Hidden Bodies

You #2

by Caroline Kepnes

THE RIVETING SEQUEL TO THE HIT BOOK YOU, NOW A NETFLIX SERIES

In the compulsively readable sequel to her widely acclaimed debut novel, You, Caroline Kepnes weaves a tale that Booklist calls “the love child of Holden Caulfield and Patrick Bateman.”

Joe Goldberg is no stranger to hiding bodies. In the past ten years, this thirty-something has buried four of them, collateral damage in his quest for love. Now he’s heading west to Los Angeles, the city of second chances, determined to put his past behind him.

In Hollywood, Joe blends in effortlessly with the other young upstarts. He eats guac, works in a bookstore, and flirts with a journalist neighbor. But while others seem fixated on their own reflections, Joe can’t stop looking over his shoulder. The problem with hidden bodies is that they don’t always stay that way. They re-emerge, like dark thoughts, multiplying and threatening to destroy what Joe wants most: true love. And when he finds it in a darkened room in Soho House, he’s more desperate than ever to keep his secrets buried. He doesn’t want to hurt his new girlfriend—he wants to be with her forever. But if she ever finds out what he’s done, he may not have a choice…

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Audiobook, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Contemporary, Crime

Audiobook

First published January 14, 2016

About the author

Caroline Kepnes is the New York Times bestselling author of You, Hidden Bodies, Providence and...

You Love Me. Publishing in the US on Aril 6, 2021

(You know You Netflix? That's based on my Joe Goldberg books! You can read You3 before Season 3)

Her work has been translated into a multitude of languages and inspired a television series adaptation of You, currently on Netflix. Kepnes graduated from Brown University and then worked as a pop culture journalist for Entertainment Weekly and a TV writer for 7th Heaven and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She grew up on Cape Cod, and now lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Emma Giordano · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m sorry, but this book was not good at all. A super unnecessary sequel that lost absolutely everything that made You such a hit. I don’t think it’s possible for me to be more disappointed. This is one of my least favorite books I’ve ever read.

CW: stalking, violence, murder, substance abuse

I was deeply disappointed with the direction of Joe’s character. In You, Joe has a unique path of development. It’s clear he is a very twisted man who does horrible, irredeemable things, yet there are moments that make him seem a little less terrible which keep you fascinated enough to keep reading. The only words I could use to describe Joe in Hidden Bodies is straight up homicidal. In You, he has reasons behind his violent acts - albeit, deluded reasons - but he leads the reader to believe he’s acting out of his own perverse conscience. In Hidden Bodies, if a character breathes wrong, he goes off on a tangent about all the different ways he’d like to murder them. I get that a large part of You is following Joe as he gets more involved with stalking Beck and takes increasing risks to achieve his goals, but it’s as if we hit the height of his character at the end and there was nowhere else for him to go in the second installment. Additionally, his overall characterization was watered down. In book one, it was clear Joe genuinely believed he was in love with Beck and working towards her greater interests, but I refuse to believe Joe “loved” any of the women he claimed to love in book two. (I mean you can also argue Joe was never capable of loving Beck in the first place, but my point is in regard to how Joe treats the new love interests in comparison to Beck when he claims to love them even MORE than her.) There was no chemistry, nothing from Joe’s end to suggest he felt more than attracted towards them, yet the author attempts to fabricate this nonexistent emotion from Joe. Moreover, the secondary characters were so vapid and one-dimensional. The characters of You were all equally flawed and infuriating, but they brought something to the story. They were unique and necessary. Every character in Hidden Bodies could have been replaced with any stereotypical Los Angeles “wannabe” with interpersonal issues. There was nothing enticing about ANY character in this book, which made it much more difficult to sit through their flat personalities.

Another shining element of You that is absent in Hidden Bodies was the second person narrative. Having a story told from the perspective of a stalker with a dual relationship TO the person being stalked without their knowledge was creepy, unsettling, and extremely unique. Without Joe telling the story to Beck, it lost all that magic that was created in book one. Obviously, the perspective had to change but in doing so, it reverted the book to any other adult thriller. The writing itself was fair; I can’t say I noticed a significant decline from You, but it was no longer notable.

The plot was also SUPER boring. I could not stand to put down You but I was begging for the end of Hidden Bodies very early on. Even the moments that should have evoked suspense and intensity were muted due to the lack of chemistry between characters and lack of urgency because everyone else was just SO DUMB. The worst part is that that the most exciting plot twist from Hidden Bodies was actually a twist that was reused from You. Even with all of the decline from book one, we couldn’t just get something new in a sequel to a best-selling novel? It almost felt like the author gave up trying to create something fresh within this world and tried to rely on the success of book one to sell the sequel.

The SINGULAR decent part of Hidden Bodies is when the storyline does cross over back to the events of You (Despite being a sequel, the premise of book two doesn’t actually have much to do with the actual events of book one for a lot of the story). This was the only part of the novel to make me excited to find out what happened next and captured what I loved about book one. Then again, it just further proves that Hidden Bodies is woefully subpar to it’s predecessor and it was nowhere near enough to carry this story.

Overall, this book was a total disappointment. If you enjoyed You as much as myself, be kind to yourself and skip this one. This is the most unnecessary sequel to ever be written. I desperately wish I hadn’t read it and allowed it to partially taint my view of one of my favorite thriller novels. Not worth your time.

[Emily May · Rating 3 out of 5]

I buy violets for Amy. Not roses. Roses are for people who did something wrong. I have done everything right this time around. I’m a good boyfriend. I chose well.

And so begins the sequel to Kepnes' beautiful little mindfuck - You. We are taken, once again, inside the mind of Joe Goldberg as he, yet again, pursues his "true love". This time, his adventures take him all the way to Los Angeles.

Hidden Bodies is good, but honestly, Kepnes has lost a little magic here. I think it was always going to be hard. You presented us with a unique kind of narrator - the kind of charming, intelligent, witty sociopath that we all loved to hate. Armed with gorgeous prose and an underlying murderous quality, Joe was something new and surprising.

This book is... more of the same. It's beautifully-written and the writing has a dynamic flow that keeps the pages moving quickly, and yet there's no spark of discovery. Readers will come to this book knowing what to expect from Joe and getting it, which, while sometimes enjoyable, does not add much to the story.

Joe's narrative is as dark and hilarious as before. I especially liked his criticisms of Los Angeles; even though I personally love the city, it's funny to see his perspective as a New Yorker. His observations are witty and oh so true.

But, where the first book was different and shocking, this book was merely "fun". I personally feel You ended in a perfect place to haunt its readers and make them think long after they put the book down. Hidden Bodies attempts to add to a story that didn't really need to be extended - and it shows.

The plot occasionally felt like rambling. Joe was less exciting to read about. So, while an entertaining commentary, this book just wasn't needed.

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[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caroline Kepnes, I don't know if you know this or not but you are building a legion of fangirls and boys. We will follow you..........


Joe is that character that you are not sure you should admit to liking. You sure as hell shouldn't publicly acclaim just how much you adore him.


Joe falls for Amy, that chick from the end of the last book that gave him a fake credit card. She is so perfect for him. They get each other.
Then the scamming heifer takes off after robbing him.
Joe is not going to let that go. They had a relationship. It's unreal that she would do this.
So now poor Joe heads to somewhere he never thought he would go. Hollywood.


Los Angeles is full of places to hide a body, but when the person inside the body doesn't love you, it's not an easy thing, turning that breathing person into a dead one.

Joe even breaks down and has friends...and joins facebook.


Then Joe meets Love. Joe has that relationship. He has a match! Love loves Joe.


This book did go slow in places but Kepnes writes so damn well that I couldn't put it down. You have to know where she is going with her stories. Even when I figured stuff out I still wanted more.
I want more...and then some more.

So rest up Caroline Kepnes, please keep Joe going strong. Eat, rest and please keep writing.


So I Lyfted to Home Depot where I bought random stuff, rope and duct tape, plastic bags, cable ties, and plastic gloves. The girl at the register winked and said she's also a big fan of "Fifty Shades" and this is what has become of our society.
Fucking and killing are the same damn thing.

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 1 out of 5]

AND ONE STAR GOES TO THE WORST THRILLER BOOK I WISH I HAVEN’T READ!

I wanted to read this sequel even though I wasn’t a big fan of the first book and I wanted to see what was coming next on Netflix series! L.A. could be nice change of view for Joe’s killer instincts (maybe he may save us from so many obnoxious, B-rated stars and jackals and abusers who destroy lives in movie industry)

OMG dammit what happened to the witty, intellectual, sarcastic and entertaining inner monologue of Joe? The author didn’t only destroy his character and his creepy but somewhat likable memory of the previous book, she also crashed his body trembling down for several times with her car! She turned him into a half-witted, awkward, surreal, aimless guy had no resemblance with Joe Goldberg!

I read nearly 150 pages! I hated the meaningless long sentences, artificial, worse characterizations (if they could give Razzy awards for the book characters, they could gather all the statues!) weak references to the popular culture and silly names! Yikes! I hated everything about this book. I could write a book named “10 million things I hate about Hidden Bodies”

Sorry but this time the author deserved my slaps more than characters. And RIP Joe Goldberg! Your character is ruined by the hands of the author but I’m so sure the screenwriters and Penn Badgley’s amazing portrait could save you for the upcoming projects.

I hope the writer changes the decision to write sequels to inspire series’ writers. Sorry to remind but Sera Gamble is one the most talented writers and her show “Supernatural” is about to end at its 15th season so without an author’s help, she can create more and so much better stories about Joe!
As a summary: I HATE IT! I WANT TO ERASE THE WORDS I’VE READ AND TURN MY BRAIN OFF FOR RECOVERY!

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.3/5 Stars ⭐️

“It is possible to know people. They show you who they are. You just have to be looking.”

Oh boy. Where do I begin? Have you ever felt like reading a book could manifest itself? Like you could actually have not only mental but physical symptoms from the experience? I felt like death was coming while reading it. Coronavirus has nothing on this. And I actually finished this book while on quarantine.

This book contains more Woody Allen references than Riverdale's random pop culture references. This book loves the smell of its own farts and cum. This book is more pretentious than an actual Woody Allen movie and there's nothing more pretentious than that. I wanted to punch every single character more than I wanted to punch Timothée Chalamet's little pretentious Woody Allen esque character in A Rainy Day in New York (2019). I HATE EVERYTHING.

I can't believe how much this book deviates from its predecessor. Yes, YOU isn't a perfect book, it's very problematic actually but it's thrilling and it grips you tight in. This one... has nothing to hold your attention. This book is just Joe spewing out hate towards L.A. pretentious people while HIMSELF spews out pretentious shit like a L.A. person while in L.A. himself. Ah, yes. Exactly like a Woody Allen film. Ugh there are also so much Manson and Cosby mentions here, the only one missing was Weinstein honestly! Jeez.

I had heard the worst motherfucking shit about this banger here. From Goodreads users, booktubers even a friend. Of course, I'm such a completist, I just had to see how the second season was in the book like. Don't get me wrong, the second season wasn't a marvel of television but it was intriguing. And then I find out of course... THEY CHANGED LIKE 90% OF THE BOOK. This is the only time I can condone this kind of action. I mostly want movies and tv shows to be exact copies of their source material, like all book lovers of course. IF the source material is of merit. IF the source material is straight out of the garbage, then YES NETFLIX DRAG 'EM.

This book has Candace on the cover while Candace in the book world is DEAD. Why did they make a media tie in version of this with this particular Netflix poster? Couldn't they remove Candace? They might as well add Beck on the mix. I'm a graphic designer, I can fix that up for you fellas. So incompetent. I'm so tired of this bullshit.

Don't read this book, don't even think about reading this book. If you want to indulge yourself with these characters and world, watch the show. The second season is like 90% different than this mess. IF you see me picking up the third and the fourth books (why is this a thing) slap me, kill me, bully me, idk what. I'm very OCD about not completing things but I can't do this to myself! Thank you and goodbye.

[NickReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

a bunch of psychopaths trying to do what they think it is right, in their own way.

[Candace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved 'You' and started 'Hidden Bodies' immediately after I finished it. Looking back, I think that maybe I should have taken a break from the endearingly crazy Joe. Two books full of his rants and rationalizations back to back was just too much. Joe's special brand of crazy is probably best served in small doses. I absolutely loved him, but soon grew irritated with his antics. You really can get too much of a good thing.

After the way things ended for Beck, Joe finds a new object of obsession, Amy. Pretty soon, he's following her - unbeknownst to her, of course - across the country. In no time, Joe integrates himself into the lifestyle of a struggling Hollywood writer.

Along the way, Joe makes some new friends and gains some new love interests. As we know, where there is a love interest for Joe, there's bound to be some hidden bodies. This book was no exception.

Overall, I found this to be a good story. I think I would have liked it more if I had taken a little break between books 1 and 2. I absolutely love Joe as a character, but by midway through 'Hidden Bodies' his craziness was starting to get on my nerves. I think his quirks are best handled a little at a time. I give it 3.5 stars.

See more of my reviews at www.bookaddicthaven.com

[Justin · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at page 84

I wasn't kidding when I said this is the worst book I've ever read. This is seriously the worst book I've ever read. Every other book I actually finished and awarded one star and every other book I never finished because it sucked... all of those books are a million times better than this garbage that masquerades itself as a book.

Caroline Kepnes has to be a pseudonym for a thirteen year old boy who just learned about sex from his friend and spends his days watching porn and eating Cheetos. This is the most poorly written excuse for a book ever, and Kepnes can't put a sentence together without something explicit, sexual or otherwise. There are so many more deserving authors who could benefit from a glimmer of the spotlight she has somehow drunkenly staggered herself into these days.

There is not one redeeming quality about this book. It's pretentious, disgusting, uninspired, juvenile, immature, pathetic, and sad. It deserves no place in any bookstore or library, and all copies of this book should be burned or buried somewhere so we can all forget it was ever written.

[Esil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh dear, Ms. Kepnes. You got me with You, but clearly you were out to get someone else with Hidden Bodies. What I found clever and enticing in You seems to have vanished, and in its place you took me on a crude meandering journey that felt too long -- way too long -- and pointless. In fact, it’s almost like you knew exactly what to do to shake me off. Instead of the bookish New York setting in You, you set Hidden Bodies in Hollywood with no literary references whatsoever. And focusing on Hollywood, you mocked the vapid world of the wannabe young actors and film makers -- but that got old – and did I mention crude -- pretty quickly. And you even dropped the second person singular narrative voice that had really got me in You. And Joe the stalker just seemed icky and pathetic – there was nothing tugging at my sympathy strings this time. I almost gave up a few times -- and I must confess that I did some pretty heavy duty skimming -- but I had to read to the end to make sure you hadn’t set some kind of trap for me somewhere along the way. But no – from beginning to end, you were determined to shake me off. Hey, I get it, you’ve moved on and now you clearly have your sights on someone else. And it looks like you’ve succeeded, because many readers seem to have loved Hidden Bodies. That’s fine. My feelings aren’t hurt. You’ve lost interest in me. I’ve lost interest in you. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

The rare re-read continues with the second book in the You franchise and once again when it comes to my original thoughts below . . . .



