REVIEW: Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes

OUR REVIEW:

Shel: I'm just imagining the faces of my friends when I tell them that I've fallen in love all over again...with a serial killer named Joe. I mean whattheeverlovingfuck? I never in a bazillion years would think that I'd like someone who has so many issues and who solves problems by murdering the people who piss him off, but I kinda love his style. Court: It is shocking with how much love and affection we speak of Joe isn't it!? I would like all of my friends to know him too, so I have been shouting his name about left and right!

Shel: Let me hit you with an uncomfortable truth: as much as I was looking forward to reading Hidden Bodies I was a little nervous about starting it. Why? Because You was unique and hilarious and wonderful and what if Hidden Bodies didn't live up to You? EEEEK! So what did I do about my anxiety? I sat on my copy of it forfreakingever and that was probably the dumbest thing I've done, so far, in 2016. Hidden Bodies was as great, if not greater, than You. It had all of the snark and swagger, the willful disobedience, the artful denial, and the hilarious inner monologue of Joe with the added benefit of already knowing who Joe was. Since I wasn't trying to wrap my brain around who this guy was, I could sit back and enjoy all of the new characters and new situations he found himself in. And boy did I enjoy. I think most of the time I looked like this:

and sometimes this:

Really, though? If I wasn't at work, you'd find me like this:

Court: I had the same fear. Sometimes the sophomore efforts don't go the way we want them to. Good or bad. I think of several books that change me profoundly and can't reread them or want to read the sequel simply because...I don't want my initial reading experience to change. And I am glad to say that this didn't happen with this book. I read a review somewhat chagrined that this was so much different than You in plot. And I have to say...guys...if it would've been much of the same you would've been mad about that too!!! This is an original masterpiece with a master manipulator anti-hero, and he is seriously a wave maker when it comes to unreliable narrators. I also wanted to mention that someone made a comment about having to suspend belief to get through it. Not to be an asshole and point out the obvious, but most serial killer/suspense thrillers tend to have to be outside of the realm of real life or we wouldn't love it so much. Right? RIGHT!!!! I could be completely singular in my thought process on this (you're not, FWIW), but I hope you read You and Hidden Bodies and enjoy them as much as I did. I don't want to say too much, but the reading and the writing were just as manic as Joe is and I loved it. Caroline Kepnes slayed me in the best way with Joe, and Love and even Forty...and I miss these characters already!



Shel: I simply couldn't put Hidden Bodies down and at the same time I didn't want it to end (a serious conundrum of how to moderate my reading speed). I loved the hunt for Amy, his irritation and frustration with his new neighbors, his smugness around Forty, and the way Love completely turned him topsy turvy. I don't think I've highlighted so much in a book in a long time---it was so clever and full of interesting and observant commentary on society, relationships, and human nature. I could go on an on and on (THAT ENDING THO!!!!) but instead I'm gonna have to ask you to go read it for yourself or risk the wrath of Joe.  Court: Amen. The situations he finds himself in. Just wow. LOL! But, everything we loved about JOE in You remains, and he is a classic for me. We all do not need a Joe in our real life, but definitely love him in our fantasy one!

Want more information? Check out the blurb below:

In the compulsively readable follow-up to her widely acclaimed debut novel, You, Caroline Kepnes weaves a tale that Booklist calls “the love child of Holden Caulfield and Patrick Bateman.”

Hidden Bodies marks the return of a voice that Stephen King described as original and hypnotic, and through the divisive and charmingly sociopathic character of Joe Goldberg, Kepnes satirizes and dissects our culture, blending suspense with scathing wit.

Joe Goldberg is no stranger to hiding bodies. In the past ten years, this thirty-something has buried four of them, collateral damage in his quest for love. Now he’s heading west to Los Angeles, the city of second chances, determined to put his past behind him.

In Hollywood, Joe blends in effortlessly with the other young upstarts. He eats guac, works in a bookstore, and flirts with a journalist neighbor. But while others seem fixated on their own reflections, Joe can’t stop looking over his shoulder. The problem with hidden bodies is that they don’t always stay that way. They re-emerge, like dark thoughts, multiplying and threatening to destroy what Joe wants most: truelove. And when he finds it in a darkened room in Soho House, he’s more desperate than ever to keep his secrets buried. He doesn’t want to hurt his new girlfriend—he wants to be with her forever. But if she ever finds out what he’s done, he may not have a choice...

BUY IT: Amazon

Find more about CAROLINE KEPNES here.

REVIEW: YOU BY CAROLINE KEPNES

From debut author Caroline Kepnes comes You, one of Suspense Magazine’s Best Books of 2014, and a brilliant and terrifying novel for the social media age.

When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.

There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting.

As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder.

A terrifying exploration of how vulnerable we all are to stalking and manipulation, debut author Caroline Kepnes delivers a razor-sharp novel for our hyper-connected digital age. You is a compulsively readable page-turner that’s being compared to Gone Girl, American Psycho, and Stephen King’s Misery.

