Review: Hidden Bodies (You #2)

3 stars. PHEW. I absolutely draggggggeeedddddd my way through this. It's not bad, and I really enjoyed jumping into Joe's head again (not sure what that says about me, but okay). But there were a couple of specific things that put me off here.

FIRST - we find Joe presumably happy in a new relationship but haunted by his past. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the book kicks off when his girlfriend betrays him and flees to Los Angeles, luring him to the whole new world of the West Coast. But he's distracted from his mission (which appropriately involves a ton of stalking, hunting, and criticizing) when he finds true love. Zap, just like that, Joe has what he wants. Blah, blah, blah, secrets from the past come to light, what is justice, what is love, who deserves to die (a lot of celebrities, apparently), etc.

Hidden Bodies has all the things I loved about You: Joe's scathing judgments, his obsessions, his squirliness, his biting critique of ... well, everyone. It's so fascinating to me that he's so hateful and right at the same time. That makes trendy-bendy Los Angeles a perfect playground for him; a perfect setting change from the first book. I'm not a fan of LA, I just don't like the vibes, and Joe definitely captures a lot of why that is. But the fact that I don't like LA is also kind of why I was distracted from reading this so easily - it's immersively LA.

The plot rambled and there were maybe too many twists and it's missing some of the fun of it all. I'm used to Joe by now, and maybe I loved You so much because it felt so different and unique. I agree with some of the other reviewers here that it could've been a successful standalone and maybe should've stayed that way. Still, I have to admit that the writing is pretty spectacular in Hidden Bodies, and the second half gets pretty exciting, and I don't think I can stay away from the next one.

Hidden Bodies on: Amazon | Bookshop.org | Goodreads