But I'm doubling down on this being a stupid effing title. It should have been Love. Especially with the upcoming book three. You then Love then You Love Me . . . .



ORIGINAL REVIEW:

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN ZERO SPOILERS, BUT WILL BE FULL OF IDIOTIC FANGIRL SQUEEING. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK



Mic check 1 2 1 2. Is my auto-tuner working, yo? A’ight, here goes [using my best T Pain voice] . . .

He trippin’ he playin’
I'm not goin’ nowhere boy I'm stayin’
I’M IN LOVE WITH A STRIPPER STALKER

In what was easily my most anticipated release of 2015, Hidden Bodies brings the return of Joe - my favorite anti-hero to date. While You was written all about the “you” Joe happened to be stalking enamored with, Hidden Bodies is all about the “we” as Joe finds love.

This is one of those series (and Joe is one of those characters) that you either get or you don’t. It’s totally cool if stalkers and body counts aren’t your idea of a good time, and it’s A-Okay to give it 1 Star (or to not give it the time of day at all). However, if you’re like me and gave in to the crazy the first time around, hopefully you’ll fall even a little harder for Joe this time. Kepnes’ writing makes it nearly impossible not to . . .

“I don’t believe in love at first sight. But I do believe in electricity, the way it can recharge you. I am healing.”



I also have to make the observation that catching the last train for the coast was sheer genius. The pop culture references abound in La-La Land, when Joe becomes an “Old Sport” who hobnobs with modern-day Gatsbys . . .



I’m still amazed how quickly Kepnes can make me forget the minor inconvenience of Joe Goldberg being a complete nutter . . .

“We live here now, in this room, in these sheets, like a fucking John Mayer song come to life.”



Even when what he’s saying is straight up cray . . .

“I wanted to place my hand on the small of her back and lead her down to the cage, where the special books are preserved, boxed, saved. I wanted to strip her down and lock us inside and have her.”



I was going to give this one 4 Stars because it did get a wee bit draggy in some spots. But you know what? F*&^ that! Kudos to you, Ms. Kepnes for staying true to Joe, staying true to the story, and staying true to your fanbase. I anxiously await the conclusion to Joe’s story. My only wish – that you would have kept the original title Love. After all, Joe is the perfect example that . . .



ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ENDLESS THANKS TO YOU, NETGALLEY!

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 out of 5 stars to Hidden Bodies, the second book in a thriller and suspense series by Caroline Kepnes. Last month, my buddy Medhat suggested a read of You, the first novel in the series. It was such a fantastic book, probably in my top 2 of 2017 to date, that I had to continue reading the series. I've heard rumors there will be a third book, but I've yet to see it confirmed. I need to check on that! I am also completely excited as Lifetime is turning the books into a television series. I can't wait... but until then, let's get on with the review of this second book. While I enjoyed several parts of it, it doesn't hold a candle to the first book and I'll explain why below.

Plot, Characters & Setting
When we left off at the end of You, our protagonist/villain, Joe, completed his vicious cycle of crossing many lines and breaking tons of laws in NYC all in the name of love, also known to most people as stalking your prey. Yet he escaped without anyone knowing of his crimes and found himself falling in love with a new potential victim, Amy Adam. Joe begins trusting Amy, realizing she's a much-improved version of his last girlfriend, Beck. Amy begins pushing him for a key to his bookstore, which we all know from reading the first book contains a few secrets Joe would prefer stay buried, like some bodies. He hides everything as much as he possibly can, caving in to his girlfriend in order to hold on to her. When he arrives for work a few days later, the place has been robbed and Amy is missing. Did she do it? Was she kidnapped as payback for his prior crimes? What does she know? You'll find out... he finds a lead that shows she may be in Los Angeles. Joe quits his job and moves cross-country, where he meets an interesting cast of characters in his typical LA apartment. He negotiates/manipulates his way into working closely with a few Hollywood type agents and producers, finding himself falling in love with a new woman, coincidentally named Love.

Love is perfect for Joe. She adores him. And he soon forgets about Amy. All seems well for a short period of time. But he keeps worrying about the one piece of evidence of his former crimes back in Rhode Island... and it drives him nearly insane, especially when the case is re-opened. He knows he has to find a way to retrieve it without anyone seeing him in the victim's house. Unfortunately, he's distracted by Delilah, one of the women in his apartment complex who has the hots for him. And then there's a cop who has taken a dislike to Joe, tailing him at different parts of the day while Joe is trying to tie up loose ends. But it's when Love's ex-boyfriend and her brother monopolize all of Love's time, Joe goes off the rails. As he begins to unwind, adding more and more crimes to his list in order to cover up the past and protect himself from losing Love, Joe finds himself getting careless. It all comes crashing down in the last few chapters of the book, ending at a place where it's very clear, a third book is necessary. Readers will not be OK with this ending, as it opens more holes than the one's Joe's already had to dig for each of his hidden bodies.

Approach & Style
Whereas in the first book, Joe talks to the readers almost as if they are Beck, it's quite different in this second book. It's still told in first person with the perspective only on Joe throughout the whole story; however, there's no concept of "you" this time around. It works just as well, given the title is no longer "You," which means alternative progression is an expected path.

I read a large-sized soft-cover book with ~430 pages. There are 56 chapters, so each one is less than 8 pages long on average. It took me 4 days over the course of a week, as I couldn't read each day; in total, probably about 6 hours. Some sections are a bit slow-paced while others are ultimate page-turners where you probably skip every fifth word just to see more quickly what's happening.

Strengths
Kepnes can certainly dream up extremely aggravating and realistic characters. Everyone she incorporates feels like someone I've met before, and at times, I wish I could be Joe and punish them for the things they say and do. But I'm a good guy and I don't commit many crimes. I mean any crimes.

When she's on point with a dramatic scene, the plot and action is amazing. A few scenes were just as good as the initial book, especially when Joe is dealing with Delilah and the cop. It's almost like we never left the first book.

Love is a really multi-dimensional woman; she has moments of brilliance followed by sheer silliness. I want her to be with Joe, but sometimes, she seems too good for him.

The settings are crystal clear for the most part. I can always tell where we are and whether it's gonna be a safe zone or all hands to the battle field.

Concerns
It was such a let-down from the first book. Joe became weak. I didn't buy his drama. He seemed to cause problems for the sake of causing problems. He had the girl. But he let himself get caught up in other areas, ones that made him a true criminal and not a man in love. That's where he becomes a bad stalker. In the first book, he loved the girl so much, you could see why he did the things he did. This time, I struggled connecting with his motivation. He became every other evil antagonist, rather than the guy you wanted to root for.

The ending gets closer to the original strength, but not all the way. I was pleasantly surprised when the last 100 or so pages took the story in quite a different and unexpected direction, but it wasn't enough to turn the book around for me. If this were the only book I read, and I didn't know much about the original plot, it wouldn't have been a book I'd recommend to friends. And that's sad because Joe is an amazing villain. I toyed with giving this less than 3 stars but I know that is mostly the disappointment in ruining a good character. It's redeemable in a third book, so I will have faith things get better.

Final Thoughts
The story is still good. It's got major problems with his constant quest for sex, which is just an overused plot component in this book. Pull that out. Take out the section where he turns into a whiny mess. And maybe give him a few more close calls, and we're back in the game.

About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.

[Charlotte May · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Because the real horror of my life is not that I’ve killed some terrible people. The real horror is that the people I’ve loved didn’t love me back.”

Oh Joe, you sick and twisted bastard. This was absolutely brilliant! Just as addictive as book 1. We left Joe with his sights set on another woman, Amy Adam - a girl who walks into his bookshop and once again Joe is infatuated.
He does whatever he can to be with Amy, but when they finally get together, she royally screws him over. Joe can’t deal with this, Amy needs to be punished for breaking his heart like that, so he follows her to LA; his plan to find her and of course, kill her.

