A review by thefoxyreader
Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes

dark funny slow-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? It's complicated

3.0

 
I’m reading through reviews of <i>Hidden Bodies</i> and it cracks me up that people complain about this book feeling like it was written by a 13-year-old boy who watches too much porn. It’s from the perspective of a narcissistic stalker/sexual predator/now serial killer. What exactly were you expecting?

Now, I’m not going to call <i>Hidden Bodies</i> a good book. It has a lot of issues, but this book is supposed to creep you out and make you uncomfortable. You aren’t supposed to love the main character. And it’s fine to not like the book because it’s gross and makes your skin crawl, but I find it weird that people act like this book was trying to do something other than be off-putting.

Following the events of Caroline Kepnes’s solid debut novel, <i>You</I>, <i>Hidden Bodies</i> follows Joe Goldberg as he relocates to Los Angeles to stalk another woman who in his perspective has wronged him. While living there, he meets the love of his life, who is literally named Love, and her dumbass twin brother, Forty. But with a mug of his urine still sitting in Peach Salinger’s house and more people getting in the way, Joe will do whatever it takes to have his happy ending with Love.

The best thing about <i>Hidden Bodies</i> is that Kepnes roasts the hell out of LA culture. This book is just one giant critique of a city where people’s dreams go to die. So, when Joe is very accurately deconstructing the perils of Hollywood, the anger-inducing traffic, and the hipster grocery stores, I was here for it.

However, this book is over 400 pages long, and making fun of LA isn’t going to fill up those pages. Unfortunately, the actual story doesn’t fill up those pages either. Once Joe gets to LA and meets Love, the story sloooooooowwwwwsss doooooowwwwnnn to an almost unbearable pace as nothing happens except for Joe and Love repeatedly having sex.

And this is where <i>You</i>, the Netflix series, is better than this book. The show realized that Love is equally crazy. Joe, narrating this book, never comes to that realization and Love is just the main object of his obsession. I guess this is on brand because I don’t think Joe would ever give anyone else credit for being his equal, but it still just makes Love an empty character.

So, yeah, I don’t hate this book but I don’t like it either. The writing still manages to be both funny and disturbing. I also thought it was funny that Joe is quick to become a serial killer. His main form of problem solving is to just straight up murder somebody.

I said before that <i>You</i> works best as a standalone novel, and <i>Hidden Bodies</i> does nothing to disprove that. 
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