“Sometimes, we do bad things for the people we love.”
Whether it’s the original source material from Caroline Kepnes or its Netflix adaptation, You is a serious thrill ride. An enthralling character study into the obsessive, sinister personality buried beneath Joe Goldberg’s smooth-talking nice guy exterior, You balances out its glossy romance with plenty of shockingly dark twists and turns. Here at What We Reading we love both versions of the story, but why not check out the best books like You for your next great thriller read?
The Obsession – Jesse Q. Sutanto
For readers looking for a book that captures the deliciously dark vibe of a boy stalking his love interest, Jesse Q Sutanto’s The Obsession is the perfect go-to. In it, readers are introduced to a girl named Delilah and a boy named Logan who knows everything about her. Obsessing over her social media and spying on her through his hidden camera is his idea of being romantic.
But when Logan spies Delilah killing her abusive stepfather through his camera, he realises there is a whole side to her he never knew existed. As the only one who knows what she did, the two become entangled versions of Logan’s twisted fantasies. But now that Delilah has stopped allowing herself to be controlled by the men in her life, the game she’s playing could end up being dangerous and even fatal for one of the people involved.
You Were Never Here – Kathleen Peacock
A paranormal mystery thriller, Kathleen Peacock’s You Were Never Here follows the story of seventeen-year-old Cat. For five years, she hasn’t stepped foot in Montgomery Falls, the town her family helped found. Carrying the weight of the past on her shoulders, she is brought back to the town by the disappearance of her friend Riley, who she hasn’t seen since the pair shared their first kiss.
Cat has a unique power that could prove to be the only way of saving the local teens from a killer stalking and abducting them. It could also be the thing that alerts the world of the truths she has struggled to keep hidden for years. An acclaimed piece of young adult fiction, You Were Never Here is the perfect book like You for those who loved the secrets, suspicions and lies that came with Caroline Kepnes’ series.
Dark Room Etiquette – Robin Roe
Robin Roe does an excellent job of capturing the sensation of an escape room in her book, Dark Room Etiquette. In this story, readers meet Sayers Wayte, a sixteen-year-old who gets kidnapped by a man and finds himself trapped in a room without windows.
Sayers discovers that his seemingly privileged life was nothing but a facade, and he is now forced to confront a chilling new reality. Survival becomes a daunting challenge that pushes his sanity to the limits. Dark Room Etiquette is a captivating and intense tale of survival that also shines a light on the hidden, darker aspects of people, much like You does.
All The Missing Girls – Megan Miranda
A Goodreads Choice Award nominee and New York Times Bestseller, Megan Miranda’s All The Missing Girls is another psychological thriller that specialises in twists in its narrative. The story of two disappearances set a decade apart, it is a story that Miranda tells in reverse. Winding back from two weeks after Annaleise Carter’s disappearance to the first day, it is a tale that grips readers by unravelling a decade-long mystery set against a backdrop of the exact same town, the exact same cast of characters, and the exact same list of suspects.
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Made For Love – Alissa Nutting
On the surface, Made For Love and You don’t appear to share too many similarities. However, both books offer a captivating exploration of how modern technologies have distorted love and intimacy. The book follows Hazel, a woman who flees her technology-obsessed husband when he asks her to plant a microchip in her head so that the two of them might ‘meld’ together. She flees her partner and begins to forge a new life for herself, as her husband utilises all of his technology to track her down.
Enduring Love – Ian McEwan
A sudden rescue that turns into obsession, stalking and the pursuit of love that is apparently ‘fate, the similarities between Enduring Love and books like You are obvious. Ian McEwan’s classic piece of literature revolves around the story of Jed and Joe. After witnessing a tragic accident involving a hot air balloon in the English countryside, Jed begins stalking Joe and his lover, Clarissa. With secrets and plot twists flying off the pages with every chapter, this is an iconic piece of contemporary literature that is still as striking today as it was when it was first published.
Eileen – Ottessa Moshfegh
One of the best parts about You was the unique perspectives readers and viewers got by having the events told from Joe’s point of view. For those who want more of that, Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen is the perfect follow-up. Following the titular twenty-four-year-old Eileen Dunlop, the book offers an enthralling character study as readers watch her dysfunctional life descend into chaos following the arrival of a new companion. Played out against a chilly New England backdrop, Moshfegh perfectly balances the tone between creepy, mesmerising and downright funny.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
