The Book of You

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I read the blurb that accompanies this book which details how Clarissa is becoming scared of Rafe who doesn’t take no for an answer, wherever she goes he is there. Dementia Aware Rhuddlan was set up in 2018 when a group of residents decided they wanted to help their town work towards becoming Dementia Friendly. While people have been wondering about You book 5 as a hint to what season 5 of the TV series will bring, it's important to note that the Netflix show is actually one ahead of the book series. Whereas in Into the Darkest Corner, or in Killing Me Softly, the dangerous boyfriend is initially charismatic, sexy, and intelligent, in this novel, Rafe comes across as an unlikeable weirdo from the very beginning. She's terrified - and not just of Rafe; she's also terrified because she knows that the police are unlikely to help because Rafe is a skilled manipulator, and society is much, much too quick to blame the victim.I'm sickened to my stomach when I saw how this stalker posted himself as a harmless admirer who only wanted the MC's affection, being manipulative, making what he had done look like just part of his courtship, turning the MC's friends against her, etc. DVSC also run a regular Dementia Aware Denbighshire meeting via Zoom that is open to everyone and they also provide Dementia Aware Community Grants, that can fund a diverse range of project helping those with dementia, and their loved ones, across the county. I wanted to intergrade myself into this story so I could be her confidante, her defender, to fucking punch Rafe in his smug sociopathic face! There are certain characters in the novels that we don't get to see in the TV series (like the professor who is also in love with Beck). We immediately know this guy is stalking her; we just don't know why or in what capacity they know each other because she's afraid of being rude to him.

I also enjoyed the way the book was broken up into sections; without this, I feel like it would have become a monotonous read of repetitive "Rafe stalks, Clarissa collects evidence".In May the group ran a screening of 'The World Turned Upside Down', facilitated by DVSC and also hosted the Dementia Virtual Tour. The steering group has tried to take this into account when looking at activities as quite often, the wellbeing of carers can be forgotten and they need somewhere to go where they can chat to others in a similar position. In her debut novel, Claire Kendal sets the stage from page one, her protagonist, Clarisse is being stalked by Rafe, a man who she had a one night stand with.

Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Friends programme is the biggest ever initiative to change people’s perceptions of dementia. We are thrown into Clarissa's story immediately; she has begun keeping a journal to record evidence of her stalker Rafe, better known as The Book of You. I love a good psychological thriller for how they get into the characters’ heads, but this one seemed to have a lot of unnecessary “fillers” that I found uninteresting.This is by no means an easy read as it features stalking, kidnap, violence and abuse and at times it is truly terrifying- forget to breathe terrifying. It's a rare breed of book that actually manages to do the emotional equivalent of kneeing me in the balls, but this book did exactly that. There are some great characters in this book, the other jury members, the witnesses and the defendants, the prosecutors and the judge were all distinct people with just enough background detail for me to feel I had really met them but not so much that it slowed the pace of the story down. In my experience, this narrative perspective is seldom used and I have found it to be jarring and voyeuristic.

Fans of Gone Girl and The Silent Wife will enjoy the delectable tension right up until the heart-stopping conclusion. But, honestly, I feel like I've been standing on the corner waiting for the bus that never really comes. But in The Book of You, I did not feel that she was able to work this concept into the story in a comprehensible way. The problem with this is that it's not written in journal style, other than by logging the dates as headings. As a reader, I was confused as to how I was supposed to feel about Robert- and not confused in a good, suspenseful way.Clarissa's only escape from this harrowing nightmare is inside a courtroom--where she is a juror on a trial involving a victim whose experiences eerily parallel her own. However, it was soon set up again and the group has around 5 members who meet regularly about once a month. The group were successful in getting their accreditation in 2019 and have managed to run successfully with no breaks. Suddenly we were unable to mingle face to face so a lot of communities had to 'think outside the box'. Kepnes has published 3 sequels: Hidden Bodies in 2016, You Love Me in 2021, and For You and Only You in 2023.