You by Caroline Kepnes
This book reminds me most of The Talented Mr. Ripley in that it takes a horrible if charming protagonist and just about gets you to root for him. Other reviewers commented on what a great narrator they found, and I concur. Santino Fontana has a lovely voice and just nails the unreliable narrator’s obsession, hypocrisy and psychopathic self-justification.
Joe Goldberg is an evil guy, but you also sort of get him. I think most readers (or listeners) have never thought it was okay to break into someone’s house to get a pair of that person’s underwear, or steal their phone to read emails, or pretend to be someone else just to go to the same shrink so you can read the shrink’s notes. But I’ll wager that most of us have looked up a crush on Facebook or hyper-analyzed a one letter text response, trying to parse the sender’s feelings for us. And as evil as Joe is, he wants what any of us want–a deep connection with another person, preferably a hot one.
I don’t idolize serial killers and usually don’t like reading about them, but what helps this be more palatable is that almost all of the characters in this book (with the exception of Ethan) are truly despicable. Beck, the protagonist’s obsessive interest, is a shallow, lazy, immature liar who treats her friends badly and lacks self restraint. She has a drinking problem and she worships money so much that she lacks all boundaries with her rich friends. Peach, one of those rich friends, is a needy bitch who jerks Beck around. There’s a scene where Joe has spent a great deal of time and money to prepare a romantic date with Beck and Beck and Peach conspire to ruin it, Beck by tweeting where she is and Peach by interrupting it because Peach can’t stand Beck paying attention to anyone who’s not her. I felt so sorry for Joe. But then there was a scene where Joe was killing someone, talking about how his ex-girlfriend also “made” him kill her by walking too close to the water when she was breaking up with him, and the whole time he’s bitching about these women not being able to be accountable for their own actions, and the sheer hypocrisy was kind of funny. Like, well, done, Kepnes, well done. Now there’s an unreliable narrator for you.
Joe has contempt for Benji, Beck’s boyfriend, and the reader can’t help having contempt for him as well. A rich, spoiled, feckless loser whose job is peddling his salted fizzy water. But then, he’s also a young entrepreneur trying to distance himself from his background while simultaneously making the use of his gifts. Peach is a narcissistic bitch with borderline personality disorder who passive-aggressively insults her friends with her elitist snobbery. But she’s also a hard-working woman who is profoundly lonely and so estranged from her so-called friends that she can’t even admit her sexuality. Beck is, well, Beck is pretty vile. She and Joe were made for each other, really. They are both scheming contemptuous liars, except that Joe is smarter and more dedicated to his goals. Joe has contempt for Ethan as well, because Ethan is a happy, kind person who is not ashamed of what he is. He is authentic and earnest, and what could a lying obsessive psychopath hate more than a genuine person who has true happiness?
There were a few moments of black humor in this book, but it’s still pretty dark. I spent the first half of the book hoping that Joe would succeed in winning Beck’s heart and thinking she didn’t deserve him, and the last half of the book hoping and fearing that he would get caught. There aren’t any happy endings in this book. Terrible things happen to flawed people who are not quite evil enough to deserve them. It was a fun book, mostly because of the unique perspective of the narrator, but it’s not a happy book and there’s no real moral lesson except maybe “don’t share your entire life on social media and pick a strong password.”
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