 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to 31 days of Halloween today We are reviewing you love me by Caroline Kepnis I'm gonna set this up here right off the bat. I know there are gonna be people out there going I thought you were only gonna do Horror dish month II what I consider Caroline's work to be horror So here we are also I didn't want to wait a month a whole month because I just got through reading it about a week ago I didn't want to wait. So mm-hmm. Anyways But here we are talking about the third in the Joel Goldberg series and For those of you who like to get in get dirty and get out see my opinion the TLT LDW Too long didn't watch crowd I this this is my favorite book in the series and I'm going to try and express what I loved about it so Dang much first off Joe is peck I had no idea where she was gonna go with this book because the way the last one ended I'm gonna stay away from spoilers here the way the last one ended I had no idea how Joe was gonna get out of that situation And it is my one and only criticism it is kind of glossed over and Kind of convenient, but looking back at the rest of the series. I can't really be too mad because it fits Everything fits very well with the series and I can't wait for the the next one There are rumors. I believe Caroline herself told me that there are two more books Well one more book coming now. Excuse me Back when I talked to her last it was two more books coming and now this one has been released She has a brand new publisher. She's with Random House instead of atria books Another reason why I'm late getting this review. I could first I couldn't find time to get it Back when I did have time. I couldn't get an ARC random house never responded to me, but here we are like I said easily my favorite in the series Joe is a I think that's too much of a spoiler. Maybe maybe not. I don't know. I didn't read the description of the book But Joe has a new addition to his life that he doesn't really have contact with and that was a I expected more of that in this one But I didn't get it and I'm wondering if that's gonna be the next book the main focal point of the next book now while it this is this Person is mentioned quite often Throughout the book. It is not the main focal point this time Joe's obsessed with a woman named Mary Kaye DeMarco Who is the wife of Philip or Phil DeMarco the lead singer of the on again off again band Sacrafil is he has a radio? There's a lot of puns with his name. He has a radio radio show called Phyllian the Blues what one thing I I want to express here it is once again Caroline Kepnes Has a brand new stable of characters and they are all so wonderfully fleshed out And I love the way that she takes every single character No matter how small no matter if you know big supporting characters small supporting characters every single one of them Seem to get an arc in these books that are only 400 pages long. It's nuts. I don't know how she does it It's it's fantastic to be able to fit in all that contact content and have everybody be important to the plot It's just not something you see all the time. Of course, there are authors out there who do it Stephen King is one of them Stephen King has mentioned a lot in this book. So is her rookie Mirakami. I will never ever hear the name Mirakami again Without thinking of this book. She's completely changed my perception of that name once you read the book. You'll understand But this one Joe is trying to behave himself, but he's he gets of course he gets in trouble anyways he meets Mary Kay DeMarco and There is sexual tension and everything just like the first two books But I think the horror of this one isn't Joe this time around the horror of this one comes first off The ending is utterly devastating It's definitely a horror novel in that aspect because I don't believe that horror novels have happy endings If not true horror novels and this one just like the last two they had unhappy endings I don't think it's a it's a spoiler here that this one is going to have an unhappy ending It's just the power for the course at this point in time I also found it interesting as a fan of the Netflix show also I think it started on a lifetime went to Netflix. I could be wrong about that It might have been Netflix the whole time, but I I'm interested that in season two of the series There's a character that is in Hidden Bodies book two But that character doesn't have a child now in this book we have a Mary Kay has a daughter named Nami who's obsessed with Columbine and Dylan Klebold Very inner they're very very I think Nami is one of my favorite character arcs in the book other than Oliver But we'll get to that in a second Here real real quick before I forget to mention this talking about the characters and how fantastically she weaves all these characters together everybody has a Very significant role in the story I find that impressive But the reason why I know that these characters really affected me is because I finished this over a week ago I have a terrible memory and I remember every single character Every single one of them and that just doesn't happen with me You can go back and look at my other reviews and I'll be stumbling all over names and you know trying to figure out Who was who saying you know sorry if I get this wrong, but in this one I'm very comfortable saying that I I knew and followed these characters I knew every single piece of Information that I possibly needed to know here The story does it's of course Joe is once again stalking yet another woman But like I said, he's trying to behave himself this time and for the most part he does This time around it's not too much his fault. He definitely has blame and he's still a stalker Still it's still a terrible person with horrible thoughts, but he's so much fun to follow Not the type of person that you want to know in real life, but he's definitely the type of