You: A Novel

Caroline Kepnes

Sep 2014 · The You Series Book 1 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

NOW A HIT NETFLIX SERIES
A NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER

“Hypnotic and scary.” —Stephen King

“I am riveted, aghast, aroused, you name it. The rare instance when prose and plot are equally delicious.” —Lena Dunham

From debut author Caroline Kepnes comes You, one of Suspense Magazine’s Best Books of the Year, 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.

Ratings and reviews

I got this book, thinking that it was going to be an amazing, terrifying read. Somehow, this author found a way to make an obsessed, murdering, stalker novel...boring. I know that it was written in a way that makes you relate to the main character (Joe), but he was a pretentious hypocrite, as was Beck. Every single thing in this book was unrealistic and unrelateable, I found myself just waiting for him to kill her so it could be over. Basically, good in theory, horrible in execution. Nice try, Kepnes.

I made myself keep reading because I can't let a book defeat me, but it was pretty bad. I think this book is only for 25 year old girls who are on every social media platform and drink organic vegan matcha tea from Whole Foods. The story lagged a lot and seemed to go in circles for no reason. It seriously felt like a class paper that had a required word count. The characters seemed overly caricatured. Yes, it's a work of fiction, but some of the characters weren't even relatively believable.

I've heard of this book a lot so I finally broke down and read it. I admit I was expecting it to me more horrific and mysterious from some of the reactions. I actually chuckled at some of the things going through Joe's mind. That's what this story really was, a tale from inside Joe's head. It was a pretty interesting place to be. No, I wouldn't want a real person like this in my life, but as far as characters go, he's pretty fascinating. He kind of won me over actually.

About the author

Caroline Kepnes is the author of You, Hidden Bodies, Providence and numerous short stories. Her work has been translated into a multitude of languages and inspired a television series adaptation of You, currently on Netflix. Kepnes graduated from Brown University and previously worked as a pop culture journalist for Entertainment Weekly and a TV writer for 7th Heaven and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and now lives in Los Angeles.