Member Review

Joe Goldberg has been a guilty pleasure of mine for years now. While reading, I obsess over his obsessions. Being in his head almost makes me want the poor deluded psychopath to get his heart’s desires.
Almost.

Such is the nature of Kepnes’ stellar writing that she can make a narcissistic serial murderer appealing. Even loved. The casting of Penn Badgley in the adaptation doesn’t hurt.

While YOU and Hidden Bodies blew the unreliable psychopathic narrator concept out of the water, You Love Me and For You and Only You showed us a more evolved Joe. You could say mellow, if it wasn’t for his pattern of killing those he perceives to be in the way of his happiness with his ‘You’

This latest instalment of Joe sees him joining the rank and file of Ivy League Douchebags in a writing fellowship at Harvard. Cue the Joe heartstrings, some horrible people, a surprising character, spilled secrets, and well Joe, being Joe.

But it wasn’t Joe. At least my experience of this book wasn’t my experience from the earlier ones.
I wasn’t shocked. Or surprised. I’ve grown desensitised to Joe’s killings, in fact the not murdering of one particular character was the shock for me in this book. His pattern had become predictable.

I’m glad this is the end (or at least I think it is) because I think I’ve outgrown Joe. I think I need to break up with him. If there ever is a 5th book, I’d love for Joe to get caught and tell his story from behind bars. There’s plenty of women who dig psycho killers, maybe his ‘You’ is among them.

In the end, I enjoyed For You and Only You, I’m just not sure I loved it.

Thank you to Caroline Kepnes, Simon and Schuster UK, and NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
My apologies on the lateness. Life has handed me some lemons lately.