Hardcover, 432 pages
Published September 30th 2014 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Source: Purchased

Purchase this book: Goodreads | Amazon

Shel: You know what? It's been days since I read You and I'm still thinking about it. It feels like an epic fail to even try to articulate all of the things that I'm thinking about this novel because they're all twisted and knotted on each other. But, for you, I will try. Court: As you can see, I took a million days after Shelley to finish this one. Not for lack of love though, but for surplus of procrastination in other life affairs. BUT...You. Holy shit. I am so in love with this author, and I absolutely adored the second person POV. I think it added a huge spice to the dynamic of the story, and I can just gush and gush from there. 

Shel: Joe is...well...I have conflicted emotions about good ol' Joe. Some of the observations he makes about our culture--the digital age/social media--are so interesting to me. They're perceptive and disdainful and cynical and amusing and as I'm thinking this, I'm also thinking that for someone who looks down on it all, he sure does know his way around them. Even with his ornery self, I liked him. And then I didn't like myself for liking him..for reasons. When you read, you'll see. For instance, he has boundary issues. Serious boundary issues. And just like with the characters in You, he repels me as he draws me in. Maybe it's because I know people like him in real life--fascinating even as they creep me out. He does this--creeps me out because he's a stalker extraordinaire but then I'm fascinated by his obsession and his justification for his obsession--Beck. Court: I...I just...I can't even describe how I feel about myself liking Joe out of almost every other character in this book. Every single person had a purpose, and to what end with 'ole Joe...but...yeah. He's absolutely psychotic, but again like Shel said his observations are (flawed) but accurate. He has a way about him that makes him endearing. It could be the long soliloquy about Stephen King (which had me rolling...especially knowing Mr. King read the book!) that makes me think..yes, he is a book person I could get along with. And then I remembered...oh yes! He's fucking stalking this person! Like. Whoa. Heady thing, this book. 

Shel: Beck is not my favorite which sucks; I don't like her because of her flaws and, honestly, her flaws are magnified realism and I shouldn't be annoyed by her for them, but I am.  (Wow..that was a really long and really awful sentence. Keeping it anyway). She strikes me as manipulative from the start (and it doesn't help that we KNOW that she is because of Joe's masterful stalking) and I'm not a huge fan of manipulators, so you can imagine how I feel about her. Also? Her weaknesses make me annoyed with her even as I want to like her and isn't this the way with REAL people? We dislike them because they're human, with human frailty, and we want them to be better. Well, that exactly my problem with Beck--I disliked her for being too close to reality. What's interesting, I think, is that while I didn't really like her, I liked the way she was characterized; I didn't like her precisely because of the way she was written--Caroline Kepnes wanted us to not like her, and I didn't. Court: Honestly, I really kind of hated her too. She is the ultimate frenemy surrounded by other frenemies...and I just couldn't even begin to fathom the way she treated Joe. And...yes. I KNOW he was stalking her, but some of the things she does and says and then does again and again and again. She was difficult for me. She is the ultimate anti-heroine though, so there are some more conflicted feelings in my head right now that I can't even formulate a coherent thought about. Every one in this story is so very anti-everything, but their observations and way about them was special. I agree too, Shel that our feelings end up being purposeful. So, we feel conflicted for hours, and probably days afterward. Well played, Caroline, well played. We heart ya. 

Shel: The secondary characters add annoyance to Joe and therefore add much comedy for me. His snarking comments about them are so perfectly nasty and jealousy filled and just as I'd find myself disliking him, I'd like him again. Sigh. Court: I know, right? Joe has an opinion about just about everything. Whew. It must be exhausting to be him. But...if it came to Benji, Curtis, Beck, Peach, or any other character we met...he did indeed have an opinion in which in impart with us. 

Shel: So, the moral to this story, for me, is that I was thoroughly engaged in the running commentary Joe made about our society's obsession with all things technology; his elitist, cynicism struck a chord with me and I found myself nodding my head in agreement with many Joe-isms. And, I was also conflicted with how I felt how about Joe..perhaps because I liked him when I didn't want to and at other times I wanted to throttle him and other times hug him and other times murder him. (another stellar sentence, there. Not).  And Beck was just, well, Beck. Court: I have thought about this a lot since finishing the book, and the way that he was just so...on his path...has to be admired. But...obviously this is surreal fantasy, and I hope that you give it a go anyways...We like the dark and twisty an insurmountable quantity, and all of the book references, and the book store, and the writing made me so happy I couldn't help but shout from everywhere (ask my Dad...he had to hear all about Joe while chained to his hospital bed today...). I can't wait to see this turned into a sitcom. 

Shel: I saw today that Kepnes is writing a sequel; this should be interesting. I'm thinking I know where this one may pick up..but who knows? I could be very surprised. Court: Yes, this now even has a blurb. And it looks so freaking intriguing. Hhhmmm, I say. I can't wait!