You
by Caroline Kepnes
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.
You is a novel that had been on my TBR for a good few years. It wasn’t high on my priority list and even my desire to watch the Netflix show along with everyone else didn’t push me to actually buy it. Thanks to someone actually giving me the book and saying, “Read it!” recently, I finally have.
I didn’t have especially high expectations for You, but as someone looking to be creeped out by more novels, I’d hoped the real-life nature of the story would succeed where demons and killer clowns tend to let me down. I was drawn to the psychological aspect of it. The idea of someone appearing so ordinary but being so twisted—and that this stuff really happens in real life—made me think this could be a truly unsettling read.
“Unsettling” just about sums up this novel. I did not expect to be thrown into the story the way we were—immediately in Joe’s obsessive mind, sizing Beck up and being generally horrific from the very first page. I’d expected the normal story build up and usual slower reveal of characters’ motivations but I really loved how immediate this felt. It wasted no time and didn’t try to obscure the fact that Joe was an obsessive freak under some hazy, “Could he just be a nice guy who’s a little too much?” guise. No, he’s crazy and we know it right off the bat. I couldn’t wrap my head around Joe at first because his thoughts about Beck immediately upon seeing her made me so uncomfortable. Honestly, so much of this book made me cringe—not just because he was a bad person doing bad things, but because the way he thought was grotesque. Joe was a fascinating, incredibly well written character. I was disturbed by having to spend so much time in his mind and besides the obvious disgust for him, I was often infuriated by him. His thoughts about women and his thinking that he was the only rational person around Beck and that she needed his protection was classic psycho stalker behavior and so, so infuriating. And ultimately made him a fantastically written character.
As every other character was seen through Joe’s perspective, all of their characterization was skewed by his twisted opinions but readers are still able to get a good idea of who they are. One thing I think is great about You is that Beck isn’t some version of a “perfectly respectable woman” stereotype. It would’ve been easy for the focus to be on Joe’s character and the complexities of his mind and behavior while leaving Beck a rather boring, two dimensional person who checks off all of the boxes that make a “good girl.” Easy, but wrong. Instead, Beck is her own messy person, far from perfect and with her own slew of problems. These problems often stem from her own behavior which is a point worth making because I really appreciate that she’s a thoughtfully written character who comes across as real and believable because of those problems and choices. And, of course, readers still sympathize with her because all it should take to sympathize is that she’s a person being stalked—it doesn’t matter if she likes to get drunk with her friends, if she lies or if she likes attention, etc. It’s worth mentioning this because it feels very deliberate—not only for the complexity and interest of the plot, but because I think it’s too often that female victims of predatory men are portrayed as typical “good girls,” as if being everyone’s idea of good is what’s necessary for them to be worthy of sympathy. It’s an old, boring and wrong idea but seen often enough that the way Kepnes wrote Beck really stood out to me and was appreciated.
The writing in You was quite unique. It was first person, sort of stream of consciousness from Joe’s perspective but different in that a lot of the time it’s written like Joe is carrying on a mental conversation with Beck—always talking to her as “You.” I loved it. Circling around in his mind, seeing his insane justifications for his actions and being able to completely immerse myself in his thoughts without them being watered down or distanced by another style was great. Also, the tone is just perfect. I love that Joe is obsessive but that his tone is so nonchalant. His casual rationale only adds to how unsettling the story is.
You was really well paced and utterly, utterly compelling. As soon as I picked this book up, I did not want to put it down. I just couldn’t walk away from the story and Joe’s fascinatingly disturbing mind. I love how the story unfolded, that even though we were in Joe’s POV, we didn’t know every little thing he was doing so there were plenty of surprises throughout. It was so well crafted. Right when we think we understand just how awful Joe is, we’re taken aback by something we didn’t realize he’d been keeping from us. It was rife with tension in a way that I’m not used to. The tension comes less from atmosphere (because it’s that first person POV, stream of consciousness from the bad guy himself) and more from the sense of dread of where the plot will go. As a young woman, I’m already pretty wary and alert when going out into the world but this novel intensified that wariness —seriously, this novel gets to you. Joe is every woman’s nightmare. I was terrified for Beck and anxious throughout the whole thing. While there were several big events I did not see coming, I think the overall story was a little predictable in a general sense, though very well written and with a really fantastic ending.
I so enjoyed this novel. The style was something completely unique to me and it was incredibly compelling. Characters were well crafted and Joe was interesting and repulsive—just so well written. This book was strange and as unsettling as I wanted it to be. What really got under my skin was how realistic and possible it was. Sometimes unsettling stories feel bound within the books they’re in—just a story, nothing more. But You was far from unrealistic and that was perhaps the most unsettling aspect of all.
I look forward to reading the sequel, Hidden Bodies.
4/5
Thanks for reading,
Madison