For You and Only You (by Caroline Kepnes)
Joe Goldberg Goes to Harvard
I was thrilled when my library audiobook hold for book four in the You series finally came in. For You and Only You delivers the Joe Goldberg craziness I expected, but it also feels different from the earlier books.
Joe has traded bookselling for writing and lands a spot in a selective fiction fellowship at Harvard, led by the acclaimed novelist Glenn Shoddy. He arrives convinced this is the place where talent finally matters more than pedigree. His fellow fellows, however, are mostly already published and steeped in the same elite world. The exception is Wonder Parish, a working-class Boston writer with no degree and no pretensions, just a serious love of books. Joe decides they are literary soulmates and sets out to clear the path for her, and for himself. The fellowship's rivalries, class snobbery, and publishing games soon pull him back into obsession, manipulation, and violence, while Kepnes pokes fun at the very literary world Joe is so desperate to join.
As always, I could count on Caroline Kepnes for witty sarcasm and a steady stream of references to authors, books, movies, and music. Her audiobooks have me laughing out loud every time, and this one was no exception. Santino Fontana narrates the entire series, and I love having the same voice connected to Joe from book to book. He does a wonderful job.
This installment didn't feel as dark to me as the previous books. Joe is still a serial killer, of course, but the story lacked some of the intensity I've come to expect. Joe becoming a writer was a fun new twist, though the story felt long. I was never bored or disinterested, but it could have been a bit shorter. The ending made me think it was setting up another Joe story, but apparently not. Or at least not the story I anticipated.
Overall, it's a good listen, but it's my least favorite of the series so far. I'm still looking forward to the fifth book, You First, a prequel to Joe's story, and I've already placed my library hold.
If you'd like to read my review of book three in the series, You Love Me, you'll find it linked below.
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