Book Review #85: You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes

 

I read and reviewed the first two books in the 'You' series, so after a bit of hesitation, I pre-ordered the third one just before it came out. I was excited to see where Joe's story would go next.

Joe Goldberg has moved to a new town, and there's a new girl that's caught his eye. But Mary Kay DiMarco is different from anyone Joe has ever loved before. She's busy, she has a job, she has a past, she's a mother. Will Joe be able to make Mary Kay realise, and admit, that she loves him?

I loved the first 'You' book, and I didn't love the second, 'Hidden Bodies'. I have to say that I really disliked this third one, for a lot of reasons.

There's no starting point, so I have to jump right in and say that I have absolutely no idea who Joe is anymore. He is tame, and his actions are so different from the first two books. So much is taken out of his control that the fundamentals of the character are changed, and that was disappointing.

Mary Kay is also a character that I didn't get. She didn't feel real to me. She hasn't been developed enough for me to understand why Joe is so fixated with her. Part of this is because, unlike Beck and Love in the first two books, Joe is in love with Mary Kay before the book starts, so we don't get the chance to see him fall for her.

I found that I spent a portion of the book, maybe the first 70-80 pages, bored. We've seen this in the first two books, and there was nothing that stood out. Speaking of Joe being tame this time around, the whole story felt tame.

The story is wholly unrealistic. Now, there is an element of this in all of the books, and you do have to suspend your disbelief. But in this one, it was just too much. Nothing felt real. And at first I didn't mind that, because it felt like it was in Joe's head (such as him imagining that Mary Kay was in love with him as soon as they met). But when the characters started going along with Joe's version of events, it just became insane, and really frustrating to read.

There were no likeable characters in the story, including Joe. A book doesn't necessarily have to have characters that the reader likes, but I found that because I didn't like them, and couldn't relate to them, I didn't care what happened to them.

This book was a lot longer than it needed to be. Things are drawn out, and a lot of the scenes (or even chapters) don't move the story forward, and there are parts that just feel completely pointless. Because of this, the pacing also felt off. The whole story moved way too slowly, and I ended up having to skim it and leave out paragraphs in order to finish it.

What was good?

The story was well-written. Whether a standalone story, or the third of a trilogy, Kepnes does write well. While my problems had more to do with the development of the story, it is well-written.

What was bad?

This doesn't feel like a necessary progression of Joe's story. Where Beck and Love changed who Joe was as a person, and informed the books that came after their stories, I can't imagine this story having any lasting impact on Joe - and this is partly shown in the epilogue of the book.

Speaking of the epilogue, I also really hated the ending. I'm not saying that I hated the book as a whole, because I find that I rarely hate things, but there was nothing good about the ending to me. 

Overall

Because I didn't love the second book, I hesitated about whether or not to get this one, but I ultimately decided that Joe was a character that I was interested in. After reading this book, I don't think I'll be reading any further instalments of Joe's story. 

1/5 Stars