What follows as he attempts to hunt her down is another collection of murders, people who get in Joe’s way, or just plain piss him off. Meanwhile, the murders from him time in New York are catching up to him, cases are reopened, the police are looking more closely into the deaths - it’s only a matter of time.

Once again Joe is such an interesting main character. He is funny and smart, but ultimately he is a murderer, you don’t wanna get on his bad side.

Loved this! Can’t wait to read more from Caroline Kepnes.

“And really, it’s like love itself, like drinking. We all get our hearts broken. We get fucked up and throw up and we cry and listen to sad songs and we’re never doing that again. But to be alive is to do it again. To be alive is to risk it all.”

[Delee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always worry when a second book in a series comes out- will it be a good as the first one? In this case...I would have to say a BIG YES! If you loved Joe as much as I did in- You...You will not mind having him weed out some of the pesky folk that have the unfortunate fate- to come up against him in the sequel- HIDDEN BODIES.

...and do I feel guilty for loving a serial killer that sees some of these idiots as mere inconveniences to be be brushed aside to make his life easier? No...no I don't. After all this is fiction...and they are reeaaaaaaaaaaaally annoying. Go Joe! ;)



Joe is back! And after his relationship with Beck "ended" in YOU- Joe quickly sets his sights on the mysterious Amy. She shows up looking for employment at the perfect time and Joe is intrigued. Where Beck was an open book, laying everything out online for him to track and follow, Amy believes in none of that. He hires her...and shortly after, makes her his girlfriend- and falls head over heels.



For awhile life is wonderful- and Joe settles into utter bliss with "off the grid" Amy...but as her true nature reveals itself- he realizes finding a girl exactly the opposite of Beck may not have been the wisest choice. Now that she has deceived him and fled- finding and dealing with her is a tad more complicated than he would have liked.



So Joe packs his bags and leaves New York City, following Amy's almost non-existent trail to Los Angles...



....entering a very different world than he was used to....and getting sidetracked from his mission to rid the world of Amy- when he meets THE REAL girl of his dreams...Love.



...but Love comes with her own set of problems. As Joe is finding out the hard way- no girl is perfect...sometimes unfortunately for him...and sometimes unfortunately for her. Which category Love fits in- You will have to read to find out.



In the most simple terms- if you loved Joe the first time- you will probably love him the second time. If you hated him and found his journey to find a soulmate that he didn't want to kill less than satisfying- the odds are you should probably stop at YOU...but seriously what fun would that be?

Thank you NetGalley for providing me this gloooooooooooorious book to read and review!

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It all goes like that: Q: Oh, fuck. Double thousand triple fuckity fuck. (c)

The 2nd book is even better than the 1st one, imho. The author is going to be very careful so that the3d one doesn't repeat Harris' flop with his 3d vol of Hannibal Lecter. Joe & Love are such precocious characters that I have no idea what path would let the 3d book to be at least equal in standing with its predecessors.

Q:
I smile. We exist. We are both on a journey and we are both in love and that’s all anyone can hope for in life. (c)

In this one, Joe spends a lot of quality time contemplating his forgotten mug of piss... I'm not kidding. It's mentioned or referenced about 60 (!) times.
Q:
At night I worry. I wonder if there are other mugs of piss, if I forgot about them. (c)
Q:
I am not unique; to be alive is to have a mug of urine out there. ...
The mug is an aberration. A flaw. Proof that I’m not perfect, even though I’m usually so precise, so thorough. (c)
Q:
Sometimes I can’t believe how alike we are.”
I stiffen. “You’ve looked in my phone?” CandaceBenjiPeachBeckMugofUrine. (c)
Q:
… if this were a cartoon, I could stretch my rubber arm all the way across the beach, into that house, up those rickety stairs, into that bedroom, reclaim my mug of urine, and then, then I would have it all. (c)
Q:
He is boiling down to his fuck you self. This is his mug of urine, his mistake, and his is infinitely worse than mine. His mug of piss may not contain his DNA, but it reveals so much more, his demented ego, his emotional core. (c)
Q:
But you can’t go back in time; I know this from the mug of fucking piss. (c)
Q:
I don’t see any cameras but the mug of piss I left in Rhode Island is with me at times like this. (c)

I also totally loved how Joe got his ass handed to him by a girl!
Q:
Her foot is a weapon and she knows it. She kicks me in the crotch. I scream and roll to my side and that foot gets my kidney. I fold into myself and now she gets my tailbone and I retreat and now that fucking foot jabs me in my belly.
“Stop!” I beg. ...
This was supposed to be Amy. That was supposed to be me on the bed, in control. I open my eyes. She perceives my eyes as a threat and she jumps off the bed and kicks me in the head. ...
I cry.
In the big way. (c)
Q:
This girl doesn’t want to bring in male authority figures; look how many resistance bands she has in her possession. She was training for something like this. This girl is a vigilante... (c)
Q:
“Who are you?”
This matters, what I say to her. I have to be someone she wants to set free. This is the most important question I will ever answer and I swallow. (c)


And he's still his borderline stalkery OCD self.
Q:
I have done everything right this time around. I’m a good boyfriend. I chose well. (c)
Q:
Everything can wait when you have love in your life. (c)
Q:
He says it’s odd the way I know so many people who don’t fucking exist anymore and I let him rant. I don’t tell him that the last person who said that to me wound up dead. (с)
Q:
(Of course I’ve followed her and I occasionally look in her phone. I have to know that she isn’t lying.) (c)
Q:
YOU don’t go to a party empty-handed and my reusable Pantry bag is stuffed with rope, my Rachael Ray knife, rubber gloves, plastic bags, duct tape…
… Home Depot, where I bought random stuff, rope and duct tape, plastic bags, cable ties, and plastic gloves. The girl at the register winked and said she’s also a big fan of Fifty Shades… (с)
Q:
I wish it were socially acceptable to brandish a knife. (c)
Q:
And this, this is why you have to kill people. If you don’t, they don’t learn anything. They just reemerge, more muscled, more manipulative, more hell-bent on taking you down, maneuvering reporters into furthering their agenda.(c)
Q:
I’m also going to kill her because there is no happy ending for a star-fucking girl like Delilah, a girl who actively refuses to embrace her talents, celebrate her insides, lead with her brain. (c)
Q:
It’s the little things that make you want to kill someone... (c)
Q:
I win. Milo does too. He’s alive ... (c)
Q:
He takes the microphone and he hasn’t learned anything yet. He starts by ranting at me that he’s a cop—as if I didn’t know this—that he’s an American—as if I’m not—that he’s gonna see to it that I wind up behind bars—as if he’s in a position to do this. ...
“This is crazy. You gotta let me out of here.”
That’s not happening and he should realize that and I ignore him and I spin through his Rolodex and thank God that I am me, that I didn’t get sick like this, that I don’t covet imaginary friends and pry into places where I don’t belong. What a dreadful existence, to be the man in possession of this Rolodex. (c)


How do you kill philosophically? You don't. Joe does.
Q:
I think that’s why people in LA fall apart, why they get so needy, so desperate for validation, for their cars, for their body parts, for their talents. They forgot that the sweetest thing in life is to be alone, as you were born, as you will die, soaking in the sun, knowing that you put the cactus in the right place, that you don’t need someone to come along and compliment your work, that someone who did that would, in fact, just be getting in the way. I am at peace here. Fincher is too. (c)
Q:
It’s just where you want to be when you fly back to America after burying a dead cop... (c)


