Hidden Bodies

Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In the follow up to You, Caroline Kepnes reintroduces us to our favorite murderer. Fresh off of his relationship with Beck, Joe believes that he has found true love with Amy Adam, an eclectic woman who wanders into his bookstore one day. When Amy turns out not to be who she claimed to be, Joe follows her to Los Angeles in order to exact his revenge.

I wasn't as happy with this novel as I was with its predecessor. The creepy inner monologue seems to have been dampened to make way for the plot. Where You was precise and gave you a tunnel vision narrative, Hidden Bodies is broader and has a more mainstream feel to it. Joe's need to make Amy pay for what she has done gets lost in the shuffle of his new life.

If the author hadn't thrown in the occasional murder, I would have forgotten that Joe was a killer in the first place. It felt like Joe, but not Joe. And maybe that was the point to it? This was Joe in LA. That was Joe in New York. Two different Joes. If that was the point then I missed it entirely. I didn't feel the same after having read Hidden Bodies.

This is not to say that Hidden Bodies isn't a decent enough novel. The plot is well conceived, each character is well thought out and rendered. The only part that seemed out of place was the protagonist. He didn't fit.

It's still a worthwhile read. Kepnes definitely has the flair for fiction and I look forward to reading whatever she's got coming up next.


View all my reviews