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4.5⭐️

My favourite nutcase in non-fic lit.
Yup, it happened. I finally found a character who makes all the other sociopaths I read about seem like the most stable and sane guys.



Told from Joe Goldberg's perspective, a normal —so he thinks�� Manhattan bookstore employee, who gets dangerously obsessed with Beck at first sight and the rest, as they say, is history.
The narrative is structured like a long monologue to “You��: Guinevere Beck, who becomes the object of his obsessive affection. The second person narrative fits the creepy tone of the book as it allows the reader a greater insight into Joe’s mental state and thought processes more intimately.

YOU was an absolute page-turner. I've never been so terrified and completely captivated by a character like I have with Joe. I was cringing, unnerved and gasping at every turn - screaming WTF, is he for real?

This is a 100% character-driven book and if sarcasm, snark, explicit scenes/language and dark humour is not your thing, you might want to steer clear. Really, don’t even look back.
Holly crap, Joe, how do I even begin describes him?... he's messed up to the bone with a charming disposition —which makes him even more dangerous��, calculating, extremely terrifying and utterly fascinating.
His inner monologue and his social commentary on the world and pop culture are absolutely hilarious and getting inside his head and learning the inner workings of his thoughts and emotions is what kept me glued to the pages.

He’s also extremely well-read and frighteningly meticulous in his ‘endeavours' (stalking the shit out of Beck) but what sets this book apart from others with a similar plot is that, here, both the stalker and the stalked are completely narcissistic and both are SUPREMELY messed up. While he does what he does in the name of his own distorted version of ‘love', she lies and manipulates her way through life.

The author does such a great job of putting the readers so deep into Joe’s head that, as disturbing as his behaviour is, there are various moments where he becomes a sympathetic character. He is charismatic and surprisingly sensitive that, even when he goes completely off the rails (and boy, does he ever), there's still something about him that touches a chord with the readers.
Kepnes pulls this trick off so well and makes you question your own state of mind as to why you find yourself so drawn to this lunatic of a character, be it reluctantly or otherwise.

And then there's Beck. *LONG SIGH*. As I’ve said above, this is in no way your usual stalker+naive sweet stalked girl story. No, Beck is the definition of utter detestable. She lies incessantly (almost pathologically), she's manipulative, flighty, extremely needy, self-obsessed, Incredibly pretentious, desperate and quite literally represents everything Joe loathes in society. And as we delve deeper into the story, we find that she has her own dark side to her that only the readers are aware of because Joe is simply blind to her flaws and worships the very ground she walks on. Seriously, nut jobs match made in hell. 🤦‍♀��

This book is also a startling lesson on just how much a person can find out about another through credit/debit card, social media and other means of search engines. The way he so easily invades her life and takes complete control of every aspect of it by constantly monitoring her Tweets, texts and emails and she’s none the wiser for it makes you want to examine your own web/social media presence.