He's being his judgmental self:
Q:
Cunts want to be snowflakes. (c)
Q:
I see his small life, it’s all in his eyes, unlived, dreams he didn’t chase, dreams he won’t chase, not because he’s a pussy, because he simply doesn’t see his dreams in detail, the kind of details that drive a person to pack their shit, to move. (c)
Q:
“An actor?” It stings. Why not a director? Or doctor? (c) Authority issues, pal?
Q:
She is evil. She is dangerous. She is incapable of love. She is a sociopath. Worse than a borderline. That’s why she uses fucking burner phones. She’s a criminal. (с)
Q:
They all think this, these girls—Amy—that they can leave your past behind. Don’t they know it’s not that simple? It’s not the past if it’s not finished. (с)
Q:
For now though, it’s time for him to learn a lesson. I’m rummaging through his duffel bag. The contents alone are reason enough to kill him. He brought headshots and five-pound weights and condoms and Jimmy Buffett T-shirts (tags on, asshole) and banana hammocks. Didn’t he get the memo that this was work? But that’s not even the bad part. The bad part is that Robin Fincher keeps an old-fashioned secretarial Rolodex of celebrity encounters. I’m serious. (c)
Q:
“You won’t get away with this.”
“Of course I will,” I say. “If you were a better cop, you’d realize that by now.” (c)


Gasp! And a feminist! For about a sec:
Q:
Every woman in this place yells something along the lines of I-will-fuck-you and if you want to see the opposite of feminism, go to a comedian’s house. (c)


He's unabashedly something else:
Q:
This was not a blowjob; this was fellatio, my friends. (c)
Q:
When a woman wants to socialize, no penis in the world can replace meaningless conversation… (c)
Q:
… it must have been so much easier in the dark ages, before restaurants, when there was no fucking Little Compton Coupon Guide designed with the explicit purpose of interfering in our fuckfest. (c)
Q:
… I put my Charles in her Charlotte… (c)
Q:
I am goal oriented. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be a productive member of society. Even now, I do my best. I keep one hand in Love’s vagina and one hand on my phone. I am a multitasker. I don’t bask. (c)
Q:
She straddles me and I live here now, in Malibu, in Love. Hunting season is over.(c)
Q:
You have to understand, I am living in a dream world. Every morning begins with Love riding my dick. (c)
Q:
I picture her alone in the middle of the night cutting her inner thighs, but it’s possible that I’m wrong, that some people are just free of demons. (c)


He still tells himself pretty little stories about the world:
Q:
She likes a story, my little anthropologist, my listener. (c)
Q:
Beck was such a mess that in order to take care of her, I had to follow her home and hack into her e-mail and worry about her Facebook and her Twitter and her nonstop texting, all the contradictions, the lies. ...
That sick girl lied to the people with whom she was closest—me, Peach, her fucking fellow writers in school. She told me her father was dead. (He wasn’t.) She told me she hated Magnolia just because her friend Peach hated it. (She was lying. I read her e-mail.) (c)
Q:
… this is why people shouldn’t commit suicide, because maybe, someday, you might get to sit in the shade with someone who is refreshingly different! (c)
Q:
God, I love her brain, all pink and mushy and suspicious. (c)
Q:
Families fascinate me; Peach is dead, but there is her nose, her frizzy hair. (c)
Q:
He pours the rest of his lean onto the grassy sand and I imagine the squirrels stoned. (c)
Q:
At the rental joint, the guy asks me if I had any trouble with the car. It is with great pleasure that I tell him we had absolutely no trouble at all. He looks at me like I’m crazy and it’s okay because I am. (c)
Q:
Making It in Hollywood is the most disgusting phrase in the English language. It’s more disturbing than prolific serial killer and rare terminal illness. (c)
Q:
And this is when I know I’ve caught aspirations. Nothing good can come from them. I knew this before I moved here. (c)


Casually admits to having authority issues:
Q:
“We’re gonna get to the bottom of some of these choices. Same way I acknowledged my bad choice when I crossed the street. Yes, I have authority issues. I concede that I should have waited for the walk signal, Robin. I can be a punk. I am a little fucking New York that way and you were right and I accepted my responsibility.” (c)


Some of his moments of clarity are awesome:
Q:
I wasted my time worrying about Milo when I should have been keeping eyes on Forty. Milo was never a threat. He loves Love and she doesn’t love him back and most of the time in life, I’m starting to realize, love is not the problem. It’s the people like Forty, like Amy, like Beck, the people who are loveless. And it’s possible to know this right away. Forty labeled me Old Sport because he didn’t want me to have a name. It is possible to know people. They show you who they are. You just have to be looking. (c)
Q:
His absence is a wrecking ball and Love is a tired, brittle, worried mess and this is what I cannot allow. I can’t let him do this to her, to us. He can steal all my scripts. Fine. But he can’t torture Love. She knew right away what he was up to. (c)


And he’s still that pesky romantic, gasp!
Q:
In this bar, lying to these strangers, there has never been more honesty between us. We are closer with every lie, undercover together, fusing. (c)
Q:
I wish I could hit PAUSE and stay here in this moment, with the light fading. This is what all the love songs are about, the moment when you find your own way forward with someone and there is no turning back. (c)
Q:
I can’t wait to be old with her. (c)
Q:
It’s a truth that most people never want to own up to that some people were born at the wrong time. ... I feel extremely sorry for Forty because without a time machine, he will never be happy. (c)
Q:
Somewhere along the way she broke her own heart and without a heart, you can’t get better. (c)
Q:
The key is not just to continue believing, after all, but the key to life is to believe in something that matters, something big and beautiful, something more profound than fame, money. (c)
Q:
We fuck and we talk, our songs are on a loop, our life is on a loop, and suddenly my favorite word in the English language: We. (c)

Joe does some mean eulogizing this time around:
Q:
Anyone could stand up here and speak to Forty’s charming wit, his burgeoning brilliance, his generosity, his swagger, his madras shorts and madcap sense of adventure, his extensive knowledge of film and his idealist sense of commitment. ...
Forty Quinn knew that love is all there is; everything else is transient, impermanent. If he had made it across that street, I can guarantee you that he would have gotten out of the jaywalking ticket. (c)


He's freshly retired from murdering random people! Yay! Such an outstanding boy!
Q:
I was very good at killing people when I needed to be.
Was. The past tense. I’m retired. (c)
Q:
Angelenos like to meditate and stare at expensive statues of Buddha, and I stare at the cement. Same difference. I learn to smile at everyone and I feel the world reciprocate. (c) Reads like something that could stem from a self-help manual.
Q:
You believe in love. It really is all you need, although yes, a solid defense attorney helps too. (c)
Q:
I’ve already confessed my past to Love and I don’t want to confess my present. (c)
Q:
I am done with all that. And I will not let my past dictate my future. (c) Amen.

