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A review by sophiesometimesreads
You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes
dark
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
3.5
I don't quite know how to summarise my feelings about this book. I'm still trying to figure out if I feel like I liked this about the same as Hidden Bodies or if I liked Hidden Bodies more, and I'm leaning towards the latter. Joe is still as interesting as ever, and it's always wild how Caroline Kepnes manages to make me feel bad for him despite everything he does, but I think the main things, for me, that fell short were the pacing and the stakes.
The pacing felt all over the place. It was quite slow through the majority then picked up for a couple chapters at the end, then dropped then increased again. It made for a weird reading experience where I didn't dislike the book, but I couldn't quite get into the story as much as the first book (and second, to some extent).
The stakes also didn't feel as high as the first two, so the book didn't particularly feel like a fast-paced thriller this time around. I felt like Joe wasn't quite as dark and obsessive, so the stakes of the story and the "romance" weren't as high.I also can't believe that we actually got through the whole book without him actually killing anyone?!
On top of this, I was so interested in seeing where the story went from the ending of the last novel that I was kind of disappointed that the events immediately following that were only briefly mentioned.I understand that it would've been a boring story to see him in jail but it felt a bit weak to just be like "oh yeah the Quinns money solves all problems!" and then move on.
This doesn't mean the book was bad or boring, it was still quite an interesting read and definitely a different dynamic between characters to the first two books which was good. The ending also caught me off guard and I didn't see it coming, which was interesting. I feel like the first novel was so good that it was always going to be hard to keep up that sort of pace and intrigue but I will still be reading the fourth novel at some point in the near future because who can resist Joe Goldberg (not many people, it seems).
The pacing felt all over the place. It was quite slow through the majority then picked up for a couple chapters at the end, then dropped then increased again. It made for a weird reading experience where I didn't dislike the book, but I couldn't quite get into the story as much as the first book (and second, to some extent).
The stakes also didn't feel as high as the first two, so the book didn't particularly feel like a fast-paced thriller this time around. I felt like Joe wasn't quite as dark and obsessive, so the stakes of the story and the "romance" weren't as high.
On top of this, I was so interested in seeing where the story went from the ending of the last novel that I was kind of disappointed that the events immediately following that were only briefly mentioned.
This doesn't mean the book was bad or boring, it was still quite an interesting read and definitely a different dynamic between characters to the first two books which was good. The ending also caught me off guard and I didn't see it coming, which was interesting. I feel like the first novel was so good that it was always going to be hard to keep up that sort of pace and intrigue but I will still be reading the fourth novel at some point in the near future because who can resist Joe Goldberg (not many people, it seems).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Suicide, Drug abuse, and Death of parent