Following the visceral success of You, Caroline Kepnes returns with a blood-soaked encore in Hidden Bodies—a sequel that trades the suffocating charm of New York City for the sun-glossed superficiality of Los Angeles. Joe Goldberg, the obsessive bibliophile and secretive murderer, takes his delusions westward in search of closure, control, and, as always, love. What he finds, however, is something much darker—himself reflected in a culture even more narcissistic than he is.
Kepnes crafts a story that is less of a thriller in the conventional sense and more of a dark, satirical character study. And yet, her trademark tension, cynical wit, and penetrating psychological insight remain fully intact.
Psychological Descent: Inside the Mind of Joe Goldberg
Joe isn’t just a killer. He’s a philosopher, a romantic, a critic, a man who wants the world to make sense—on his terms. In Hidden Bodies, Joe moves from being the clever, calculating stalker in You to something even more dangerous: a man determined to bury the past while playing house with a new muse.
The core of the narrative is less about Joe’s physical acts of violence and more about his mental gymnastics. Kepnes’s writing is soaked in Joe’s interiority—his self-justifications, his sarcasm, his longing. Readers are seduced and repelled by him simultaneously. It’s not easy to inhabit his headspace, and yet Kepnes makes it disturbingly comfortable.
Joe says things no one dares to say, and often, we’re laughing with him—until we remember we’re laughing with a sociopath. That’s the genius of Kepnes. Her prose mimics Joe’s charm: luring you in, making you complicit, and leaving you unsure whether you’re the observer or the accomplice.
Plot Overview: From Bookstore to Backlot
Joe’s journey in Hidden Bodies begins with a betrayal. Amy, the object of his obsession, robs him blind and disappears to Los Angeles. With his heart broken and pride wounded, Joe chases her across the country, determined not just to find her—but to punish her.
But LA changes him. Or rather, it exposes him. Here, Joe doesn’t stand out as the smartest guy in the room; everyone is lying, everyone is performing. He gets swept into a world of screenplays, shallow romances, pop culture elitism, and faux-deep personalities. Amid all this, he falls for Love Quinn (yes, that’s really her name), a wealthy, slightly broken woman who seems to offer him a new kind of dream: acceptance.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a You novel without hidden bodies, both literal and metaphorical. Joe’s past doesn’t just follow him—it threatens to unravel him. The mug of urine he left behind in Book One becomes a symbol for the trail of recklessness he can’t erase.
Core Themes
1. The Illusion of Redemption
Joe genuinely wants to change. Or at least, he believes he does. But his version of redemption is deeply flawed. It’s not about atonement but about narrative control—about telling himself a better story. Kepnes masterfully captures the human desire to reinvent, and she brutally reveals how shallow such reinventions can be.
2. Love vs. Possession
The theme of obsession is turned on its head in Hidden Bodies. Joe meets a woman named Love (yes, cue the irony) who loves him back. But can someone like Joe ever truly receive love? Or does he always need to own, control, consume?
3. Performance and Identity
Hollywood isn’t just a setting; it’s a metaphor. Everyone is performing. Everyone is curated. Joe finds himself surrounded by liars, but the tragic twist is that he fits right in. He isn’t exceptional here—he’s average. And he hates that.
Writing Style: Dark, Satirical, Stream-of-Consciousness
Caroline Kepnes’s writing is wholly immersive. She adopts Joe’s voice with unnerving precision—each sentence teeming with sarcasm, delusion, and obsessive introspection. Kepnes continues to wield second-person narration sparingly but effectively, a chilling reminder of Joe’s mental fixation on his targets.
Here’s what stands out in her style:
- Biting Commentary: On LA, on relationships, on social media, on bookstores, on brunch. Nothing escapes Joe’s judgment.
- Stream-of-Consciousness: Sentences tumble and coil like a mind unraveling. Kepnes captures not just thought but tempo.
- Humor: As disturbing as the content is, Joe is frequently funny—darkly, cleverly, dangerously so.
