'You First' Delivers an Eerie Origin Story for Joe Goldberg

I have barely finished reading You First by Caroline Kepnes, based on the origin story of Joe Goldberg, a story that I never thought we would ever get to see. We are following Joe Goldberg, a seventeen-year-old kid, who is now getting his first taste of what love is. He is working with Mr. Mooney, in the bookstore, and he meets a young woman in her early twenties named Vail. Joe decides to hide his real age from her and begins a romance with Vail.

He also befriends a guy named Dick, who offers romance advice to Joe, about how to court Vail, and even though the advice can be super awful, Joe was determined to be with Vail.

Eventually, Vail learns of Joe's real age, and this is where I no longer cared about her character. I expected Vail to go crazy when she first learned of how old Joe was, but she appeared happy about the reveal, and even jokingly told him to not call the cops on her.

Dick was also revealed to be meeting up with high school girls, and I immediately realized that Vail and Dick were very disturbing characters.

Instead of expecting the same old murder spree with Joe Goldberg, I was introduced to reality horror, and I realized that these two people are most likely the reason why Joe became a killer. Yes, he did not have the best upbringing, but it was terrifying how these two people stringed Joe along for so long. What's crazy is that Dick and Vail were also sleeping together, and they were straight up using Joe for their own amusement.

It was so scary how Joe wasn't aware of what they were doing to him throughout the novel, he was just a teenager that was stuck between two adults that were treating a teen like their own personal plaything.

It was so disgusting and creepy. Vail and Dick were monsters to the core, and I no longer cared about what happened to these two characters once this twist was revealed. Why Vail and Dick were choosing to be with minors was baffling and crazy, these two were truly sick in the head to even find this amusing or fun. The way that they treated Joe was pretty insane, and it really gave me the ick when Joe realized the truth toward the end of the book.

He kills Dick when he realizes that he was sleeping with Vail, and once she learns that Joe killed the dude she loved, she ended her life by jumping in front of a bus. This sort of remains ambiguous, but I do think that she intentionally ended her life. This would make sense, because Vail and Dick were seriously dangerous and broken, they were not meant to live a long life.

Four years pass, and Joe is now 21 years old. He literally refers to Vail and Dick as his parental figures, which really gave me the creeps. Joe realized that two adults were using him, and he even compared them to his parents, that were also awful people. I was not expecting such a raw and terrifying origin story, and I have to say that this is definitely one of the best books in the You series.

It was honestly so sad to learn how Joe became a killer, and if it hadn't been for these two characters, I think Joe could have slowly healed through his family trauma. Instead, two monsters chose to feed off of a teenager, using him for whatever they wished.

For the first time in the You series, you will root for Joe Goldberg, and you will deeply despise his 'victims.'

Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn