ISBN: 1442374969
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication Date: 9/30/2014
Format: Audio
My Rating: 3 Stars
Love hurts…When aspiring writer Guinevere Beck strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe works, he’s instantly smitten. Beck is everything Joe has ever wanted: She’s gorgeous, tough, razor-smart, and as sexy as his wildest dreams.
Beck doesn’t know it yet, but she’s perfect for him, and soon she can’t resist her feelings for a guy who seems custom made for her. But there’s more to Joe than Beck realizes, and much more to Beck than her oh-so-perfect façade. Their mutual obsession quickly spirals into a whirlwind of deadly consequences . . .A chilling account of unrelenting passion, Caroline Kepnes’s You is a perversely romantic thriller that’s more dangerously clever than any you’ve read before.
My Review
A deeply disturbing debut novel, YOU, by Caroline Kepnes, a chilling account of the mind of a stalker, an obsessed plan using codes, pop references, social media, emails, texts, movies, books, and other tools to intensify the suspense.
Guinevere Beck, (Beck) an inspiring writer, and student-becomes the focus of East Village bookstore employee, Joe’s obsession, bonding them over books, literature, and music.
Joe’s mind is completely wacko and creepy, thinking Beck is all about him and begins his plot of control. He hacks into her email account and stalks her on Twitter (I listened to the audiobook, and if I heard hashtag one more time, I thought I may throw my ipod out the window). Every text has a hidden meaning. He builds up this obsession with Beck, which cannot live up to his expectations. He thinks he is keeping her safe from the dangers in her life (Peach, and Benji, and Dr. Nicky). He has to get these people out of her way to move into her world to be the top focus. When he is the dangerous one.
Astonishingly enough, his fixation materializes into a relationship of sorts, in a non-traditional crazy way. Joe feels threatened by those more fortunate than he, who is well-read but never attended college, has a chip on his shoulder about his education and class status and the assumptions people make about him. He dislikes Benji, Beck’s ex-boyfriend because he has money and education, but not a reader. When this wacko couple finally get together, it goes even further downhill.
Even though this book was long, drawn out and nerve racking, can see the appeal to the YA market, and younger generation with its use of social media, craigslist, etc. to demonstrate the lengths and madness of crazies out there.
Fans of psychological horror will most likely enjoy and appreciate Kepnes detailed and shocking account, written in second person. Reminds me a little of The Book of You, another stalker novel, keeping you reading to learn the fate of these troubled minds.