Well..., it’s a fun read. In it, he gets in love with Love. Wow. :
Q:
All of life is slightly dependent on magic. (c)
Q:
I don’t like this culture of reading a book and spitting out an immediate reaction. (c)
Q:
He’s an alcoholic and I bet he doesn’t remember most of his life but he better try. (c)
Q:
As if not cool is the correct way to describe being tied up and interrogated. (c)
Q:
We read. We both agree that our respective works are genius. Forty is blown away by my vision in Fakers and I give it right back to him. I claim to be impressed by structure in The Mess even though The Mess is incoherent nonsense. (c)
Q:
This is why people like writing. You visit old friends without having to go on Facebook and see what they’re up to ... You make them into what you want them to be, the people they could be if only they were braver, smarter. (c)
Q:
“Every story begins as a story,” he says, as if this makes any sense. (c)
Q:
“It seems so random, like someone passionately demanding a grilled chicken sandwich.” (c)
Q:
“My job is to make things work,” she says. “My job is not to tear them down.”
“We’re talking about a blowjob,” I remind her. “Not world peace.” (c)
Q:
It is worse than I thought and better than I thought. It is a lesson in instincts. (c)
Q:
Everyone has something. Some people have a difficult child and some people have a sick child and some people have a limp and some people have an impossible mother and there is nobody on earth who has nothing. I have a mug of my DNA in a house in Rhode Island. And this is what Love has: a brother. A nightmare. (c)
Q:
If I got an e-mail from someone claiming to be Megan Fox, I would assume it was spam. I would think someone was fucking with me. Fincher is a cop. He’s not a moron. But maybe he is because look at his fucking response, almost immediate: (c)
Q:
We need some sort of awareness program about aspirations, the way they degrade the brains of Los Angeles. (c)
Q:
I remember feeling this happy once, when I was a kid. Snow covered the streets and they were perfect and white, as if the world had been coated in vanilla ice cream. My mom said school was canceled and I could go outside. I’d seen snow before, but there was something about the snow that day. (c)
Q:
I pretend to care if a marlin nips at my line while I think about Fincher. He arrives later today. My plan is simple... (c)
Q:
THE water was beautiful but the situation is irritating. I still don’t have Captain Dave’s key. He keeps them looped to his belt; they may as well be attached to his dick. (c)
Q:
It is a miracle that she is not a vapid nitwit and this is the rest of my life, under the covers... (c)
Q:
... he is so high that he doesn’t ask where we’re going. He only rants about how he’s never getting married and how he’s gonna live with me and Love and all the fun we’re gonna have. He’s sealing the deal on his death... (c) Some people are like that. Twisted.
Q:
This is the part of college I never wanted: a self-important fuckwit contemplating the sea. (c)
Q:
I look at Love and she smiles. She likes this story I’m telling because the truth would be terrible. (c)
Q:
I knock on the table. He squints. “Son,” he says. “That’s a metal table.”
He laughs and he goes and I find a birch tree. I knock. (c)
Q:
When you get baptized, you fall back into the water, your entire body. Some people hold their noses. Some people don’t. But there is no way around it; you have to get wet if you want to be in God’s hands. (c)
Q:
I gave her as much as I had, but it’s like the difference between a movie and a book: A book lets you choose how much of the blood you want to see. A book gives you the permission to see the story as you want, as your mind directs. You interpret. Your Alexander Portnoy doesn’t look like mine because we all have our own unique view. When you finish a movie you leave the theater with your friend and talk about the movie right away. When you finish a book you think. Love grew up on movies and I have just read her a book. I give her the time to digest. (c)
Q:
I’ve never harmed an animal; I can’t imagine being that sort of monster. (c)
Q:
It’s clear she’s never talked about this to anyone; you know when someone is opening up a box so private that there isn’t a key. (c)
Q:
The whole world feels bigger now that someone else knows everything, someone who loves me. (c)
Q:
The girl is dead and we were secret lovers. What can you ever do about that? (c)
Q:
She is not like me, not like Love. She is not burdened with a sensitive heart. Hers just beats. (c)
Q:
Nature is an inherently forward beast; footsteps disappear, past hurts fade. (c)
Q:
He says it’s odd the way I know so many people who don’t fucking exist anymore and I let him rant. I don’t tell him that the last person who said that to me wound up dead. (c)
Q:
In my head, I recite Corinthians; Love is patient, love is kind. (c)
Q:
The future is a frontier we can’t fully explore until we make it there, but then we arrive, and the distant horizon has become something else, something less romantic. ...
You realize your intuition is stronger than science, truer than a molecule. (c)
Q:
Life puts you in cage so that you’ll treasure your freedom, how lucky you were to be running on a beach, the way your girlfriend looked over her shoulder at you, the ring you did not fashion out of a straw. All time is good. No time is hard, not if you think of it as time to celebrate love. (c)

[Theresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

UPDATE: I had originally given "Hidden Bodies" 2 stars when I read it in July. Now that I've had time to fully digest it, I think I was actually too generous with my 2 star rating, a 1 star rating is much more appropriate.

What the hell did I just read?!?! I'll be honest, I felt like "You" was perfect the way it ended. "You" is one of my favorite novels I've read this year. It's unique, (second person narrative) sexy, intriguing, and beautifully written. So by the time, the sequel, "Hidden Bodies" was released in February, I was reluctant to read it. All my close friends seemed to enjoy it, so I decided to keep an open-mind and give it a chance. You know, sometimes I really need to listen to that little voice in my head saying, "No, don't read it, it won't be as good as the original!" Well, I've learned my lesson. Intuition is good, peer-pressure is bad!

"Hidden Bodies" is a 400+ train wreck. Joe is a pretentious know-it-all this time around. All his creepy but likeable charm is gone. I didn't root for him like I did in "You". I didn't really care about his obsessive need for revenge this time around. The whole Amy Adam storyline was completely pointless. If Joe is so smart like he claims to be, why couldn't he tell Amy was not a nice person? You want to know why? Because Joe sees what he wants to see. He thinks with his dick. Just being honest. Speaking of private parts, there was WAY TOO MUCH VULGARITY in this book! I swear it's all about sex, sex, and more sex. I'm not a prude but I got sick of hearing about Joe's sexual appetite every other page. Less is more, Caroline Kepnes. Now there were graphic sex scenes in "You" but the sexual tension was much more appealing in that book. Joe "chased" Beck. Joe doesn't have to "chase" anybody in "Hidden Bodies" because EVERY woman wants him. So unrealistic. How "hot" could this lonely, angry, depressed, pathetic little nerd be? Just saying.

The pacing of the plot is slow-moving. Halfway though, we are introduced to Love and Forty (yes, those are their real names, their parents are big tennis fans). Joe begins a sexual relationship with Love VERY quickly. He loves to be in Love. His words, not mine. Gross. And Joe becomes friends with the irresponsible and drug-addicted, Forty. Truthfully, this when I lost interest in the story. Basically, a bunch of silly crap unravels and Joe does what he does best...gets revenge. We meet other characters like Henderson and Delilah, and Love and Forty's idiot parents but really, who cares? Long story short, NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK! Well, nothing of value anyway. The ending is dumb and predictable and I'm 95% sure there will be a third book, but I won't waste my time and money reading it. This book suuuuuuucks!

Worst line:

"She kisses me as my cock delves into her and we are perfect together and I am better for knowing her and I'm still convinced that there's a special department in heaven where they build vaginas and if you're lucky like I am, one day you happen upon the one that was build for you."

Eww! I'm going to pretend this travesty of a novel NEVER happened.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

It is possible to know people. They show you who they are. You just have to be looking.”

I've been desperate to get my hands on this and it certainly didn't disappoint.I read this in 24 hours,I could not put it down.
The story picks up where book one ended.This probably could be read as a standalone as events from the first book are well explained but I STRONGLY advise reading You so you can truly understand Joe.

So after Joe's involvement with Beck ended he is with Amy.
Now Amy is nothing like Beck.She's not superficial ( or so he thinks ),she's not into social media which means he can't keep tabs on her like he could with Beck.
But,hey......they are the same and he falls hard.Until one day she steals from him and disappears.Now Joe is not going to accept this so he leaves New York and moves to Hollywood to track her down with only one thing on his mind.....revenge......

He finds himself in an alien world for him.He has to start interacting firstly on social media and also in life.
But soon thoughts of Amy disappear when he meets Love.The story is told only from Joe's pov and while his thoughts(and actions) are dark they are so witty at times.
I think I said this in my review for You I know it's wrong but I couldn't help loving Joe and routing for him.

