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A review by heidikundin
For You and Only You by Caroline Kepnes
2.0
Oh, Joe. YOU are the villain that we all hate to love, so it saddens me to say that your storyline has gotten incredibly stale and formulaic. With Joe, we all know what's coming in the plotline, we just don't know HOW it's coming, but this time, even those aspects fell really flat for me.
After reading You Love Me last year (and rating it only two stars), I wasn't sure that I was willing to give Joe Goldberg another chance. Naturally, though, I can't seem to say no every time he comes back around, so when For You and Only You was released, I jumped at the chance to snag an ARC. Sadly, after finishing this book, I hate to say it, but I think Joe and I are breaking up for good.
I actually thought that the Harvard setting and the premise of the literary fellowship were totally perfect, and there was SO much potential there, but then we are introduced to all of the characters who were more like caricatures. Filled with stereotypes, most of the fellows read as incredibly shallow and flat characters, and the ones that did get fleshed out were unlikable at best.
I have no idea why Joe even became interested in Wonder in the first place other than her autodidact-ness because she was about as interesting as a dishrag. Her weak and wishy-washy character made it really hard to believe that THIS relationship was what Joe was fighting for, but apparently, he's gotten desperate, and the pickings must be slim.
I really, really hoped that this book would pick up toward the end and become deserving of a higher rating, but alas, Joe, even with all of his idiosyncrasies, has morphed into Joe Average, and 3-stars was the best I could do.
Side note: Netflix has definitely done its job well because I couldn't read this book at all without hearing it narrated in Penn Badgley's voice, and I'm not actually sure if that helped or hindered my enjoyment of the book.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
After reading You Love Me last year (and rating it only two stars), I wasn't sure that I was willing to give Joe Goldberg another chance. Naturally, though, I can't seem to say no every time he comes back around, so when For You and Only You was released, I jumped at the chance to snag an ARC. Sadly, after finishing this book, I hate to say it, but I think Joe and I are breaking up for good.
I actually thought that the Harvard setting and the premise of the literary fellowship were totally perfect, and there was SO much potential there, but then we are introduced to all of the characters who were more like caricatures. Filled with stereotypes, most of the fellows read as incredibly shallow and flat characters, and the ones that did get fleshed out were unlikable at best.
I have no idea why Joe even became interested in Wonder in the first place other than her autodidact-ness because she was about as interesting as a dishrag. Her weak and wishy-washy character made it really hard to believe that THIS relationship was what Joe was fighting for, but apparently, he's gotten desperate, and the pickings must be slim.
I really, really hoped that this book would pick up toward the end and become deserving of a higher rating, but alas, Joe, even with all of his idiosyncrasies, has morphed into Joe Average, and 3-stars was the best I could do.
Side note: Netflix has definitely done its job well because I couldn't read this book at all without hearing it narrated in Penn Badgley's voice, and I'm not actually sure if that helped or hindered my enjoyment of the book.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.