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A review by catstead
Providence by Caroline Kepnes
4.0
Let me start by saying I am a HUGE fan of Caroline Kepnes. Her writing is fantastic and I love everything about it. However, if you’re thinking of reading Providence hoping for the same thrills and suspense as YOU and Hidden Bodies, Providence is not like them at all. Providence definitely heads more towards the mystery and paranormal/science fiction vein, not that’s it’s a bad thing at all. I really did enjoy this story, unfortunately a few things went over my head and I didn’t understand what had happened to Jon (the protagonist).
So the story follows three characters Jon, Chloe and Eggs and how their relationships intertwine and eventually all cross paths. At a young age Jon is kidnaped and taken from his family and best friend Chloe. Nobody at school really cares or notices that he is missing, besides Chloe. Four years later he returns to Nashua, New Hampshire however something has changed within him. Chloe Sayers has spent four years pining over her missing best friend and is devastated when he returns but refuses to see her, what exactly is going on with Jon? After prom and the death of a girl in Chloe’s social group, Jon disappears from Nashua.
Six years later we find Jon in Providence, Rhode Island as a delivery driver, Chloe in New York as a successful artist. This is where Eggs comes into the story, he’s investigating the ongoing suspicious deaths (in his mind they’re suspicious) of young people in the Providence area. Eggs suspects that someone is causing these “natural deaths” and he is determined to find out who. I don’t want to say too much because that would honestly ruin the story.
Kepnes’s writing is incredible throughout this story and she goes to great lengths to show obsession and personally inflicted torment throughout Providence. Jon is obsessed with Chloe, Chloe with Jon even though there’s so much keeping them apart. Eggs is obsessed with proving he was right all along while ignoring his ailments and his autistic son. Providence really does show how obsession causes people to become depraved. Jessica Knoll (author of The Favourite Sister) said it best when she said that “Kepnes is the master of the depraved love story” because that’s what Providence is, a depraved love story.
Like I said if you’re after the suspense and psychological thrills that you felt throughout You and Hidden Bodies, Providence won’t give that to you. If you’re after mystery and a bit of morbidity this is definitely going to deliver. Go in reading this with an open mind and with a bit of knowledge of Lovecraft because that definitely helped me understand the book a lot more. The only reason I’m not giving this a full 5 stars is because I felt that the ending was a little disappointing and predictable. It was missing Kepnes twisted touch to her endings that always top the story off perfectly.
So the story follows three characters Jon, Chloe and Eggs and how their relationships intertwine and eventually all cross paths. At a young age Jon is kidnaped and taken from his family and best friend Chloe. Nobody at school really cares or notices that he is missing, besides Chloe. Four years later he returns to Nashua, New Hampshire however something has changed within him. Chloe Sayers has spent four years pining over her missing best friend and is devastated when he returns but refuses to see her, what exactly is going on with Jon? After prom and the death of a girl in Chloe’s social group, Jon disappears from Nashua.
Six years later we find Jon in Providence, Rhode Island as a delivery driver, Chloe in New York as a successful artist. This is where Eggs comes into the story, he’s investigating the ongoing suspicious deaths (in his mind they’re suspicious) of young people in the Providence area. Eggs suspects that someone is causing these “natural deaths” and he is determined to find out who. I don’t want to say too much because that would honestly ruin the story.
Kepnes’s writing is incredible throughout this story and she goes to great lengths to show obsession and personally inflicted torment throughout Providence. Jon is obsessed with Chloe, Chloe with Jon even though there’s so much keeping them apart. Eggs is obsessed with proving he was right all along while ignoring his ailments and his autistic son. Providence really does show how obsession causes people to become depraved. Jessica Knoll (author of The Favourite Sister) said it best when she said that “Kepnes is the master of the depraved love story” because that’s what Providence is, a depraved love story.
Like I said if you’re after the suspense and psychological thrills that you felt throughout You and Hidden Bodies, Providence won’t give that to you. If you’re after mystery and a bit of morbidity this is definitely going to deliver. Go in reading this with an open mind and with a bit of knowledge of Lovecraft because that definitely helped me understand the book a lot more. The only reason I’m not giving this a full 5 stars is because I felt that the ending was a little disappointing and predictable. It was missing Kepnes twisted touch to her endings that always top the story off perfectly.