I…think I’m kind of over the whole You universe brought to us by Caroline Kepnes. It’s in that weird stage now where the show is a season ahead and not at all what the latest novel, For You and Only You, was about. Granted, I have no clue what Kepnes’ involvement with the show is and I realize that most adaptations don’t follow the source material closely at all, but still. It’s odd.
While I enjoyed the last season of the show, I think I also sort of checked out of the story. It’s was the most different, I suppose, and that’s kind of where we wound up in the latest novel of Joe’s life as a psychopath. Because let’s be real, regardless of all of the “love” he feels for the women who have been unlucky enough to come into his life, killing them all and a bunch other people make you a psychopath. And a serial killer. Somehow, he’s been dubbed as a likeable killer, but I think in this iteration, he sounds the most unhinged he ever has.
Although, a bit of a spoiler, he may have met his equal. And for some reason he can discern that she is definitely not right, but cannot reflect those same things back to himself. This is also the first time that he’s been fully found out. More on that in a bit, but first, some context. Joe has completely put his would-be life with Mary Kay behind because, well, she’s dead. Though this time it really wasn’t Joe’s fault, but also in a way it kind of was. Anyway, somehow Joe ends up as a writing fellow at Harvard. I don’t know how a background check doesn’t raise a single red flag for this man, but it’s fiction, so I guess we can overlook some things.
Of course, with rich, ivy league schools, comes with rich, ivy league douchebags. And every single one of them is a fellow with Joe. That is, except for his newest love interest, Wonder. Kind of sick of these stupid names, but whatever. She’s just like Joe, and he just knows they are both destined to be famous authors, though of course we all knew that wasn’t at all how it was going to turn out. Just like all the others, Wonder is self-centered in a way, just not as deadly as Joe. She claims to love her family, and her city, and her upbringing, but she so desperately wants the same thing that Joe wants that she seems to constantly be changing herself to get it.
Joe realizes too late that Wonder is not everything he’s hyped her up to be, but by then there are already a couple dead bodies. Similar to the other stories centered around Joe, these are people you wouldn’t mind seeing dead, but we all have that switch in our brains that tell us not to. It certainly ends in a different way, but Joe’s life gets another layer added to it when the tragedy of Mary Kay’s life gets thrown into a podcast, and his crime-writing fellow is more keen on true crime than fiction and pulls one over on Joe. Sarah Beth Swallows interactions with Joe were by far the most interesting of the book, and possibly for me, the series. I can see where there is the most basic crossover with this character and Kate from the most recent season, but please don’t think too hard about that.
Kepnes certainly set herself up for more story if she wants it, because really, as long as Joe is alive, there will always be a trail of dead bodies. Certainly fine for anyone being a fan of the show or previous novels, I just understand now why I waited so long to read this latest installment.