person that I love reading about Excuse me This this book blows blows by I even read this one aloud to my wife We watched the the series the first two seasons. That's all that's out right now We watched those together shell had not read the first two books As we were going through this one I got her up to speed so we could go ahead and jump into it, but I read this one to her I love doing all of the voices, especially Oliver with his constant my friends It was it was really really fun to read and there's a lot of stuff in here That that's that I found just just geek-worthy on the side like the mention of the novel the Beloveds and Perfect Days both books both of those books Carolyn had recommended to me and all and they pop up in this one I haven't not read them yet, but I plan on getting to them probably in November or December some time about that I'm super hyped for the the next season I have no idea what they're gonna do because the second season of the show Does not end like hidden bodies, so I'm not sure how we are going to Get this new line or if it's even gonna follow you love me I don't know it might branch away like Game of Thrones did and Dexter and all that stuff Anywho back to the book The what what I love the most about the writing in this book is something that I hear complaints about it is Joe's stream of consciousness run-on sentences Ands instead of commas just constant constant ands and this and that and that and that even in the same sentence that The beginning thought The beginning subject will not match the ending subject and it's just the way Joe thinks and the reason I Like this so much is because in Providence, which isn't a goal a Joe Goldberg book the writing is similar But it doesn't have Joe's stream of conscious feel to it I love it when an author is able to latch on to a character's voice and stick with it So perfectly Joe's sounded the same in my head from you to hidden bodies now to you love me I I do have one complaint that Caroline didn't have any control over the original title of hidden bodies was love So you had the series would have been you and love and you love me I thought I thought that would have been perfect, but it was changed Shortly before publication to hidden bodies it fits But I think you love and you love me would have been better than you hidden bodies and you love me That's just my opinion. Anyways back to the book again to the content of the book Mary Kay works at a library In a place called Bainbridge I'm not a hundred percent sure and I should probably should have looked this up at Bainbridge exists It probably does because I've you know, Caroline tends to work in places that actually exist so in Bainbridge which is like a Cedar Cove or Cedar fucking Cove as it's referred to in the book after a cozy mystery series That I believe Joe liked and then got Mary Kay into or maybe it was the other way around Huge highlight in this book as I expressed earlier was is Nami. That's Mary Kay's daughter Nami is this a fantastic character and her character are where she ends up by the end of the book is my favorite in the book You also have characters these little side characters that come into play like Melonda Who's Mary Kay's best friend and you have shortest or his real name is Seamus? I loved reading both of these characters out loud. They they all have such a unique personalities and you will see Some of your friends and family and people that you know, maybe people you even hate in these people None of them are all good or all bad. They're very dynamic characters Some of them are very close to all evil. Some of them are very close to all good, but everybody has Their own quirks and everything the biggest twist of this book is What ends up happening? With the love Quinn storyline, which is kind of a cliffhanger ending from hidden bodies The way that storyline is wrapped up. I was I was shell-shocked. I don't know how else to put it I was hollering. I was screaming at the book I I couldn't I couldn't believe that that Caroline did it and she did it So I was very impressed with where it went because I thought I didn't think it was a nothing burger I trusted I trusted the author enough to know that It would all Something something was going to happen Not that I knew what was going to happen, but and I certainly didn't express expect what did happen in the book My this is my highest possible recommendation and I spoke to my wife in depth about this You don't have to have read the first two books if you want to start with you love me You absolutely can and then you can go back and read one and two as as prequels This one completely stands on its own whereas. I don't feel hidden bodies had a complete Totally complete storyline and I only realized that after Reading this one that it did it was a rather big cliffhanger And throughout this book it does wrap it up. It does tie everything together, but you the first book was such a Not condensed but such a Ooh encapsulated story very tight story with a very serious poignant Heartbreaking ending hidden bodies. It leaves you with a cliffhanger and then this one everything is wrapped up Do I know where the next book is gonna go once again? I have absolutely no idea where Caroline Kepnes is going to take us But I am here for the ride. This book is a phenomenon. You just don't see the third book in the series That is as it that is better than the book two books before it. I am astounded. I am an awe and Well done, Caroline But have you read you love me or have you read you have you read hidden bodies? Let me know what you thought of any of these books down there in the doobly-doo Let me know if you loved them hated them felt mad about him But give me details on why you felt the way you did so that we can have a discussion But until next time I have any you've been you this has been another episode of 31 days of Halloween. I'll talk to you guys later Bye-bye