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Manni dropped everything in Spain, leaving behind his business, partner and life - unsure when he would be returning - and moved Reuben out of the care home and into an old farm cottage in the UK countryside. For months, Manni's main goal is to help Reuben to rediscover the man he knows he can be, and to carefully map out his future. You Love Me is a thriller novel by Caroline Kepnes, published in April 2021. [1] It is the sequel to her 2016 novel, Hidden Bodies, and third installment of the You series. [2] It’s a nice ‘antidote to the hell scape reality of the world right now’…” That’s me. You’re quoting me. The trouble is . . . Mary Kay already has a life. She's a mother. She's a friend. She's . . . busy.
When Mary Kay walks in, Nomi starts claiming that Joe came onto her, angry about him rejecting her. Mary Kay doesn’t believe Nomi, and soon Nomi lashes out at Mary Kay instead. Joe recognizes that Nomi has been hiding her pain from, 18 years of her parents’ toxic relationship that she has stored inside her. When Nomi implies that Mary Kay is a bad mother, Mary Kay angrily tells Noni the truth about Phil’s affair with Melanda. Then, she tries to hug Nomi, but Nomi grabs her and pushes her away. Mark Kay tumbles down the stairs.Are y’all superfans enough to get that reference or did I just waste a crapton of my time making this gif for no reason????
Reading Kepnes is like a mashup of EW and Jim Thompson . . . You Love Me delivers and then some.” — CrimeReadsWere all the books like this one? If so, my taste has definitely changed over the years, because Joe's constant, rambling stream-of-consciousness drove me batty. I don't remember the internal dialogue being quite so dense in the earlier works as it was in this latest offering from Caroline Kepnes. I also don't remember Joe being so, well... annoying. That was when I realised the power of what we were living through. I knew I wasn’t writing a fairy-tale. There were tiny chinks of moments when I thought we were getting somewhere – when he would give me the most amazing drawings – but it was a belief system, rather than circumstantial evidence.” He gets a job at the local library—he does know a thing or two about books—and that’s where he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. Librarian. Joe won’t meddle, he will not obsess. He’ll win her the old-fashioned way . . . by providing a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand. Over time, they’ll both heal their wounds and begin their happily ever after in this sleepy town. But Noni finds out anyway, and she’s fine with it, so they drop the act and Mary Kay and Noni move into the main house. Things are great, and Joe is delighted. Nomi plans on going to college in the fall, and she’s completely moved passed the whole Columbine phase of her life.
A family conference conducted by Zoom, with parents, Tim and Jenny, and their two other brothers – one in the US and one in the north of England – revealed the entire family was in accord. The only issue I had with this book and it's a small one, is that it became a bit difficult at times to follow the discussions because Joe was acting as another person. Does that make any sense? It slowed down my reading just a bit, because I wanted to be sure exactly what was happening. I think this is due to the second person point of view, and also because I'm obsessed with getting everything straight in my head where Joe is concerned. In fact, I may be a bit obsessed with Joe, in general. Joe starts researching Ivan even more until he locates a TikTok video from a woman named Megan with a #MeToo story about Ivan. She says that she did a workshop of his and he manipulated her into having sex with him by saying that it would give her confidence. Joe is determined not to kill anymore (too complicated!), but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have some twisted ideas up his sleeve. With inventive new mind games to play and deranged schemes to enact, Joe still manages to get himself into plenty of trouble, even as he tries to be a “good guy” and act however he thinks “good guys” act (hint: he’s still not a good guy, but he’s certainly entertaining).
One of Reuben Coe’s drawings, based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which feature in his new book. Photograph: Manni Coe
Reuben's many felt-tip pen drawings scattered throughout the book show a part of the everydayness of being in his company, and the way he likes to communicate and show you the things and the people he likes and loves. Joe is now living on Bainbridge Island and has his eye on his new boss, Mary Kay DiMarco, a librarian at Bainbridge Public Library who has dreams of owning her own bookstore some day. She has a teenaged daughter, Noni. With his new start, Joe is determined to resist his impulses, and he promises himself he will not kill for Mary Kay. Joe and Mary Kay become closer. They finally kiss, but Mary Kay says she just wants to be friends. Still, Joe continues to build up a relationship in his head. Then, one day, he finds out Mary Kay is married. Joe chides himself for trying to be a "good guy" and not properly stalking her. Caroline Kepnes must be some kind of storytelling sorcerer. How else can Joe Goldberg — stalker, creep, multiple-murderer, blamer of everyone else but himself, a “long overdue book, the one you never thought was coming” — be such an entertaining narrator? Even Tom Ripley, Patricia Highsmith’s famously amoral character (a clear inspiration for Kepnes), could be enjoyed at a third-person remove, unlike the in-your-face immediacy of Joe’s blinkered perspective . . . brilliant’ New York Times This is not the first time Manni has had to take Reuben out of care. The first was a few years ago when he was sent for a visit to Spain dressed in his pyjamas. “We called it Dirty Sheets,” he says. “And Reubs was obese, massively overweight. You weren’t in a good place, were you Reubs?”
Perhaps my absolute favorite thing about this book is that it is perfectly clear this isn't the last we will be hearing from Joe, and I am already anxiously awaiting the next installment! I basically dragged out reading this as long as possible because I knew I'd miss him the minute it ended...and Joe? In the famous words of Prince/Sinead O'Connor....no one compares to, well, YOU! When Joe gets home, Melanda tries to convince Joe that she’s ready to move to Minnesota and not say anything about any of this to anyone. Melanda also admits that she has been sleeping with Phil, so that Joe has dirt on her. She says that he can find Phil’s DNA on the underwear in her laundry. She says that she wants out of this life and that her extended affair is proof that she knows how to keep a secret. Joe actually considers letting Melanda go, when suddenly Mary Kay shows up at his door. I would sit and write at night in the dark, and it gave me the impetus to keep going,” Manni explains. In a nutshell, this is what happens, and I kid you not, the first 80% is balls boring. This all happened maybe the last 25%?
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