Providence: A Novel Hardcover – June 19, 2018

For all the reviews of people saying this is no Joe and Genevieve book. Three words for you. "You're Absolutely Right." It's not a Joe and Genevieve book, that’s the point! If You want another Joe and Chloe book, then you're just going to have to wait for the third installment. An author is allowed to write about other characters in a completely different world then their best sellers. This is a book about, Jon, Chloe, and Eggs and it is fantastic!Before reading Providence, I had taken a hiatus on book reading. It had been over four years since I read a book that I could pick up and not want to put back. I hadn't read a book that had connected to me on an emotional level in such a long time. Originally, I had bought the book as a joke. My boyfriend kept telling me that I need to finish at least one of the many books I had bought over the years. We had recently binged watched season 2 of You and so I was looking up Caroline Kepnes books. I imagined me reading the You series and thinking "I like the show, I should be able to read the series no biggie." BUT I have a type like most readers do, and my type of book is supernatural. I live in and breath a good book about vampires, witches, werewolves, etc. Naturally I was on the fence on reading You, since it is not my preferred genre. But that’s not what drew me to Providence. The title itself caught my eyes.I grew up in the capital of the smallest state in the United States, Providence, Rhode Island. I went into this book just buying it as a statement piece. I did not read a single review, or even what it was about. All I knew, was the cover felt like home. I wanted it for my collection, memorabilia from my childhood. I didn't think that it would take place in the city I grew up. I didn’t think I would fall in love with the story. I read (or should I say started) so many books over the past years and each one I put down and just couldn’t finish them. I didn't think after turning page by page that I would recognize street names, or my high school or even our greatest attraction for tourist, the Water Fires. I smiled at every reference to home that was brought up in the book. No one knows Providence, or even Rhode Island unless you have lived there. But the book takes place in more then just little old Rhode Island. Any New Englander can find home in this book.Any who on to the book. . .THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!If you enjoy supernatural beings, destiny, love, family, and friendship, then THIS is the book for you! Right off the back you are rooting for Jon. You love him. You want him to have the world, because he deserves it! He is genuine, and real, a lost soul in a world filled of broken people. He wants to love, he wants to live and at a young age that is all taken from him. You want Jon to be victorious at the end. He doesn't deserve the cards he has been dealt. Each section that features Jon, you long for his redemption, and each page you turn you find that Caroline Kepnes is NOT going to give us what we want so easily. Just like Jon, we need to work for it.Then there is Chloe, a broken girl. A girl that is too ashamed to admit she loves the boy that everyone picks on. A girl that would do anything just to have that boy. She is strong in her own way and you get to see her blossom into a beautiful woman by the end of the book. But my favorite part about Chloe's chapters are you get to feel all her pain. You understand that no matter what, she will always love . . . him. Chloe is not just any girl. She is a girl so in love with something she can't have that she tortures herself for the fantasy of it. A hopeless romantic and she uses her pain to create masterpieces.Good ol' Eggs. A middle-aged man so determined to solve a mystery that his pride doesn't see what’s happening around him. His world is falling apart, and no one can tell him he is wrong. Eggs is the type of man that will risk even the loss of his family if it means he has proven to everyone that he was right. To him that is worth the sacrifice. He wants to figure out what is happening in Providence. He knows that not everything is what it appears to be. You want to hate Eggs, but by the end of the story if Eggs doesn't make you cry than one question . . . Are you even human?I give this book a 5-star rating because that’s what it deserves. I couldn't put this book down. I read 200 pages the first. It was so good that I refused to continue reading it because I didn't want it to end. After a two-week break, I put my stubbornness aside and finished the book. If you plan on reading this book after You. Put You out of your mind because this book will pull at your heart strings in ways I couldn't imagine, and I am longing for a sequel.

