Line #4 Literature/YouKepnes


1	[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/you_2015.jpg]]
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3
4	''You'' is a 2014 {{Thriller}} novel written by Creator/CarolineKepnes.
5
6	When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.
7
8	There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Website/{{Facebook}} account and [[Website/{{Twitter}} Tweets]] incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting.
9
10	As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving [[RelationshipUpgrade from stalker to boyfriend]], Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way —even if it means [[{{Yandere}} murder]].
11
12	A sequel, ''Literature/HiddenBodies'', was published in 2016, while [[Series/{{You\|2018}} a television adaptation]] premiered on Creator/{{Lifetime}} in 2018, later moving to Creator/{{Netflix}} for its second season.
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14	[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Unrelated]] to ''Literature/{{You\|2013}}'', a 2013 novel about a game development company.
15	----
16	!!You contains examples of:
17	* AbductionIsLove: Joe [[spoiler:kidnaps Beck near the end of the book, after she discovers his stalking and murdering. It appears that she might have fallen for it, but it's a ruse so she can try to escape, and he kills her when she does.]]
18	* AlmostFamousName: In ironic juxtaposition to the HeroWithAUniqueName, Guinevere Beck, Joe's other girlfriend is called Creator/{{Amy Adam\|s}}. It's impossible for Joe to stalk her online as a result.
19	* ArmoredClosetGay: [[spoiler:Peach is a lesbian, but due to her station in life, keeps her feelings to herself. Even Joe pities her somewhat for it in the end.]]
20	* AssholeVictim: After Joe fires Curtis when the latter gives his home address to Beck, Curtis later returns with friends who beat the daylights out of Joe. Even Joe admits he's had a beating coming for a long time.
21	* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:Joe kills Beck, is never arrested for his crimes, and finds a new obsession.]]
22	* BetaCouple: Ethan and Blythe. Joe frequently finds himself competing with their relationship and eventually grows frustrated when he realizes that Ethan and Blythe, for all their issues, have a genuinely stronger relationship than the whirlwind passion of the fling between him and Beck. Blythe may be rude and condescending and Ethan may be a doormat of a NiceGuy, but apparently they do get along marvelously, and they're more mature about their relationship than the MadLove Joe is. [[spoiler:And in the end, they move in together and get married while Joe is left to go after his next victim.]]
23	* BlatantLies:
24	** Beck frequently lies to either get out of a promise or to get what she wants. Joe, who is reading her texts and emails, is the only one who can see through them, though he never calls her out on it [[spoiler:until the end, when he tests her on the emails she sent Nicky about him.]]
25	** [[spoiler:After Joe locks her in the cage, Beck plays along and tells him what he wants to hear. Joe is so delusional that he believes she really is impressed about the ingenuity of his murders of her friends and interested in reading a book with him, when really she's trying to get him to lower his guard.]]
26	* BookWorm: Joe is a book obsessive, and Beck certainly portrays herself as one. [[spoiler: She later admits to Joe that is something of a put-on, and she doesn't actually enjoy reading that much.]]
27	* BrainyBrunette: Beck has dark hair and is Ivy-educated. Subverted in that she's not as smart as she appears.
28	* BreakingTheFourthWall: A meta example. If you're reading this on a Kindle, they have a joke about reading books on the Kindle.
29	* CastFullOfRichPeople: PlayedForDrama. All of the main characters are very wealthy, except [[StalkerWithACrush Joe]], who is legitimately poor, and the object of his affection, StarvingStudent, Beck, who is constantly broke just trying to fit in. Even more so in ''Hidden Bodies'', where Joe moves to LA and almost every single major character is a trust fund baby and/or famous, and the "poorest" other character is a cop.
30	* ChekhovsGift: Beck gives Joe ''Literature/TheDaVinciCode'' for saving her life. They then read it when [[spoiler:Joe captures Beck in the basement]] and [[spoiler:Joe chokes her with it.]]
31	* CryingWolf: In a sense. When Benji and Peach go missing, those in their lives don’t worry too much because both have a habit of disappearing every now and then (Benji on drug benders, and Peach to cause [[AttentionWhore drama]]). So no one is too concerned when they suddenly disappear and neither are [[spoiler: considered dead]] until weeks later.
32	* DrivenToSuicide: Beck notes that Peach attempted suicide several times in the past [[spoiler:which covers Joe's murder of her, as most people assume she died by suicide.]]
33	* EntitledToHaveYou:
34	** Peach seems determined to use her money to get Beck all to herself.
35	** Joe volleys between subtly and unsubtly. [[spoiler:While killing Beck he drops all pretenses and flat out says he "deserves" her.]]
