Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes

 

Hidden Bodies

by Caroline Kepnes

Joe Goldberg has a new girlfriend and she's just as shady as he is. They make fun of people together, have questionable pasts, and lie, cheat and steal. But when Joe is on the receiving end of Amy's lies and theft pattern, she becomes his next target. He follows her to Los Angeles in order to make her pay. With her life.

Hidden Bodies is not as good as YOU. Though Joe was the same narcissistic jerk, he wasn't nearly as manipulative as he was in YOU. And that bothered me. That was the intriguing thing about him that made me want to keep reading.

Joe searches for Amy in LA, and finds her. But she gets away. During his search he falls for a wealthy "non-actress" grocery chain heiress and gets a firsthand look at the good life of celebrity. Before he falls for Love and moves in with her family he racks up a body count as he searches for Amy. Some are directly related to her, but others are just side casualties. None of them had the real urgency that was present in YOU. But looming in the background was the mug of piss Joe left behind in Peach Salinger's house on the eats coast when he killed her and pinned it on Beck. And when her death is ruled a murder, Joe knows he needs to take care of the evidence or he'll end up paying the price.

In the end Love comes to his rescue, in a story line that seemed unfeasible to me. Love, pregnant with Joe's baby, covers for Joe and actually retrieves the mug herself. In the end, the past catches up with him and Joe is arrested on murder charges, but there is no actual evidence to convict him. He ends up in jail awaiting his fate.

I wasn't a fan of the celebrity name dropping and the LA life depicted in Hidden Bodies. More emphasis was placed on LA and celebrity (which Joe supposedly despised) than it was on Joe's mission and his twisted personality. What I loved about YOU was missing from this story. I give it 3 stars.