You

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

You is a fascinating novel. It is like Lolita in the fact that it is an extremely dark story, written from the point of view of a charming, likable villain stalking a woman. There's no pedophilia in You, but it is still comparable to Nabokov's novel in the fact that I think that most people will either love it or hate it. I really enjoyed Lolita, although I don't exactly feel comfortable admitting that I liked something so disturbing. I feel exactly the same way about You.You is written in second person, with Joe Goldberg describing his obsession and growing relationship with Guinevere Beck. I am not typically a fan of second person narration. However, the device was used well in this book. It took a couple chapters to get used to, but after that, I thought it was great. It really made Joe's menacing tone come out strongly. The writing itself was smooth and very nearly flawless. The book was so easy to fall into and I never wanted to leave the atmosphere that Caroline Kepnes created. It was just that good. The pacing was perfect, making the novel move just fast enough that I never got bored. Her characterization was probably her strongest point, though.Joe is a fascinating character. He is charismatic and uses a lot of humor. I found myself laughing out loud at certain parts of this book. He makes observations about the culture of young adults today that I found very accurate and relatable. Joe is a terrible person. But Kepnes writes him in such a way that it's easy to forget he's a monster, and instead the reader starts to almost care about him and root for him to succeed. He has a very strange moral landscape. At one point, he says he would never, ever hurt a deaf man, but he has no issue sitting outside of Beck's window every night. What I liked about him was that he wasn't purely evil. Many villains, especially in stalker books, are just flat out bad guys. They are scary, horrible, and don't show any other dimensions. Instead, they just seem like these dominant, strong characters. Joe isn't quite like that. We see him at many different levels in the novel. Sometimes he is powerful and scary, but then you see him falter. He cries multiple times and shows emotional depth. He is not 100% bad and Kepnes allows his weaknesses to show. I thought this was a nice touch. I wish there was a little bit more of a backstory about his childhood, though.I hated Beck. She is a well-written character, but completely unlikeable. She is so wishy-washy and treats everyone terrible. She fears commitment and is wholeheartedly self-centered. I feel like she was a good victim though, for the sake of the novel. Had Joe been stalking a sweet, nice girl, it would have been easier for the readers to sympathize with her. I didn't care what happened to Beck. She treated everyone so poorly that I was fine with whatever Joe did to her. Most of the side characters were also unlikable (Benji and Peach). Ethan was sweet, though, and I was intrigued about Mooney. I hope we get to see more of the latter two in the sequel.My one issue with this book is that it's a little predictable. I wasn't really surprised by anything. The middle of the book also gets a little tiresome. There is a lot of back and forth, with Joe almost getting with Beck, her pushing him away, him getting closer, and then her backing off again. Although, I suppose this is kinda similar to how relationships work nowadays, especially with modern technology. There are many times people almost date, don't, and so on, until they finally get together. So it wasn't unrealistic, just a little rigorous to read (but never boring! I loved being in Joe's head so much that I was never uninterested in what he had to say).The last quarter of the book was the best, for me. I liked Karen Minty and felt bad for how Joe treated her. I liked how the novel ended and I can't wait to pick up the sequel (I am curious to see how Kepnes handles it, without making it too similar to You). This novel really is good. It held my attention the entire time. I feel like some people won't like it, just because of how dark and disturbing it is. It is not a light read, at all. Joe does a lot of bad stuff, and in order to enjoy the novel, you have to be okay with reading about him doing these things, without many consequences. Another complaint I've seen on reviews is about the pop culture references. Those didn't bother me at all. In many novels, the author inserts a lot of pretentious references and it drives me crazy. Joe brings up a lot of books and movies, but hardly ever in a "hey, I'm better than you for knowing these things!" way. He also works in a book store, so it seems reasonable that he mentions books frequently. I even appreciated some of his opinions on them.I really enjoyed this book. It isn't perfect and it's not for everyone, but I liked it a lot. If it sounds interesting to you, I would definitely recommend it. There are not very many other novels out there written entirely from the POV of a stalker.4/5 stars

This sucked me in & I couldn’t put it down, her style of writing is just as intriguing as the story she tells. I’m looking forward to reading the others!

Don’t waste your money on this. Go watch show on Netflix, tbh it’s better.

I love the product and the condition it was delivered in

beck😩

I am almost finished reading the book and, having watched the series before, I can say that the book is more disturbing, but worth reading.

Amazing book that catches your attention completely. I wasn't able to stop reading it, and it doesn't happen to me too often. Starting the second part right now, and I really hope that the author has much more to add to this story. I watched the series, and the book is definitely better, but the actors did great job too.