36	* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Beck. [[spoiler: Peach does.]] Made especially evident as every male character, particularly in the adaptation, lusts after her.
37	* EveryoneHasStandards: As much as Joe hates Peach, he does pity her for never having been truly loved by her parents, and [[FreudianExcuse blames them for all of her issues]], which in itself is something of {{Foreshadowing}} when it's revealed that Joe's own parents didn't seem to care much about him.
38	* ExtremeDoormat: Even when Joe is outright rude to Ethan, Ethan just smiles and thanks Joe for talking with him.
39	* FictionalFanRealCelebrity: All over the place.
40	** Joe loves Music/{{Prince}} and regards him as the great poet of the modern era. He's also a huge fan of Tim O'Brien (of ''Literature/TheThingsTheyCarried'') and Creator/WoodyAllen, especially ''Film/HannahAndHerSisters'', which shows his GenreBlindness because he regards it as a pure love story.
41	** Peach is a huge fan of Music/EltonJohn, and listens to him all the time. This foreshadows that Peach herself is a ClosetGay, which she relates to in the music.
42	** Beck's favorite movie is ''Film/PitchPerfect'', though it's regarded in-universe as [[TakeThat "basic."]]
43	* ForTheEvulz: Beck starts an affair with Dr. Nicky for no other reason than boredom with Joe and a desire to ruin Nicky's family life, stemming from her hang-ups about her own broken family.
44	* FriendlessBackground: Joe spends most of the book arrogantly and caustically writing off his need for social interaction outside of Beck, but towards the end, his inner monologue reveals that he has been alone for most of his life and never had any friends or family who cared about him. It becomes starkly clear that his obsessive search for his "one true love" is a way for him to seek out one person who will complete his needs and make up for all of his loneliness, not that it excuses anything he does.
45	* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Peach is disliked by all of Beck's other friends, and Joe sympathizes with them when he himself meets her and realizes that she's a massive JerkAss. Beck herself gradually becomes this to her other friends as they quickly tire of her whining about Benji and flaking out on plans to spend more time with Peach.
46	* GoldDigger: Benji remarks that Beck is only obsessed with him because he's rich. Indeed, Beck keeps close with those who can offer her privileges, and Joe himself notes that Beck isn't the type to hold down a part-time job when she could beg [[spoiler:her wealthy father]] for money instead.
47	* HatesEveryoneEqually: ''Joe.'' Seriously, he has a chip on his shoulder about ''everyone'' he meets. It's no surprise that he has no friends whatsoever, though he admits he doesn't even want one. He hates most women and other men as well, and lambasts everyone for having boring lives, whether they are "whores" who seek sex or dress provocatively, "boring" women who settle down and have children, children themselves, people who enjoy certain books, people who own e-readers, people who work for a living, people who don't work... The list goes on. That being said, he has rose-colored classes about Beck's flaws, often repainting them in a positive light or even praising her bad qualities and stupid decisions, though even he acknowledges her foolishness sometimes.
48	* HereWeGoAgain: [[spoiler:The novel ends with Joe quickly getting over his depression over Beck's death by latching onto a new cute, quirky, book-loving target to stalk.]]
49	* HiddenDepths: Inverted with Beck, who is not nearly as deep or intellectual as Joe has convinced himself she is. At the end of the novel, when [[spoiler: Joe is holding her captive,]] she admits she doesn't really want to be a writer, she doesn't particularly enjoy reading and all she wants to do is go to Hollywood and become famous as an actress. Joe doesn't take this well.
50	* {{Hypocrite}}:
51	** Joe is annoyed that Benji rails against Monsanto when Benji's own dad worked for Nestle.
52	** Beck is disgusted by Joe's apartment (which is littered with discarded furniture), which briefly takes the wind out of his sails as he's proud of his thrifty abode. He inwardly criticizes her for preferring the sterile appeal of Ikea and being disgusted when she herself shoves used tissues into her filthy purse.
53	** A rather dark version comes up when [[spoiler:Beck finds Joe's StalkerShrine that has her yearbook, at least one pair of panties and ''a used tampon''. Joe is disappointed in her for invading his privacy, ignoring how he got those items in the first place.]]
54	* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:For Beck, who manages to seduce Joe after he locks her in the cage and escape after he leaves the door open... Only to find herself still locked within the bookstore, with no one around to hear her cries for help in the wee hours of the morning.]]
55	* IfICantHaveYou: [[spoiler:Joe kills Beck after he realizes that she'll never love him and is done even pretending to try.]]
56	* IncompatibleOrientation: Beck and [[spoiler:Peach.]]
57	* ImprovisedWeapon: Joe uses the pages of the copy of ''The Da Vinci Code'' Beck gave him to [[spoiler:stuff pages down Beck's throat while killing her]].
58	* ItsAllAboutMe: Every one of the books central characters is guilty of this. Even some of the more minor characters like Curtis and Nicky, except for [[NiceGuy Ethan]]. But Joe, Beck, and Peach are probably the top contenders for the worst. [[spoiler:Joe outright thinks this about Beck when the latter calls herself "Death Girl" after two people close to her die within a short period.]]
59	** Up to eleven in the end for Joe. [[spoiler:After Beck discovers the box of items he's stolen from her, he thinks ''he's'' the one who deserves a groveling apology, because Beck had to snoop to find it. Afterwards, even when knocking her unconscious and imprisoning her, he considers himself the victim and requires Beck to correct her behavior. Even after murdering her, he's only consumed with how ''his'' life is going to be hard without her.]]
60	* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Beck, Peach, and most of their friends went to Brown; Benji went to Yale. Particularly noticeable as the other major characters (Joe, Karen, Amy), didn't go to college at all. However, then subverted, because Beck and Blythe go to the New School.
61	* JerkAss:
62	** Joe, in spades. Everything about everybody else (except Beck, of course) annoys him, down to the most innocuous action, and he is frequently rude to customers and coworkers.
63	** When Beck's spunky act drops, she reveals herself to be an inconsiderate and judgmental person with a bad temper who takes out on other people.
64	** ''Peach.'' It's no wonder none of Beck's other friends like her. She's incredibly impolite and condescending, and makes a host of cutting remarks to Joe about his lack of privilege during their first meeting.
65	* LastNameBasis: Although Beck is her surname, her friends choose to call her this instead of her first name.
66	* LethalJokeWeapon: A rare fictional example. Beck buys Joe a version of the Da Vinci Code after he saves her life. [[spoiler:Joe chokes her with it by shoving the pages down her throat at the end of the novel.]]
67	* LifeOrDeathQuestion:
68	** Joe gives Benji a test about his favorite books (which he failed because he still lied about them). He then gives him a taste test with his soda water brand, to see if he can tell the difference. Joe claims that he's willing to let Benji go, but he's fooling himself, and he kills Benji anyway (although he does fail the quizzes).
69	** [[spoiler:When Beck has found out at the end of the novel that Joe is stalking her, he kidnaps her and holds her captive in the basement of the bookstore. He then learns that she was cheating on him with Dr Nicky, at which point he subjects her to a quiz to prove that she's in love with him and over Nicky. She manages to convince him that she is, but she tries to escape later and he kills her.]]
70	* LockedInARoom: Happens to multiple people in the novel.
71	* LoveAtFirstSight: Joe becomes obsessed with Beck the minute she comes into the bookstore.
72	* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Joe believes this, and while he ''does'' act crazy, it's implied that it doesn't just come from his infatuation with Beck. This is also true of Peach and Beck, though.
73	* LoveMakesYouEvil: Joe, especially because, unlike in the adaptation, Joe at least ''intends'' to spare Benji. But it's still mentioned he has a history of disturbing behavior, like stalking, and possibly sexual assault. While it may be a stretch to call Peach evil, she's endlessly rude and cruel to everyone, particularly Joe, out of jealousy [[spoiler:that he has Beck and she doesn't.]]
74	* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Joe firmly believes that it's fate that brought Beck into his life, and that she is meant to complete him and bring passion and fulfillment into his boring, quiet life. Ultimately deconstructed: she's not even trying to ''be'' his dream girl, and instead he cynically manipulates every situation he can to be ''her'' "dream guy." Furthermore, Beck herself is a manipulative liar who used Joe to get over Benji in the first place, so she is hardly a good candidate even if she wanted the position.
75	* MadLove: Joe has this for Beck, although he thinks he's a LoveMartyr.
76	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Subverted. Joe doesn't intend his murders to go this way, but that's how they end up, regardless. [[spoiler:He cremated Benji, who is thought to have died in a boating accident. He wanted Peach's body to never be found, but when it washes up with rocks in her pocket, it's assumed a suicide. And it's unclear how he disposed of Candace's body, but her family assumed she suffered a recreational accident and drowned.]]
77	* ManipulativeBastard / ManipulativeBitch: It's honestly quicker to name which main characters ''aren't' manipulative.
78	** Joe is the most obvious example. He manipulates Beck into getting closer to him and robs her in order to read her private correspondence, which he uses to get even closer to her. He has absolutely no qualms about manipulating any situation to get closer to Beck.
79	** Beck is far from the helpless damsel Joe often believes her to be. Joe's acquisition of her phone allows him to see how often she lies, plays nice, or uses sex to get out of a situation or to get what she wants. Benji even tells him she's a GoldDigger who's just looking for a rich husband. Her "first date" with Joe only happens because she tries to essentially hire free labor from Craigslist for an Ikea trip and then enlists Joe when it's clear it won't be possible. [[spoiler:The only reason she still talks to the father she loathes is because he bankrolls her lifestyle, and later she uses her affair with Dr. Nicky to fuck with the latter's family life.]]
80	** Peach is one, which Joe picks up on almost immediately. She frequently manipulates Beck into spending time with her instead of other people, and she undermines her relationships with men. She claims to be hounded by a disease that Joe suspects is heavily exaggerated so that she can be picky with where she eats and drinks, and so Beck will give her special treatment. She also exaggerates dramatic incidents so that Beck will take care of her, and at one point she lies to Beck and asks her to not invite their other friends on a trip so that she can have Beck all to herself.
81	* MasturbationMeansSexualFrustration: Beck masturbates very frequently, and often uses a green pillow that becomes a piece of Joe's obsession. Joe also can't keep his hands off of himself with thinking about Beck [[spoiler:and he later finds risque photos of Beck that Peach had secretly taken and realizes that Peach masturbates regularly to them.]] Dr. Nicky also becomes obsessed with Beck and notes that he locks himself in his laundry room in order to masturbate while thinking of her.
82	* MirrorCharacter: Joe and Peach absolutely loathe each other: Joe thinks she's a pretentious, vapid, cruel rich girl while Peach is condescending towards Joe, who she considers a poor and uneducated hick Beck is making a mistake with. Neither seems to grasp that they're judgmental, caustic, friendless people whose obsessions with Beck are rooted in a lack of love in their childhoods.
83	* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Joe won't hesitate to kill those who he thinks are obstacles in his relationship with Beck.
84	* MurderTheHypotenuse: Joe does this to [[spoiler:Benji]] and [[spoiler:Peach]]. There are not many people he ''wouldn't'' do it to.
85	* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Beck has a lot of casual hookups, but Joe alternates between being envious of her lovers and living in denial that her sex life is actually that active. He's also far more willing to believe that Beck is a naïve damsel who was taken advantage of then believe she [[spoiler:willingly seduced Nicky for no other reason than just to screw with Nicky's life]].
86	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Joe has this reaction after killing Beck. Although, he seems to forget about her after meeting a new woman whom he becomes obsessed with.]]
87	* NewMediaAreEvil: Zig-zagged. Joe loves books and hates Facebook, but also uses all modern tools to cyber-stalk Beck. Her openness on such media is what allows him to worm into her life, and it's also taken as evidence of her shallowness and hypocrisy as she is a short story writer.
88	* NiceGuy: ''Ethan''. Absolutely nothing stops him from being kind and polite, even being openly abused. His niceness grates on Joe even as Joe realizes he can't find a legitimate reason to hate him.
89	* NotThatKindOfDoctor: Despite Beck calling him "Dr. Nicky" Nicky isn't actually a doctor.
90	* OddCouple: Ethan, the nicest man alive, and the very demanding, condescending Blythe.
91	* OneWordTitle: Presumably named because of one character's focus on another character. Therefore, really involved with SecondPersonNarration, and the pronoun, "You".
92	* OppositesAttract: The minute Joe sees Beck, he's convinced that they share a connection that other people just don't understand, because they're better than everybody else. Beck, however, is the exact kind of person he considers opposite to himself, who he continuously mocks and degrades throughout the novel: a vapid, talentless, privileged, insincere ManipulativeBitch who posts every detail of her life online and wastes every opportunity she's given or wheedles into her grasp. Tellingly, when he meets Karen Minty, who is more like himself -- working-class, direct, sexually aggressive, and a spontaneous romantic who develops a connection early -- he is turned off and only pines for Beck.
93	* ParentalIssues:
94	** Beck has a textbook case of "daddy issues" stemming from a bad relationship with her father, who she claims passed away from addiction years before, and Joe frequently notices evidence of it in their interactions. Dr. Nicky even reveals in a tape that the green pillow Beck regularly masturbates with had belonged to her father. [[spoiler:Her dad is revealed to be alive and well, but has a new wife and kids, and Beck only keeps a relationship with him so that he can give her money, though she openly resents his new life.]]
95	** It gradually becomes clear that Joe, unlike in the television adaptation, wasn't close to either of his parents and was frequently caught in their fighting and bitterness.
