You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes (2021).....continues, for the third time, the romantic and sometimes lethal misadventures of Joe Goldberg, the author's undefeatable sociopath-stalker-murderer.
As in the two previous books, "You" and "Hidden Bodies" (both turned into miniseries), former New York bookseller Joe falls obsessively in love, which never bodes well for either the designated object of his affection or anyone in her circle who would dare thwart him.
The subversive delight of these books comes from the people who see through Joe's masquerade as a normal empathetic human. They themselves are invariably insufferable, obnoxious, self-absorbed entitled jerks, so when Joe's forced to take them off the playing board, one by one, you find yourself rooting for him.
Sooner or later (usually sooner), these assorted creeps who stand between Joe and his latest dreamgirl end up kidnapped and/or murdered and somehow Joe escapes a world of complications, troubles, and most importantly capture and imprisonment.
Not that it ever seems to do him any good in the long run.......
Caroline Kepnes, knowing she's got a goldmine in Joe, returns to all the beats and tropes she established in the first two books. (You can consider Joe as a more up-to-date version of Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley)
After his disastrous love-stalking of Beck in "You" and Love Quinn in "Hidden Bodies", Joe tries moving to a sleepy little picture-postcard island off the Northwest Pacific coast, because it reminds him of 'Ceder Cove' in the Hallmark Channel series.
He instantly falls head-over-heels for Mary Kay DiMarco, the town librarian, but like his previous obsessions, she come fully equipped with a host of obstacles in his path......a teen daughter, a raging feminist best friend, a has-been rock musician husband and his motivational guru brother, and a repulsive crossfit-crazy neighbor.
Even worse, Joe finds himself blackmailed and shadowed by a Private Eye would-be screenwriter hired by Love Quinn's family to keep him on a short leash.....and keep him from piling up any more bodies.
What a foolish thought. And here's where Kepnes cleverly tampers with the formula set down in her previous entries. Joe desperately wants to mimic sane behavior as best he can and keep his hands unbloodied. And Kepnes finds a way accommodate him and yet still rack up the usual high body count. Not without great cost, though, as Joe endures so much physical punishment and reversals of fortune, he seems more like Job than Joe.
After three such books, you'll either find Joe's tribulations repetitive and tiresome or you won't be able to wait to get your hands on a fourth book.
You can count us among the latter. Kepnes keeps the proceedings fast, darkly funny and laced with some of the most juicy, poisonous wit you'll ever read.
What can we say......we love us some Joe. 4 stars (****).
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