Narrated by: Santino Fontana
Series: You, Book 4
Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 04-25-23
Publisher: Random House Audio

Publisher’s Summary

New York Times bestselling author Caroline Kepnes, whose acclaimed YOU series inspired the hit show on Netflix, follows “addictively charming antihero” (The Washington Post) Joe Goldberg to the hallowed halls of Harvard, where he leaves crimson in his wake.

Joe Goldberg is ready for a change. Instead of selling books, he’s writing them. And he’s off to a good start. Glenn Shoddy, an acclaimed literary author, recognizes Joe’s genius and invites him to join a tight-knit writing fellowship at Harvard. Finally, Joe will be in a place where talent matters more than pedigree . . . where intellect is the great equalizer and anything is possible. Even happy endings. Or so he thinks, until he meets his already-published, already-distinguished peers, who all seem to be cut from the same elitist cloth.

Thankfully, Wonder Parish enters the picture. They have so much in common. No college degrees, no pretensions, no stories from prep school or grad school. Just a love for literature. If only Wonder could commit herself to the writing life, they could be those rare literary soulmates who never fall prey to their demons. Wonder has a tendency to love, to covet, but Joe is a believer in the rule of fiction: If you want to write a book, you have to kill your darlings.

With her trademark satirical, biting wit, Caroline Kepnes explores why vulnerable people bring out the worst in others as Joe sets out to make this small, exclusive world a fairer place. And if a little crimson runs in the streets of Cambridge . . . who can blame him? Love doesn’t conquer all. Often, it needs a little push.

Freaking hell, I know this book is supposed to be satire of the writing world and academia but it was so insufferable to listen to. Joe was sarcastic and mean, Wonder was a flake, the two teachers had airs and were more hurt by a critique of their book rather than the death of their spouse.

I could only listen to it in short bursts as it kept on pissing me off.

And the swearing! And the repeating phrases. Joe is plain old nasty.

“Doesn’t anyone else in this world fucking love anyone?”

As I kept on reading, the plot is paper-thin and yet it is stretches over 400 pages. Joe participates in a Harvard writing class lead by a prominent author who wrote “Scabies” in hopes to become a publishes writer. He, like the rest of the class, thinks that rubbing elbows with a published author will make him introduce them to his agent and thus they’ll have loads of money and fame. For fun, in this class, they like to tear each other up during workshops and analyse and hyper-analyse their stories. Here Joe meets Wonder and immediately he is besotted with her and goes on his usual sleuthing on the internet to find out everything about her.

“You’re a Goodreads girl.”

The thing is, Wonder doesn’t even give him any hints she is interested in him. She is involved in her family’s affairs, works at a doughnut/icecream shop and wants to get published to get out her story.

What follow are chapters after chapters of Joe investigating her, trying to get with her, concocting moments in his mind where she reciprocates his sick interest and being disappointed when she’s not. And all the talk about writing and writers and who tried to say what by a phrase and the plagiarism and accusations that follow “light inspiration from another’s work”.

“People are toxic, they can kill you, so keep your distance.”

Why didn’t I give it a 1 star review? I liked some aspects of it. About readers, and writing and why we read.

“Love is a book. You don’t skip ahead. You let the story surprise you. You root for the character and let the author set the pace. You don’t read because you’re in control, because you know what comes next and when. You read because you don’t know.”

But in the end, I don’t really like books about books. It comes off as pretentious, especially after Joe talks about a scene in his book where the man and the woman have sex and then discuss Tolstoi. And in the editor’s rewrite, they have sex over and over again, getting Joe called “Porno Joe”. I mean, what she did was wrong, you don’t go and rewrite a book for someone and then say you’ve done them a favor but who in the world wants to read about someone’s post-coital musings on Tolstoi??

urgh.Pretentious.