“If you knew what I went through to get into your home, that I messed up my back trying to know you, inside and out, you'd judge me for it.”

You is Kepnes's latest thriller, now a hit Netflix series. It follows Joe, a man endlessly obsessed with a girl, Beck, who walked into his bookstore one day. Curiousity turns to obsession as the progression of the tale turns dark and darker, revealing the lengths Joe is willing to go to make Beck his.

I expected a lot from You, from both the rave reviews from my friends and family about the show to just general internet reception. However, it just didn’t manage to blow me away. I didn’t dislike it, and the time I spent reading it wasn’t wasted, but it was an averagely thrilling book and nothing more.

In terms of plot, this book was actually pretty predictable and that’s one of the worst things for a thriller. The build-up and background of Joe in the beginning made it pretty clear what was probably going to happen later on, and when we finally actually got to it, I was already bored of the idea. Additionally, we know going in that Joe is a stalker, that he will go to great lengths to get to know every single part of Beck and to date her and love her. This makes what he does end up doing, which is extremely creepy if you think of it happening to yourself, feel almost normal, since he’s doing exactly what you expected him to do.

Additionally, the situation with the characters themselves is also an interesting choice. No one is actually all that likeable, so you never end up feeling for the people who suffer and for Beck, who is being ruthlessly stalked. They are all so petty and fake, revealed from all the “research” Joe is doing, and it leds to detachment from the event happening to the characters as well as lack of empathy for them. It removes the emotion and stakes from the book, as while you know what Joe is doing is bad and he definitely should not have done this or that, you end up not really caring since you don’t emotionally feel the consequences of his actions.

What is interesting about the book is the way is positions as the reader. The entire time you look through the eyes of Joe and are seeing things from his perspective only. It leads to a one-sideness, a belief in what Joe is doing even though every part of you knows it is extremely wrong. This is only aided by the fact that you don’t actually like his victims, so a part of you doesn’t really care about what he’s doing and still hopes he gets the girl.

All in all, I don’t regret reading this book and I’ll probably watch the series in order to see how this gets transferred to tv, but it’s not my favorite thriller out there by a long shot.