You - The Novel A Mini Review

Like many people in the Netflix universe, I am addicted to the You TV Series. I think I have watched it a total of three times. I do not even enjoy psychothrillers. I was just hooked on the literary components of the TV Series. I really wanted to know more about what a “well-read” person is and his life as a bookstore clerk.

The rush of death is just like a wild bonus.

I was very careful not to read the book, I figured it would be more of the same. Stalking, preying on those the main character kills, but it was not quite like that. The novel focuses on the inner most ideas and thoughts of the main character Joe. There is a sense of righteousness to the main character. He never attended university and he never once cared about much of consumer activities such as shopping. In a way, that is a realistic aspect of Joe.

But then, Joe doesn’t reveal why he kills. It’s so daunting, in this age of crime tv, to see a character without known motive. Caroline Kepnes doesn’t do much digging into the main character, and most of it reads like a mini-notebook, not even a diary or memoir, of what Joe does and how Joe lives (loves, and ultimately kills).

But it was a bit literary. There are surprise tests for Joe’s victims. And I feel I would have failed those tests as well. Do read it for the surprises. The real literary shout-outs are interesting. I’ve compiled them all for you so that you can start a You read-a-thon. Reading is fun, after all.

The books mentioned are as follow:

• Desperate Characters by Paula Fox
• The Western Coast by Paula Fox
• Poor George by Paula Fox
• Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
• Underworld by Don Delillo
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
• The Red Badge of Courage by Stepehn Crane
• Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
• The Shining by Stephen King
• The Victim by Saul Bellow
• A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
• To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
• The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
• When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner
• In the Lake of Woods by Tim O’Brien
• A River Runs through it and Other Stories by Norman MacLean
• The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
• The Captain is Out to Lunch by Charles Bukwoski
• Old School by Tobias Wolff
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Love Story by Erich Segal
• The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Long list. I might read them, just because I’m a nerd that way. Maybe, I’ll learn more about Joe and Kepnes too.

Have you seen the TV Show? Or read this book? What did you think?