You – 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.

This book is insane, creepy and incredibly intense. It is most certainly not a romance book! If you wanted to shelve You as a romance, then it would have to be an obsessive and manipulative romance from the perspective or a charming psychopath.

I should say prior to reading this book I have watched the TV adaptation a couple of times. So, I knew the storyline from the TV show and I was on the lookout for any differences. I read You as part of the Crime Readathon and it is safe to say I am a huge fan of both the book and the show.

You is told from the perspective of a stalker who spies and obsesses over a young woman and let me tell you, this story is terrifying. What makes this book even more unsettling for me is how closely Joe resembles some of the love interests in YA and NA books.

Joe is an unreliable narrator, made more so with his charm and wit which he uses to engage the reader. He manages to make it easy to sympathise with him even though we know just how twisted Joe is.

You will feel uncomfortable reading this book knowing that people out in the world could be exactly like Joe. That for me is the most terrifying part. I am currently rewatching the TV show and noticing all the differences and would quite like to review the show after I’ve watched it again.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book for fans of twister horror/thriller/crime books that also touches on the potential insanity of the human psyche. This book is well worth the read. It is terrifying but is so gripping at the same time!