I feel like books are becoming more diversified. They’re not just one or two things anymore. Where the Shadow Lies was a mysterious thriller with a side of romance. Folsom was a political romance with a side of dystopia. And this book—Providence—is a romantic mystery with a side of science fiction. It’s impressive really. People are so complicated; we’re never just one or two things. We’re many things, and we have many sides. So it makes sense that what we like to read is just as complex.I must admit, I was a little reluctant to read this book. I’m not a sci-fi fan. I like books I can relate to, and supernatural qualities are often unrelatable. Unless I’m smack dab in the middle of watching a Marvel movie, I shrug off the idea of super powers. A web can’t stop a train from crashing, a root can’t defuse a bomb, and a hammer can’t crush a building with one swing. It’s unrealistic to the point of being ridiculous. (Sorry, Marvel fans! I know, I know…you’re booing me right about now.)But that’s what’s so great about this book. Caroline creates an environment that is unlikely and makes it completely believable. Once you’re immersed in the story, you find that you’re less focused on the supernatural element and more focused on the brokenness of the characters and their unjust circumstances. It becomes a matter of who instead of a matter of how.Let’s talk about the main character, Jon Bronson. On the surface, he is a villain or—as he refers to himself many times—a “monster.” He harms people and, at times, he feels no regret. You should dislike him because of what he does, but you find yourself sympathizing with him because of who he is. Sound familiar?If you’ve read Caroline’s first book, You, then you’re very familiar with its main character, Joe Goldberg. Like Jon, Joe is also a villain. He harms people too, and he seldom regrets his actions. And yet, villain or not, you find the guy endearing. Some would even say they’d want to be BFFs with him (ahem, ME).Reading about Jon made me think about Joe. But aside from their three-letter, three-syllable names and “monsterlike” qualities, the comparison pretty much stops there. While there is a similar cadence in the books—story-wise, Providence is a very different book.One of the ways Providence is different is its manipulation of time. The novel spans many years. In that time, settings change and most characters evolve. There’s a real sense of “growing up”…or not. You see that some people mature while others remain stagnant. Some people deteriorate while others flourish.Now, I know you’re all wondering about the ending, and without giving much away, I will say, I had some questions at the end of this book. My thoughts went like this: “Wouldn’t they have [something spoilerish]?” “Why didn’t they [something equally spoilerish]?” “Do they end up [MAJORLY SPOILERISH]?” Some readers have docked the book a star or two because of these questions, but I honestly love novels that leave you guessing. I don’t want everything tied up in a perfect little bow. The fact that Caroline left a few things up to interpretation says (to me) that she trusts her readers. She thinks we’re intelligent, that we can handle the mystery. This just makes me respect her more.My advice to you, should you decide to read this book (and you really, really should) is to go into it with an open mind. Don’t think, “This won’t be my cup of tea.” Don’t think, “I loved You, so I know I’ll love this book.” Don’t think, “All villains deserve to die” (okay, maybe that one’s a bit harsh). DO think, “I want to escape,” “I want to be entertained,” “I want to read something different,” “I want to use my imagination.” If you can do these things, then you’ll love this book as much as I do.

Buen libro. Me gusta mucho el estilo de escritura de Caroline Kepnes.

A modern love story with supernatural undertones throughout. You feel for the characters, each one of them. Amazing and gifted author. A truly captivating love story for the ages. Cannot wait to get my hands on every book she writes.

Love this book. 10/10

Normally I don't check the genre that a book is lodged under, to be honest most of them tell you in the tagline for the book these days (especially if you buy online). However, after finishing this one I have to say that personally I would have filed this one under Horror and not Crime, Mystery, Thriller (or whatever order they are in). It is exceptionally creepy and quite fantastical in it's construct; in fact it all comes across a little bit Stephen King (compliment there - I am a huge and long term fan of Mr King).The book basically follows the lives of 2 main characters:Jon - Bit of a loner at High School, the highlight of his daily life is the delivery of the Telegraph, so much so he asked for a subscription from his parents as a gift - not normal teenage boy behaviour. He has one friend, Chloe, and doesn't seem to particularly gel with his parents either. Jon also struggles with bullying and so takes the forest route to school, this proves to be his downfall when he is kidnapped one morning on his way to school and disappears without trace. Four years later he re-appears and he is changed - tall and muscular but still with the mindset of a 13 year old and in possession of a copy of HP Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror and a letter from his kidnapper telling him that he is improved. This is where things get very, very strange indeed.Chloe - Jon's only friend from High School but has a group of friends of her own. Chloe really struggles to cope when Jon goes missing and turns to her art as solace, constantly drawing Jon's face and especially his eyes. Try as she might she cannot forget him and when he reappears she rushes from a Pool Party to be with him. Chloe does manage to more or less hold her life together, going to art college and then settling down in New York to become an artist, leaving a very public social media trail so that Jon can find her, if he wants (and how badly she wants him to).We then have a secondary character who is a major part of the story:Eggie - Providence cop who is starting to wonder at the sudden upswing in young people dieing of heart attacks completely out of the blue. Married with a severely autistic son we get to find out a lot about the state of his marriage to Lo, his disconnect with his son and his obsession with work. An obsession that almost proves fatal.Wonderfully constructed tale that has solid, believable characters that you don't always like. The concept of the book is sufficiently strange to keep you engaged - even though we, the reader, know the truth of what is happening it honestly doesn't detract from your enjoyment. Maybe, it makes it all the more compelling because this is a secret we share with Jon and Jon alone. Each of the 3 character's voices is strong and individual - even if the chapter didn't have the narrator's name in it you would immediately know from the tone of the writing.I've never really been a fan of Lovecraft (give me Poe any day of the week) but I think that I now need to read The Dunwich Horror.

Caroline Kepnes goes from strength to strength: "You" and "Hidden Bodies" were as addictive as any book can be, then she writes "Providence". Well, what to say that hasn't been said already by far greater minds than mine? Suffice to say that you will not be disappointed if you're a Kepnes fan: i.e. excellent character studies; superlative intertwining of sub-plots along with the main plot; the over-arching necessity of simply having to know what happens next.Added to which, Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror" is the backbone here; I recommend you read that before you read this, and if you haven't already, sort it out!Look, just buy this book, you will not be disappointed.