This is a brilliant psychological thriller with a totally f*cked up character that I absolutely adore.Great secondary characters that are very well developed even if some are despicable.

Highly recommended.......

[Brandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars



I don't think I've ever loved a murderer as much I as love Joe Goldberg. I'm not sure if I should admit to that, but I don't care, he is just so damn entertaining. Caroline Kepnes has created one of the most fascinating characters I've ever had the pleasure to read. I'm not trying to turn into a gushing fangirl, but in all honestly I find her storytelling, her characters, and her writing simply brilliant. Hidden Bodies is quirky and addicting, with an element of underlying dark humor, I loved it.



Hidden Bodies picks up where You ended, effortlessly continuing the story of my favorite little sociopath. Poor Joe is just looking for love, but unfortunately for him, and those who cross his path, he has yet to find it. After things with Beck crashed and burned, he finds Amy, she is everything Beck wasn't, maybe he got it right this time? Or maybe not, when she robs him and takes off to Hollywood, Joe decides he has to find her, they were happy and he loved her, why would she do this???

She knew I was fucked up and alone. She knew I wanted a blowjob and a girlfriend and she knew I wanted these things so badly that I would let her watch Cocktail fifty times a fucking week in my bed, that I would give her a fucking key. I did that and I can't undo it. But I can find her. I can eliminate her.

Arriving in California Joe finds himself doing things he was adamantly against, he joins Facebook, makes friends, all part of his plan to find and punish Amy, but something unexpected happens, he meets Love.

Amy and I had sex and heat. Beck dangled a carrot and I bit. But Love and I grow the carrots, and peel them, and eat them together.

Hidden Bodies introduces a whole new cast of characters, and Joe's body count continues to climb. With a few unexpected twist and turns and the dreaded mugofurine plaguing his mind, Joe's life is constantly changing, but he may find more than revenge in LA, he may finally find love.


*ARC provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

[Lindsey Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

[I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.]

Loooooooooved it! I'd say this series is Dexter meets House of Cards and I seriously love every second of it. I need a third book ASAP! I liked this book slightly less than the first one - the only reason being is there was a few too many references to random celebrities and modern things (e.g. Buzzfeed) and sometimes they felt overdone. I still absolutely loved it and what it did to my brain and Joe's character and how much it surprised me. Highly, highly recommend!

[emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

raising this from 2 to 2.5 stars upon reread so at least this wasn't a total waste

-----------

yes i am rereading a book i didn't even like the first time so that i can know what they changed in the show. let me suffer in peace

-----------

this was...so bonkers.

and not in the same way as the first book was. not bonkers like wow-this-is-the-creepiest-thing-i've-ever-read-the-genre-of-thriller-is-being-redefined-for-me-as-we-speak-i-am-in-awe.

not as unambiguously positively as that. more like, never-in-a-million-years-could-i-have-predicted-that-this-would-be-the-way-this-story-goes.

i definitely didn't like it as much. not at all. there's a lot of...character development here? even redemption? which is not quite what i want for a pretentious charming smart serial-killing misogynist like Joe.

kind of takes apart a lot of my internal defenses for the problematic sh*t in You.

bottom line: this is a very strange book. and i'm not convinced that's a good thing.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

“HIDDEN BODIES” by Caroline Kepnes, is the follow-up to her debut novel, “YOU”, the continuation of an evil serial killer …Joe Goldberg.

I have to say that I enjoyed this book so much better than book 1. I had a hard time reading YOU, book 1, a dark psychological thriller that is not a book for everyone. "You" is not the book for you if you are easily offended by coarse language or scenes of a sexual nature.

In "YOU", we see Joe's involvement with Beck and later ended with Amy. But Amy is nothing like Beck. Amy doesn’t use social media which means he can't keep tabs on her like he could with Beck.

“I buy violets for Amy. Not roses. Roses are for people who did something wrong. I have done everything right this time around. I’m a good boyfriend. I chose well.”

But one day Amy steals from him and disappears. And Joe is right on her tail! He leaves New York and moves to Hollywood to track her down. He wants ...revenge!

Here in Hollywood, Joe works in a bookstore, and keeps a low profile. He is still haunted by his past.

But would his past secrets remain buried? What if she finds out?

I stood through it to see where the sequel, "Hidden Bodies" would take Joe. Maybe we had to see the bad to appreciate the change in the character. When I first started reading this book, I found it so different…but in a good way! Joe wants to change his life for the better, so he puts his past behind him, his buried victims, and moves to Los Angeles to start a new life. He is looking for a new start and true LOVE.

There is still plenty of foul language and explicit scenes that may disturb some readers in this book, but I didn't actually find this sequel quite as dark as the first book, Joe seemed more human in this book, and more likeable...if you can like a serial killer!

Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley.

[Chelsea Humphrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

You all will be happy to know that I have enjoyed Hidden Bodies significantly more that You! I'm still not sure why I had a hard time taking a liking to her first book. Maybe because I felt so much of the beginning was setting up the story, whereas in this book the story is full blown and we are thrown back in the middle of it. I actually liked Joe more in this book than the last one; I also felt the author's writing was stronger this go around. Definitely a believer now and am anticipating another book from her in the future!

Thank you so much Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest and fair review.

[❄️BooksofRadiance❄️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nop. I think Joe deserves better than 3.75 stars (original rating). So I’m upping it to 4.

Right so, after the awesomeness of YOU, to say I was giddy with excitement to read Hidden Bodies would be a gross understatement. And, well... what I expected to get and what I got were two different things.

It’s nearly half a year since the concluding events of YOU and Joe’s got a new woman in his life, Amy Adam. He is completely smitten with her as she’s everything Beck (the girl who stole his heart in book #1) isn’t, and the pair enjoys a wild romance after Amy goes to work for Joe at Mooney Books. However, she too isn't all that she's cracked up to be as she steals rare first edition books from the store worth thousands of dollars and flees to Los Angeles without him knowing.
One might obviously say he has a type…
Joe’s angry AND impressed that someone could best him-ever the narcissist-; and despite his dislike of all things LA, he follows—or more accurately stalks—Amy to the West Coast, where he's soon immersed, much to his dismay, in the uninspired and pretentious lifestyle of Hollywood wannabes.

"Making it in Hollywood is the most disgusting phrase in the English language. It's more disturbing than prolific serial killer and rare uncurable decease."

Now, onto what I liked and didn’t:
what I loved:
Joe, Joe and… Joe in all his glories.

what I didn’t:
everything else.

Joe didn't do much socialising with anyone outside of his beloved Beck, in YOU—which couldn't have been more perfect. I mean, call me greedy but I wanted him all to myself without the interruption of annoying side characters—, so, some might call the change in Hidden Bodies enlightening or… interesting, to see him interact with others for a change. I call it redundant and the rest of the cast - a hindrance. And FUCKING ANNOYING.

Similarly to YOU, the characters were not particularly likeable nor relatable and I hated them all. There was not a single redeemable character—apart from… you guessed it—. I found them to be so painfully one-dimensional and lacking in depth, to say the least.

I also found the plot underwhelming as it didn't have the same urgency and edge to it like YOU did. And though I liked that the ending was somewhat ambiguous with Joe's future undecided, I didn't like the execution one bit. So, why you ask, then did I give this 4 stars? because Joes is That. Dang. Good! He was the only thing that gave this book its worth.

I've described him the best I could in my review of YOU but here’s a little more here:
He is still the same crazy and unhinged, batshit psychopath that we remember and this time around, I felt like I got a lot more out of him and his screwed up, demented principles.

“This, this is why you have to kill people. If you don’t, they don’t learn anything.”

"I cuffed his arms with cable ties. I know it's demeaning, I miss my cage where I didn't have to be reduced to this kind of thing."

