Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Hidden Bodies

I continue to be interested in this series and the shenanigans that Joe keeps getting himself into. While I don't think this was as strong as the original/its predecessor, it was still enjoyable and easy to listen to with Santino Fontana continuing to deliver an eerily excellent performance as Joe.

A change in scenery due to a continuation of the ending of the 1st book was interesting as this book starts closely after the ending of the first book, as we see Joe get into a relationship with Amy and how their relationship ends acts as a trigger for how Joe ends up in LA. Seeing Joe try to integrate himself into this new type of lifestyle and manipulate these people was really interesting and I found that these characters had well more character to them rather than in the first book where most of them are kind of forgettable besides Beck and Peach. I do wish that we had explored more of the hunting/tracking down Amy storyline as it is the main reason why Joe goes to LA only for it to get dropped once, he finds Love and sees Amy once, it does get a resolution later and does add to the delusion narrative of Joe thinking he is a good person by doing the bare minimum e.g. not murdering and/or stalking someone but the storyline kind of gets dropped from most of the book until near the end.

It's kind of hard not to compare this to the TV show and vice versa but while I do prefer the interpretation of Love in the TV show I did still like Love in this book and whether she will be in the next book I don't know but if she is I hope she remains as interesting and dimensional as she was in this. Love is much more outspoken than Beck when it comes to Joe and while she does have personal issues and drama, she's also confident in who she is and what she believes in. I do prefer the killer twist in the show, but this interpretation of Love is still solid, and I hope she's in the next book (Though I have a feeling that she might get the Amy treatment of being the plot device to bring Joe somewhere new so that he can then stalk the new main woman in the book hopefully this will not be the case)

I do feel like at times the book does drag a little bit, there are parts where not much happens and character deaths and decisions only come to be important either in the moment or near the end when everything is going down. I think parts of this book could have been cut down or cut out altogether to avoid a sluggish pace but overall, the book kept me interested and entertained. Overall, again another solid entry into the You series and one that I delayed finishing as I left it with one chapter left to listen to for about a week or so for no real reason whatsoever but I still remembered much of it, I'm interested in seeing how the cliffhanger ending plays out for the next book; will it be the same as the TV show adaptation or something completely different and original?

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

As always, Joe is fucking batshit. I like that there are deviations from the show in the book — it helps keep it interesting. Also interesting is Joe’s reasoning/logic skill. I am fascinated yet terrified by his brain.

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a_alves00's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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sophiesometimesreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I think my rating of this book is 3.75 stars. I said I wouldn’t go into quarters for my ratings but this felt better than some of the 3.5 stars I’ve given recently but not quite as good as the 4 stars, so I’ve compromised on 3.75 stars.

The plot itself wasn’t too bad, a bit slow at points but overall interesting and relatively intriguing. I did like the constant references back to the untied ends in the last book, particularly

the mug left in the Salinger house

, as I was worried these details would be glossed over for the sake of a new storyline in LA. The last 100 or so pages were probably the best, where it picked up and things got really interesting. The ending was a mild cliffhanger and does make me want to read the next book, and

I did like finally seeing someone see through Joe and figure out his antics because through both books I was thinking that surely someone would at least figure out this guy was using multiple pseudonyms eventually, if not tie him to at least one of the murders

.

The book was missing that second person prose that just really topped off the first book and set it apart from other thrillers, I was hoping at the start that the narration regarding Amy was done in first person only as she wasn’t his next obsession, just a fling, and it would come in once he got a new obsession… but I was unfortunately disappointed and the book was first person the whole way through. The prose didn’t make the book bad, but it was a large selling point in the first book that I think could’ve heightened the reading experience in this one, too. I also found the second person narration made Joe seem less outright creepy and calculated.

I felt like there was a bit of a shift in Joe’s character from the first book. Obviously, characters can change over time and between books but I felt it was a bit abrupt in this case, seeing as we picked up almost where we left off in the last book, and it felt more like Kepnes lost Joe’s essence a little between the first book and its sequel. He was colder and more calculating and he seemed to have less passion and more anger, rather than being fuelled by his insecurity in himself and his obsession. I think Kepnes found that original drive that Joe had in the first book by the end, but the first half to two thirds felt different. This wasn’t bad, if it were a new character then I would have been fine with it, but it just departed from what I felt made Joe his creepy, obsessive, lovestruck self in the first book.

Overall, not as strong as the first but still a decent read and I’ll continue with this series.

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anne311's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I love this book it was genuinly so much fun to spend time reading it... it's so weird (in a good way) that the very basic premise and events are like in the netflix show and the characters are absolutely in character, but also i never knew where anything was going to go. there are so many divergences ever since book 1 and they are like HUGE things that make it impossible to go the same route as the show. but also it kind of ends up at the same points here and there and it's so weird i love it and i love this writing style so much especially. the informality of it, like using a ton of "and"s to conmect multiple sentences in a grammatically incorrect way really does flow so well, joes mind is racing and this style absolutely encapsulates it. like 5 times on the last couple pages i thought ok this is the end of this book, but it kept going, this book always keeps escalating, i love my time spent with this series and look forward to when i find the time to read book 3

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brookey8888's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I actually really enjoyed this. I went into it nervous because a lot of people didn’t like this one. I get that it changed from second person to first person, but I honestly didn’t mind it that much. I think the change was good because the first one was mostly stalking and this one wasn’t as heavily about that. I did enjoy the characters. The plot was fine like did I really care about Joe and Love being in love,no, not really. But I just find Joe so interesting. It does end on a cliff hanger so be warned.

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sanhatiser's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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meganreads7's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Hidden Bodies is the sequel to You by Caroline Kepnes. The novel follows Joe Goldberg, a serial killer, who attempts to hide his past in order to live a happy life with the girl he loves.

This book is dark and honestly a bit terrifying. It makes you wonder how far the people in your life would go to stay there. This book is complicated because one usually roots for the main character in a story, but Joe is no hero. He is a murderous manipulator, but one finds themself seeing the other characters as villainous through his eyes. The ending definitely left me wanting more so I am eager to read Kepnes' new book.

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