties from the apartment of a girl who flirts with him in a bookstore?? I love books with unstable, unreliable narrators. WHAT I DIDN'T LOVE There are two things that bother me about the book. Without those two things I could have possibly given it a very rare 5 star rating. First of all, Beck, a modern day 24 year-old girl who was all about social media used email as her preferred method of communication. I found it outdated. The story lines success required her to use email but it didn't seem authentic. The second (and larger issue for me) was that I felt like the book was over sexed. I get that it was the narrative of a 20-something year old guy and they tend to think of sex often and usually use terminology I wouldn't use but I felt it was over the top. Quite a bit of it could have been cut out and the reader would have still gotten the idea that Joe was sexually and emotionally obsessed with Beck. OVERALL There were so many things to love about this book. I would recommend it for readers who like psychological thrillers and who are not offended by sex scenes. I skimmed through it when it became too much but it didn't ruin the book for me.

I loved this book; it’s so worth the read. I couldn’t put it (actually my kindle) down. I had to read to the end. Uniquely scary.

Wow! What a book! Stephen King is quoted on the back cover saying he has never read anything like this and I totally agree with him! One one hand, this is a tricky novel to review. It's unpleasant. It's graphic in places. It's language is sometimes crude and offensive. Kepnes has done this to create the unforgettable, quietly threatening, unnerving character of Joe with absolute conviction and effect. On the other hand, it's an easy book to review because although it shocked me, it also gripped me and I was hooked until the dark unpleasant end and have been unable to forget about it ever since I turned the last page. The story is about Joe and the day that Guinevere Beck, a bright, young, carefree girl who walks into the bookshop where he works. Joe becomes infatuated with her and wastes no time manipulating and orchestrating situations which will enable him to become Beck's "ideal" man. Beck and Joe embark on a relationship which can only lead her unsuspectingly into danger as Joe's obsession spirals out of control and he struggles to contain his truly menacing personality. The most striking thing about this novel is that it is written in second person. It is Joe's voice addressing Beck. "You walk into the bookstore and you keep your hand on the door to make sure it doesn't slam." Telling the whole story from this angle is ambitious and extremely disconcerting. It increases the tension and the perturbing atmosphere. Kepnes handles this notoriously challenging narrative style with ease. It is fluid, readable and captivating. Of course this also means that we see all the action third hand through Joe's eyes. He is an unreliable narrator. He is delusional. His interpretations of events and reactions are one sided and inaccurate. Our whole relationship with Beck is founded on what is presented by Joe which makes it a fascinating read. Our reactions to other characters like the unlikable Benji, are also only formed by what Joe has decided to reveal so how sure can we be about what any of these people are really like? Joe is a difficult narrator to form a relationship with. He is unhinged, dangerous and dysfunctional yet makes for compulsive reading. The novel is dense and initially quite slow paced as meticulous detail is shared by Joe and the way he plans to ensnare Beck is very thorough but I think this enables the reader to become completely immersed in his world. It is also a warning for anyone who indulges in social media - so much of you exists out there in cyberspace it is not difficult for Joe to worm his way into Beck's life and this makes the novel extremely modern and contemporary. If it possible to "enjoy" the novel, then I "enjoyed" the second half a lot more and raced through it. I found the way Joe controlled the manner in which he presented himself as average, stable and ordinary when actually he is intelligent, methodical and deeply threatening, really intriguing. I constantly feared for Beck and was on tenterhooks all the way through the novel. I liked that at certain points I felt Joe softened and didn't have the courage to carry out his threats but then at other times realised he absolutely did. I also found Beck an interesting character. She is not a typical victim. The reader is not always completely sympathetic towards her. She is not always likeable. This adds more tension and makes it a more dynamic plot. The ending is thrilling. It leaves the reader uncomfortable and chilled. I will be haunted by this story. It is unique. If you can prepare yourself for the sexually explicit scenes and language, you will be rewarded by meeting one of the most dysfunctional and angry narrators I've come across in recent fiction.

Kargo süper hızlıydı ve kondisyon çok iyi. Koleksiyonluk. ( Stalk Vakti. )

Best book I ever read. Joe is an absolute lunatic and it's fun to see things his way... At least for awhile

Falava que ia chegar só dia 24 de Fev, chegou em menos de uma semana após a compra. Veio tudo certo, muito bem embalado. Obrigado pela rapidez.

Its pretty cool it has more to it then the show it self