96	* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Joe and Peach's first meeting smacks of this, with both of them intentionally calling them by the wrong name and sniping each other's pasts and lifestyles, much to Beck's dismay. Joe ruminates that she must have been honing her verbal warfare for decades.
97	* PopularityCycle: Beck describes this as her problem in romantic relationships: that, as soon as she gets someone, she immediately loses interest in them. Joe observes this happening when he orchestrates a way back into Beck's life because Beck says she missed him, their relationship lasts a couple of blissfully perfect weeks, and then Beck cools off on him and starts cheating on him with Dr. Nicky, only to get sick of him as soon as he leaves his wife.
98	* PseudoRomanticFriendship: Beck and Peach share a sickeningly close, cuddly, almost codependent relationship that her other friends look at sideways. [[spoiler:Ultimately deconstructed when it becomes increasingly clear that Peach has an obsessive, psychotic crush on Beck, and Beck is playing into what Peach wants because Peach offers her privileges that other friends don't.]]
99	* PsychoLesbian: [[spoiler:Peach. Joe finds her stash of risque photos she's secretly taken of Beck going back years, (such as a photo of a teenaged Beck's genitals taken when the latter was sleeping, and her in the middle of having sex with other men) and it immediately becomes apparent to him that Peach has been masturbating to them regularly. She also works hard to isolate Beck from her other friends and keep her all to herself, no matter what dramatic tactics she needs to invent to do it.]]
100	* PsychoPsychologist: [[spoiler:Nicky isn't ''psycho'', but he does abuse his position by eventually sleeping with his patient, Beck.]]
101	* ReallyGetsAround: Beck has a ''lot'' of casual hookups, and Joe deludely believes that she'll change when she meets him and realizes their connection. Of course, she doesn't.
102	* ReplacementGoldfish: Nicky and Joe describe Karen as this.
103	* RescueRomance: Joe and Beck's relationship kicks off when he rescues her when she drunkenly falls on the train tracks.
104	* RightForTheWrongReasons: Peach's place is broken into ''once'' and it's enough for her to declare that [[ItsAllAboutMe she]] has a stalker. [[spoiler:She's right in that a stalker did break in. But it wasn't necessarily for her, and the stalker actually hates her guts.]]
105	* StalkerWithACrush: Joe uses Beck's social media accounts to learn where she's going so that he can "coincidentally" bump into her.
106	* TooDumbToLive: Joe's ex, Candace, from his perspective. After breaking his heart, he asked her to walk down the beach to the water with him, and instead of leaving, she agreed, only for him to drown her.
107	* UnreliableNarrator: Joe, in spades. He's extremely delusional and narcissistic, and he's extremely biased toward his own beliefs and cynical about others. For example, he claims Candace joined him at the beach after breaking up with him because she was so cruel that she loved to see him heartbroken, but since he views everyone as being out to get him, it's impossible to know for sure what Candace was really like.
108	* VillainProtagonist: The story is told from Joe's perspective, and he always uses [[TitleDrop "you"]] when talking about or to Beck.
109	* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: The plot of the novel relies heavily on Beck ignoring every piece of common sense regarding her personal security, as well as many coincidences working in Joe's favor, but it works for the story.
110	* WoundedGazelleGambit: Peach's favorite tactic to get to Beck is to fake a dramatic incident so that Beck will feel guilty about spending time with anyone else. Joe sees right through it and is frustrated by how effective it is.
111	* WrongGenreSavvy: Joe, spectacularly. He believes that he a DoggedNiceGuy in a RomanticComedy, and that his villainy is just innocent attempts to get the world to start playing along. He is in fact a StalkerWithACrush and [[spoiler: eventual SerialKiller]], the story he is in is a dark, psychological thriller, and his actions are ''far'' beyond the pale from the start, and run screaming for the MoralEventHorizon from there.
112	* {{Yandere}}: Joe. He starts off as an average guy who becomes infatuated with Beck. As the story progresses and his relationship with Beck deepens, he becomes obsessed with her, stalks her, collects her trash for his StalkerShrine, and kills anyone who gets in the way of his relationship with her. [[spoiler:When she learns how messed up he is and rejects his feelings for her, he retaliates by killing her.]]
113	* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: Joe usually calls Beck by her surname, as she insists. [[spoiler:His last words to her before he murders her are "Open up, Guinevere."]]
114	* YouExclamation: Peach does this when she realizes that Joe is Beck's stalker.
115	* YourFavorite: Joe gets Beck all of her favorite things when he kidnaps her and locks her in the basement. It doesn't help much of course, and does very little to comfort or reassure her.

Context Literature / YouKepnes