Review: You Love Me (You #3)

4 stars. I liked this one a lot better than Hidden Bodies; it’s like Joe slipped back into the game we all know and loved in You. That was really smart of Caroline Kepnes, as I don’t think this series would succeed as one long arc. I love that each book is episodic… it keeps Joe’s adventures fresh and exciting. And I think, realistically, Joe Goldberg wouldn’t be able to stay in one place for very long anyway. So he’s done New York, he’s done LA and now he’s tackling the Pacific Northwest, trying and hoping to be good and normal and as upstanding as possible for the sake of the son he’s never met. Trying. Hoping.

He meets someone new, of course. A new You. And from there we get a front row seat to his obsession as he schemes and manipulates and applies old tricks in new ways. As expected, it’s wild and refreshing and his voice is entertaining and the twists and turns keep the pages turning. There’s that itch again - that itch that makes me want to scream at Joe while knowing, deep down, in so many ways, that he’s right. His observations and criticisms are … shit, I don’t want to say valid or justified. Truthful, maybe. Honest in ways we might have trouble admitting to ourselves.

I love when books exist in a universe where other books exist - where pop culture is a tool used for humor or context or self-awareness. Here it gives the You books a sort of wry opportunity to wink at the reader… mentions of Dexter are nothing short of meta genius. Poor Bainbridge: no place is safe from Joe’s judgment. (I can’t WAIT for him to absolutely crucify Florida in the next book, but can we get one where he ends up in Washington, D.C.? I want to see Joe bitch about WMATA and mock Capitol Hill interns for wearing their badges on the weekend and rub shoulders at the Kennedy Center with the Washington Elite. I would love to see Joe in the world of politics - he’d fit right in.)

Anyway, I’m all in. Sure the ending got a little weird/rushed, but we all knew that a happy one wasn’t in the cards, right? I knew something was coming, because our dear Joe likes to work. He likes projects. I don’t see victory tasting sweet to him, or as sweet as he’d hope.

You Love Me on: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads