That's what I figured. I guess I'm a little hesitant because it didn't seem like anyone really liked HB, but I suppose if I want to know ...

I just finished it this morning. A good read, but I think we have to remember it's being told from the fantasy the psychopath has created in his mind. So, whether Beck was responding sexually or not, we can't know from his reporting.

I think in that situation, it might be possible for a woman to respond, esp. if her life may depend on it. She also wasn't the picture of great mental health, so who knows what was going on in her mind - she was a master at manipulation and at being extremely needy. I always thought the twist was that he'd end up in the cage and no one would know he was there and find him months later. I think I'll skip HB.

HB wasn't as good as You but was still worth reading IMO.

Yes, I think in Joe's mind, he would have thought Beck was responding to that last encounter. And she may actually have been thriving somewhat on all the attention.

She should have left/fled Joe's apartment when she found all that stuff... but she didn't, which as Joe pointed out, is because she probably in some small part liked having him obsessed with her. I don't know if she really fully realized the true dangers. Like Peach thriving on attention from claiming to have a stalker.

Just thought of this--how many who read You have also read Lolita? Another book told from the view of a deviant, in this case a pedophile. Takes a pretty brilliant writer to weave a believable narrative voice completely from the perspective of a totally unreliable character!

I started it but it was too creepy for me and I could not move forward in it. I was surprised because I usually have a high tolerance for creepy and I love suspense.

Well, now I'm a little more than halfway through Hidden Bodies and as others have stated, it's atrocious. A real stinker compared to You, yet somehow I'm compelled to keep going and see it through to completion. Readers had mentioned it being farfetched, and boy - you got that right! The sexual descriptions are not at all sexy, but dirty and actually rather revolting. WTH, Kepnes? WTH?

I finished "You" last evening. I waited weeks for it to become available and I have to admit I had a hard time putting it down but I also wish I hadn't picked it up. I guess I'm prudish because I don't care for detailed sexual content, though it was part of the story. Jen if HB sexual content is worse I don't want to read it at all.

What I found the most unbelievable was the visit to the hospital where no paper work was required. Really, has the author never been to a hospital and had to fill out form after form and promise your first born as payment? IMO, that is just sloppy writing. I was at the eye doctors on Friday and not only did I have to show my insurance card and picture id, they also required me to sit for another photo at their office.

I agree about the sexual content. I'm no prude either, but after a while, I was like, "enough is enough" but I did continue to read and finished it. It was definitely creepy! I was planning to read Hidden Bodies, only b/c it would then fulfill a category of my book challenge, a novel and its sequel. Now I'm not so sure! I on the wait list for it at the library so I guess I will give it a try anyway.

4kids, let me know what you think. If it grosses you out it will me too.

I will say that while I found myself actually liking Joe in You, I have reached the point in HB where I just can't stand him. I wonder if that was the author's intent. I'm going to finish the book because I'm halfway in to it and just want to see how it ends. But it's just gone off the tracks and I find myself very annoyed with the whole thing now.

TR, that's how I felt reading it, too.

I usually never expect a sequel to wow me as much as the original, but it's almost like a different writer came in on this one.

I wondered that in the other book thread: was Caroline purposely trying to make Joe as vile as possible, with no endearing traits whatsoever? If so, why? It's what made the first one such a fascinating and brilliant enigma ... feeling some degree of fondness and sympathy for a total psychopath. I've never had a character affect me that way. It made me uncomfortable, made me think -- long after I finished it. And it had such great allusions to our social media age. The second book had none of that, just exploitive violence and deviance, for the sake of nothing. Plus, preposterous story lines ... the love affair with "Love" ( eyeroll), her wealthy family accepting this nobody who just shows up in their lives, Love being so accepting of his secrets, the ridiculous murder scenes, a mug of urine in a closet that wasn't ever discovered, and on and on. Somehow, You was more successful in the suspension of disbelief. Hidden Bodies was just, "Ok, look, none of this could possibly happen, so pretend it does because you liked the first book". The plot just really got away from her, to the point of parody.

I'd love to hear her thoughts and motives on it, but I'm thinking there will be a third book, and she's keeping quiet.

Yes, the whole storyline with "Love" is truly one of the dumbest things I've ever read. "Love." Gah.

I feel like Joe totally changed his personality completely in the 2nd book- not just about falling in love with Love but a whole entire different way of looking at things. He did not have his quirkiness or interesting way of looking at the world that made him endearing yet psycho. It seemed he barely even talked the same way with his long stream of consciousness thoughts. He lost his voice.

I still wouldn't say it was a bad book necessarily because it kept me reading to the end and I've had a lot of books where I have not been able to finish because the story is boring, writing is bad, etc. So whenever I finish a book and I still care about what is going to happen next (which I do here), I give the author some credit. But HB was a major disappointment. I wouldn't have even cared about the ridiculousness of the plot as much if he'd kept his voice.

I thought that #mugofurine was crazy too, of course it would have been cleaned. And that trip to Mexico when he convinced that guy to go. Come on, no one is that stupid.

Beagles, I too had to finish You. The writing was good and the story interesting enough to keep me reading. I just hate though when a book is so ridiculous that you can't feel good about the direction it's taking.

I haven't read HB, but as far as Joe being a somewhat likeable character in You, I found that he was a perfect characterization of psychopathic batterers/stalkers. After working for most of my career with victims of domestic violence and women who were victimized other ways, I can say with confidence that MANY of those perpetrators seem likeable to others and they also seem to have that reasonable dialog in their heads about what is going on with them and their victims. They have a tremendous ability to justify their actions, based on their (sick) interpretation of the actual facts.

I became interested in domestic violence (having never been exposed before) when I was in my 30's, living in a very small town for the first time (having grown up in a city), where I became friends with a completely wonderful woman. She was married to a dairy farmer who was also a high school teacher and had 5 lovely children. A picture perfect family in many ways. But as we grew more close, I could see some disturbing things about the way he treated her. And eventually I learned the truth. She was terrorized by him. Raped daily. He beat the cows with 2/4's because they were female and made sure she knew it. He nailed the pen shut of a female dog and made his family watch her starve to death. He was a good old boy, on the school board, his community had no idea what went on in that family. He threatened to kill her and the children should she leave. Once he knew that I knew, I feared being shot through my window some dark night.

So, as I was reading about Joe and his obsession, I pictured him (my friend's husband, now ex) and the hundreds of men that I heard about over the years who wooed women, then tortured them. Joe was NOT at all likeable to me. The author really nailed it with him.

Oh, for crying out loud!

I just literally LOL'd reading what happened to Officer Robin Fincher. Are you kidding me?!? That truly makes this the dumbest bunch of drivel I've read in ages, and my Kindle is telling me I still have over 2 hours of reading to go in HB. I don't know if I can do it. This has become so absurdly bad as to be funny. Remember in Happy Days when Fonzie jumped "The Shark", and everyone started saying the show was ruined then, and "jumped the shark" became a catchphrase? Yep. HB has officially jumped it.

LOL! That was my reaction, too, TR. I did keep going, because apparently I like to torture myself ... without spoilers, I'll just say that it's not the last completely asinine situation in the book. Good luck! :D

Joe was a bore. Didn't love or hate him. Beck, Peach, Benji... bore, bore, bore. I wanted to love this book but the author simply tried too hard to create a depth and quirk for each character that was, in the end ultimate parody. Too bad. The writing style was intriguing. The characters, not so much.