Hidden Bodies
Authors: Caroline Kepnes
YOU
‘THIS DEBUT IS CREEPY INDEED – AND EXTREMELY ENTERTAINING’
SUNDAY MIRROR
‘THERE ARE HINTS OF
GONE GIRL,
BUT THE STORY IS BOTH ORIGINAL AND COMPELLING. IF YOU ONLY READ ONE NEW THRILLER THIS YEAR, MAKE IT THIS ONE. IT WILL STAY
WITH YOU LONG AFTER YOU HAVE PUT IT DOWN’
DAILY MAIL
‘THIS BOOK WILL GIVE YOU STOCKHOLM SYNDROME’
HARPER’S BAZAAR
‘
YOU
IS THE STORY OF A MAN’S OBSESSION WITH A STUDENT UNLUCKY ENOUGH TO TURN UP IN HIS BOOKSTORE. THE TWIST? YOU’LL END UP (ALMOST) SIDING WITH
THE STALKER . . . ’
ELLE
‘CHILLING . . . UNRELENTING’
USA TODAY
‘GRIPPING IN BOTH SUBSTANCE AND STYLE’
CLOSER
‘COMPELLING’
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
‘THIS BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED THRILLER WILL GIVE YOU CHILLS’
PEOPLE
‘I LOVED CAROLINE KEPNES’ SMART, SNARKY, AND CREEPILY COMPELLING #
YOU
. GO READ. NO EXCUSES’
@LEAHRAEDER
‘A NOVEL THAT MADE ME LOOK AT STRANGERS DIFFERENTLY –
YOU
BY CAROLINE KEPNES IS A TERRIFYING MANIPULATIVE READ’
@ASHLEYMCKERNAN
‘AIRPORT BOREDOM ALLEVIATED BY
YOU
FROM CAROLINE KEPNES, A CRACKING STALKER THRILLER FILLED WITH POST-HIPSTER SNARK AND MENACE. RECOMMENDED’
@BENFRASERLEE
‘YOU
BY CAROLINE KEPNES IS NOW #STEPHENKING, #JENNIFERPROBST, AND #THELITERARYGOSSIP APPROVED!’
@LITERARYGOSSIP
‘THIS BOOK SUCCEEDS EVERYWHERE
GONE GIRL
FAILED . . . ’
@EDWARDLORN
‘MY FAVE BOOK THIS YEAR HAS 2 BE THE THRILLER
YOU
BY CAROLINE KEPNES’
@SUSANMAYWRITER
‘RAW AND HAUNTING . . . A MUST READ.
YOU
BY CAROLINE KEPNES IS A THRILLER YOU’RE NOT GOING TO WANT TO MISS’
@PUBSLUSH
‘THIS BOOK’S GOING TO KEEP ME AWAKE TONIGHT. I CAN JUST TELL’
@WRITENOTE1
‘CAROLINE KEPNES’ NOVEL
YOU
IS STUNNINGLY MARVELLOUS’
@LITERARYEXAMINE
‘
YOU
MAKES ME NEVER WANT TO SHARE ANYTHING ONLINE EVER AGAIN. SO CREEPY’
@LINDZISCHARF
‘ABSOLUTELY RIVETING. TWISTED & TOTALLY BRILLIANT. COULDN’T PUT IT DOWN’
@SMOKENMIRRORS71
‘FINISHED WITH
YOU
, BY CAROLINE KEPNES: WOW, THIS BOOK WAS ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!’
@SHELFADDICTION
‘DO YOU WANT TO READ AN ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT BOOK?
YOU
BY CAROLINE KEPNES IS IT!’
@LOVEOFBOOKS409
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2016
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © Alloy Entertainment, LLC, 2016
Copyright © Caroline Kepnes, 2016
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
The right of Caroline Kepnes to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988.
Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
1st Floor
222 Gray’s Inn Road
London WC1X 8HB
Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney
Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4711-3731-0
Trade Paperback: 978-1-4711-3732-7
Australian Trade Paperback: 978-1-4711-5464-5
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4711-3734-1
Australian eBook ISBN: 978-1-4711-4903-0
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Simon & Schuster UK Ltd are committed to sourcing paper that is made from wood grown in sustainable forests and supports the Forest Stewardship Council, the leading
international forest certification organisation. Our books displaying the FSC logo are printed on FSC certified paper.
This book is for you, Mom.
Thank you for life.
1
I
buy violets for Amy. Not roses. Roses are for people who did something wrong. I have done everything right this time around. I’m a good
boyfriend. I chose well. Amy Adam lives in the moment, not in the computer.
“Violets are the state flower of Rhode Island,” I tell the guy wrapping up my flowers. His careless, dirty hands graze the petals, my petals.
New Fucking York.
“Is that so?” He chuckles. “You learn something new every day.”
I pay cash and carry my violets outside to East Seventh Street. It’s hot for May and I smell the flowers.
Rhode Island.
I’ve been to Rhode Island. I went to Little Compton
last winter. I was lovesick, petrified that my girlfriend—
R.I.P. Guinevere Beck
—was in jeopardy because of her emotionally unstable friend—
R.I.P. Peach
Salinger
.
Someone honks at me and I apologize. I know when something is my fault, and when you walk into a blinking crosswalk, it’s your fault.
Just like it was my fault last winter. I go over the mistake in my head a dozen times a day. How I was hiding in a closet upstairs at the Salinger house. How I had to pee but couldn’t
leave. So I pissed in a mug—a ceramic
mug
—and I put the mug down on the hardwood floor of the closet. I ran when I had the chance, and there is no way around it: I forgot the
mug.
I’m a changed man because of that day. You can’t go back and alter the past, but you can go forward, become a person who
remembers
. Now, I’m committed to the details.
For example, I recall with total precision the moment that Amy Kendall Adam returned to Mooney Rare and Used, to my life. I see her smile, her untamed hair (blond), and her résumé
(lies). That was five months ago and she claimed she was looking for a job but you and I both know she was looking for me
.
I hired her, and she showed up on time for her first day with a
spiral notebook and a list of rare books that she wanted to see. She had a glass container of
superfruits
and she told me they help you live forever. I told her that nobody gets to live
forever and she laughed. She had a nice laugh, easy. She also had latex gloves.
I picked one up. “What are these?”
“So I don’t hurt the books,” she explained.
“I want you up front,” I countered. “This is just a basic job, mostly stocking shelves, manning the register.”
“Okay,” she said. “But did you know that there are copies of
Alice in Wonderland
that are worth over
a million dollars
?”
I laughed. “I hate to break your heart, but we don’t have
Alice
downstairs.”
“Downstairs?” she asked. “Is that where you keep the special books?”
I wanted to place my hand on the small of her back and lead her down to the cage, where the
special books
are preserved, boxed, saved. I wanted to strip her down and lock us inside and
have her. But I was patient. I gave her a W-9 and a pen.
“You know, I could help you go yard-sale-ing for old books,” she said. “You never know what you’re going to find at yard sales.”