Her style isn’t for everyone. For some, the relentless interiority may feel claustrophobic. But for fans of psychological thrillers who appreciate deep dives into warped minds, it’s intoxicating.
Character Analysis: From Joe to Love
Joe Goldberg
- Still intelligent, still manipulative—but slightly more fragile.
- His attempts at change make him more dangerous. He believes he’s grown, but he’s only grown better at lying to himself.
- He’s no longer a predator hiding in the dark—he’s a chameleon in the light.
Amy Adam
- The catalyst of the novel. A con artist who deceives Joe the same way he’s deceived others. Her betrayal hurts Joe not just romantically, but existentially.
- She exposes his hypocrisy.
Love Quinn
- A complicated character. Vulnerable, yet calculating. Loving, yet manipulative. She becomes the mirror Joe didn’t know he needed.
- Her family—especially Forty—brings chaos into Joe’s tightly managed inner world, challenging his illusion of control.
Strengths of Hidden Bodies
- Sharp Satire of LA Culture
- Kepnes eviscerates the plastic, fame-hungry landscape of Los Angeles without falling into cliché.
- The yoga classes, screenplays, self-help obsessions—every trope is reinvented with fresh, acidic humor.
- Complex, Layered Characters
- Joe isn’t the only one wearing a mask. Everyone is playing a part, from Love’s high-society facade to Forty’s tormented artist persona.
- Even minor characters feel alive, imbued with quirks and contradictions.
- Deep Psychological Exploration
- Kepnes doesn’t just show us Joe’s actions; she makes us feel them from the inside out.
- This creates a uniquely disturbing intimacy.
Weaknesses and Critiques
While Hidden Bodies is an interesting read, but it’s not without flaws:
- Pacing Issues
- The middle portion of the book, especially Joe’s immersion into Hollywood life, can feel bloated.
- Certain side plots—particularly involving Love’s family drama—drag more than they deepen the main narrative.
- Repetitiveness
- Joe’s interior monologue, while brilliantly written, can become exhausting. The cynicism, though witty, sometimes veers into the monotonous.
- Less Tension Than You
- You thrived on cat-and-mouse suspense. Hidden Bodies shifts toward existential dread, which may disappoint readers seeking traditional thrills.
Context in the Series: From You to For You and Only You
Hidden Bodies is book two in a four-part series:
- You – Introduces Joe and his obsessive pursuit of Guinevere Beck.
- Hidden Bodies – Expands the world, showing Joe grappling with consequences and confronting new illusions.
- You Love Me – Joe tries to start fresh in the Pacific Northwest, only to find that love (again) has a different definition for him.
- For You and Only You – The most meta installment, where Joe becomes a writer and is surrounded by other writers—dangerously so.
Hidden Bodies is crucial in this arc. It acts as Joe’s “pivot novel”—not quite villainous, not quite redeemed. It’s where we begin to see that Joe isn’t just a sociopath with a bookstore—he’s a sociopath who thinks he’s the protagonist of a redemption story.
Books Like Hidden Bodies
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
- The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
- My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
- Verity by Colleen Hoover
- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
These novels share the twisty plotting, unreliable narration, and psychological depth that Kepnes executes so well.
Final Thoughts: A Twisted Evolution
Hidden Bodies isn’t just a sequel—it’s a psychological evolution. In trading in stalker shadows for California sunshine, Kepnes shifts the tone but retains the thematic heart of her breakout novel. It’s darker, weirder, and in some ways, more poignant.
Joe’s search for love is no longer just about finding the “perfect” girl—it’s about finding someone who doesn’t run when they discover the truth. But the truth, as always, is mutable in Joe’s world. Love, like identity, is a performance. And the show must go on.
Final Verdict
Hidden Bodies is a worthy, if less nerve-rattling, continuation of Joe Goldberg’s descent. The prose is razor-sharp, the psychological depth is unnerving, and the critique of LA culture is blistering. While it meanders in places, its grip on the reader remains steady, twisted, and delightfully uncomfortable.
