Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - 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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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I originally bought this book when I bought "You". When the television series came out, I binged the entire first season in one day, and I was fascinated by how much I enjoyed it. I felt like all of the characters were so unlikable, but I was still captivated. Now, almost five years later, I finally picked up the sequel.
"Hidden Bodies" picks up right where "You" left off. Joe has gotten away with a lot of murder, and he is still on the hunt for the perfect girlfriend. He thinks he has finally found the one, but she ends up stealing rare books from him and moving to LA to pursue an acting career. Joe, unable to accept rejection, decides to move out to LA himself to exact his revenge. To Joe's surprise, he meets an amazing woman, Love, and he once again believes he found the one. But, this relationship may not be as perfect as Joe thought it to be.

Joe is still just as unlikable as he was in the first book. He is an obsessive, psychotic man who wants to think of himself as a romantic but is too fixated on control to enjoy people as they are. I felt like this book went way off the rails and Joe as a character felt out of control. I do not know why I expected him to reign it in, but I was so surprised to find he was up to the same old obsessive, murderous antics. This book is a lot more explicit than the previous as well.
I want to believe everyone has a soulmate, and I am happy(?) Joe found Love, but good grief is she just as chaotic as he is. I was not expecting to meet the female version of Joe.
I did not enjoy this story as much as "You", and I think it was because of how unstable Joe felt as a character. I do think this is a credit to Caroline Kepnes's writing, because it takes a skilled writer to create a story that captivates an audience but has such an unlikeable character.

Will I continue in this series? I do not know.

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alicelalicon's review

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challenging dark 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

2.5

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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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ashybear02's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

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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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