Book Review #69: Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes
Hey Guys x
I read Kepnes’ first book, ‘You’ after the first season of
the Netflix show came out last year and I completely loved it, so much so that
it made me want to watch the show again and buy the second book right away.
However, after reading some of the (negative) reviews of the second book on
Amazon, I decided that I would leave it where it was and just enjoy the first
book as a standalone. But when the second season of the show came out, even
though I didn’t love it nearly as much as I loved the first one, it spurred me
on to finally buy and read the second book.
Joe Goldberg is back. But after the tragic demise of
ex-girlfriend Guinevere Beck, Joe needs a new love in his life. And after a few
false starts, he finds his love in a girl called Love. But can Joe really
change his murderous instincts in order to hold on to his Love? Or are there
some things that even love can’t conquer?
I enjoyed this book. I didn’t love it, and it took me quite
a while to get to a place where I could say that I was enjoying it, but by the
end I really did enjoy it.
Some of the problems that I had with the book are problems
that I also had with the TV show. For a start, the surprise element of who Joe
is and what he does is gone, so the book had to have a really interesting plot
to make up for the fact that we will now be unsurprised whenever Joe kills
anyone. However, for me, the plot wasn't that amazing.
Don't get me wrong, it was extremely entertaining, but in a way it felt like I knew Joe too well for this to be all there is to him and his story. The TV show actually delved more into his backstory as a child, and I would have liked it if the book had done this a bit too.
Another thing I noticed was that, with the first book, it read like a letter to Beck, and through that letter, I got a really good sense of who she was. Now I didn't particularly like Beck (I actually think she wasn't written to be likeable), but for Joe's love interests in this book, I never felt like I really got to know them, and therefore didn't really get what Joe saw in them. In fact, no woman in this book is redeemable in any sense. Even the ones that Joe claim to love come across as really dull, erratic and lonely characters. It's hard to tell if this is because of the type of woman that Joe attracts, or if this is just the way that women in 'Hollywood' are presented in the novel.
One of the reasons I loved 'You' so much, other than it being so different to everything I've ever read in terms of the writing style rather than the plot (because if you enjoy the plot of 'You', there are many older books in the crime 'noir' category that utilise that plot really well), was because I loved how realistic it felt.
It's realistic for a guy to follow a pretty girl and convince himself that she loves him back. But in this book, everything that he does just seems way too over the top. And the problem is that at some points he wasn't even being particularly clever about his criminal acts, it just so happened that the people around him weren't observant. But either way, he felt a lot less intelligent this time around.
What was good?
I did enjoy this book, as I've already stated. I liked that the story changed in terms of the location, and I enjoyed all the things that led Joe to move to LA in the first place, which the TV show changed. I also felt that, while last time around we were watching Joe talk to Beck, this time Joe is talking to us, the reader, and I really liked being directly in his thoughts this time around.
What was bad?
I've already mentioned most of the things in this book that I had a problem with, but I also found Joe to be a much less likeable character this time around. In the first book, he was insane, but also redeemable (at least, to me) but this time around I had no sympathy from him. And any sympathy that I did have came directly from hating the characters around him.
Overall
If you've read the first one, or seen the second season of the show, then you might want to read this book. But if I'm being honest, 'You' works really well as a stand-alone novel.
2/5 Stars
Lou
Don't get me wrong, it was extremely entertaining, but in a way it felt like I knew Joe too well for this to be all there is to him and his story. The TV show actually delved more into his backstory as a child, and I would have liked it if the book had done this a bit too.
Another thing I noticed was that, with the first book, it read like a letter to Beck, and through that letter, I got a really good sense of who she was. Now I didn't particularly like Beck (I actually think she wasn't written to be likeable), but for Joe's love interests in this book, I never felt like I really got to know them, and therefore didn't really get what Joe saw in them. In fact, no woman in this book is redeemable in any sense. Even the ones that Joe claim to love come across as really dull, erratic and lonely characters. It's hard to tell if this is because of the type of woman that Joe attracts, or if this is just the way that women in 'Hollywood' are presented in the novel.
One of the reasons I loved 'You' so much, other than it being so different to everything I've ever read in terms of the writing style rather than the plot (because if you enjoy the plot of 'You', there are many older books in the crime 'noir' category that utilise that plot really well), was because I loved how realistic it felt.
It's realistic for a guy to follow a pretty girl and convince himself that she loves him back. But in this book, everything that he does just seems way too over the top. And the problem is that at some points he wasn't even being particularly clever about his criminal acts, it just so happened that the people around him weren't observant. But either way, he felt a lot less intelligent this time around.
What was good?
I did enjoy this book, as I've already stated. I liked that the story changed in terms of the location, and I enjoyed all the things that led Joe to move to LA in the first place, which the TV show changed. I also felt that, while last time around we were watching Joe talk to Beck, this time Joe is talking to us, the reader, and I really liked being directly in his thoughts this time around.
What was bad?
I've already mentioned most of the things in this book that I had a problem with, but I also found Joe to be a much less likeable character this time around. In the first book, he was insane, but also redeemable (at least, to me) but this time around I had no sympathy from him. And any sympathy that I did have came directly from hating the characters around him.
Overall
If you've read the first one, or seen the second season of the show, then you might want to read this book. But if I'm being honest, 'You' works really well as a stand-alone novel.
2/5 Stars
Lou
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