He’s scathing and charismatic as ever and his aura of charm and sophistication is still intact. His narrative voice is so blunt and uncensored, and he holds nothing back. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants and offing the people he comes across, be it of pure dislike or because they get in his way really doesn’t require a second thought. However, contrary to how he's described, he's neither bloodthirsty nor cold, far from it. It's simply a matter of - his way or no way. Or more accurately, his way or... death. He is also both self-aware and terribly deluded.

“In the past, I had a tendency to be intense; you might even call it obsessive,”

“Beck was such a mess that in order to take care of her, I had to follow her home and hack into her email and worry about her Facebook and her Twitter and her nonstop texting, all the contradictions, the lies.”

"I’ve never harmed an animal. I can’t imagine being that sort of monster."
I mean, the irony alone...😂

In short, he’s a gem, guys!

Now, before we wrap up, let’s go back to the ending, shall we? The way the plot was going, I didn't know what to expect but suffice it to say I did not expect THAT. Don't get me wrong, I was pleased with the fairly vague ending, however, just like with YOU, it felt incredibly rushed and not well thought out. It was as mashed-up as the plot was.

Trigger warning: This novel contains scenes of explicit acts of physical violence, detailed descriptions of sexual acts and some substance abuse, particularly in terms of drug use. If these sound troubling to read, I highly advise steering clear of this book.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

A 2-star Californian soap opera. A sequel to You? Ehhh . . . sort of. I probably would have liked it more as a stand-alone with no tie ins to You. Our main character and a few plot points carry over, but it pales in comparison. It felt like the author had a book idea and tried her best to tie it in as a sequel.



I mention Californian soap opera, and so does Joe. He equates the world he is living in to the SNL skit The Californians – after which I could not get that out of my mind. Thus, all the fun gifs you are seeing throughout my review. And, he was right! This book felt just like that skit – or an episode of 90210 with a little murder included.



Whereas the first book was unique, shocking, and thrilling - this book was kind of just silly. Joe went from being a creep you end up cheering for to a totally irrational buffoon. The scenarios he gets involved with are so far fetched and laughable. I can honestly say it almost feels like someone wrote a parody of You.



The main character in this book really is the mug of piss from the first book. At least, Joe talks about the mug of piss at least once every few pages. I have reached my quota of the phrase “mug of piss” for life!

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this on audio a few months ago right after I finished listening to "You".

Although I didn't find it as good as "You", I was still completely engaged.

Now I'm watching the TV series.

Can't wait for book three!!!

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List



I hate to say I didn't love this one like I did the first book. The first book blew me away. But, I still love Joe <---Yes, I know your not supposed to love killers but he was just so good at in the first book. He's not so bad at it in this book either, but everyone messes up right?

We are introduced to a whole new set of characters when Joe follows Amy to LA, he doesn't want to go there, but you know Joe. He has a few trysts in LA and one serious relationship. It's kind of weird because Joe starts to want to write screenplays and stuff, I won't go into all of that, you can read it yourself.

Joe does keep stressing over the cup of urine he left in that closet. If you read the first book you will know what I mean. Lol. It's one of those moments where you don't mess up and leave said urnine behind and it's all you think about, besides the next person that is a butt crack that you want to kill!



Even though I so wanted to read more about Joe and his craziness, I wish it would have stopped at the first book. I would have liked to have read about a new nutter in a different book and left Joe safe and..sound..er.. crazy in New York :-)

I saw that ending coming, most of it and I didn't like it one bit. Even though Joe is a killer perv, I wanted to see him keep going on in his weird way and maybe fix himself up. Well, he did sort of turn himself around when he had a um.. reason.. yeah a reason, can't give out that spoiler!



I'm going to leave it with a couple of excerpts.



"JoeBro, don't take this the wrong way, but you need to chill. Have you ever done a juice fast?" He hits a pack of American Spirits against the desk. "You get so intense. That gets your cortisol going. Cortisol is not cool."
This is like getting pulled over for not using your blinker and I could kill Calvin. I could kill Amy. I could kill everyone and put them in a blender and make them into a smoothie.

•••••••••

YOU don't go to a party empty-handed and my reusable Pantry bag is stuffed with rope, my Rachel Ray knife, rubber gloves, plastic bags, duct tape, and Percocets from Dez.

••••••••••

Fin

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Generally I have a fairly clear picture concerning how I feel about a book and what exactly I will say in my video review. However with Hidden Bodies, whether I was 50 pages into this or finishing it, my feelings have been and still are decidedly mixed. I'll hopefully film a review of this on Thursday!

[Kelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did this book really take me nine days to read?! That alone tells the whole story. I put this on the hold the second I heard about it. I expected it to be published in September of last year. Waiting until February was torturous, though not, as it turns out, as torturous as trying to get through this bizarre sequel. I understand that the author was poking fun at LA but this was too long, too over-the-top, and too unbelievable for me. Joe, what happened to YOU?! 2 stars.

[Feyre · Rating 3 out of 5]

“A book lets you choose how much of the blood you want to see. A book gives you the permission to see the story as you want, as your mind directs.”
―Caroline Kepnes, Hidden Bodies



3.75/5
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this one as much as "You", I felt like Joe was less exciting to read about, also the 2nd person style narration that I absolutely loved in the first book was gone and the whole journey felt too long.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

5++++ well earned stars

Joe Goldberg, the ever loving psychopath you can't help but love is back, and oh how I've missed him!

I first met Joe in You, the first book in this series. If you haven't met Joe yet, I highly recommend you start there. But until there, here's a glimpse of Joe's motto to life:
'You don't go to a party empty handed and my reusable Pantry bag is stuffed with rope, my Rachel Ray knife, rubber gloves, plastic bags, duct tape, and Percocets.'

Hidden Bodies picks up right were You left off. Joe is in love, again! This time is going to be different though, he's learned from his mistakes. As long as everything goes his way, life is good, what could go wrong? Well it turns out when you are a crazy, narcissistic, neurotic killer just trying to blend in, a lot can go wrong....

My hats off to author Carolyn Kepnes as she did it again. Somehow she made me actually like this morally challenged character. Everything about him is so wrong, yet his justifications for his actions are almost too spot on.

This is a fast paced, fun filled ride-full of twists and turns that made me laugh in delight. Brilliantly written, strong characters, and an intricate plot that blew me away. Pure genius!!

I certainly hope we haven't heard the last of Joe...he is one of a kind and he has to have more to say.
Highly recommend (although I would recommend you start with You first) to all fiction fans who love a strong antagonist with brains, wit, personality, and of course a whole lot of crazy.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Lucie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, Joe. I love you, man. I really do.
Wait. Is it weird that I'm rooting for a serial killer???
No. No it's not. 😄

Do yourself a favor and read this sequel to "You" by Caroline Kepnes. Here, Joe's story just seamlessly continues and thankfully, just feels like the second part of the same book.

In this one, Joe has a new girlfriend, and he's become a bit....ummmm....gentler??? than he was in the first book. Joe is really trying to analyze his life and his choices, and he's deadly serious (sorry, wrong choice of words 😄) about finding actual true love this time. Don't worry though! True to form, he's still extremely willing to get rid of anyone who stands in his way, thank you very much. It's still Joe's world, and we're all just living in it.

For me, Joe's story just gets better and better. In this continuation, we're introduced to even more characters as Joe's world broadens (his new girlfriend is a riot!), and we're given peeks into his childhood, through which we find out even more about why Joe is the way he is.

I really loved these two books. I kind of wish I hadn't watched the Netflix series after finishing these. In my opinion, the series just wasn't as good as the literary work, and quite simply, just didn't have the same kind of magic.