Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - Hidden Bodies

Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes

32 reviews

ellaticonstellation's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Hidden Bodies was sick, both in a good and bad way. Caroline, damn! You created something so believable I got scared. Haha! Character-wise, Joe had a funny and loud mind that I liked a lot. He was savage, and I loved it! He was also so problematic that it made me sad because of his shitty childhood. Joseph Goldberg was a waving red flag that attracted another red flag named Love. The irony! The murders were unforgivable for apparent reasons. I was not too fond of the fact that he thought people's lives were in his hands. (When he decided not to kill certain characters, as if they needed to thank him for not killing them) It was disturbing and disgusting. But overall, the story was compelling and fast-paced. 😎

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chloe_silk1810's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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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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elizalavenza'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

5.0

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steffff's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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hannahstrickland'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? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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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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tmoore65's review against another edition

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dark 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

3.75

I enjoyed “You” better, although this was a good sequel. Joe is still an interesting character, he manages to be truly horrible but every once in a while he has a line that is quite funny.

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