You First - by Caroline Kepnes (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"The most distinctive voice in thrillers is back."--Lucy Foley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List and The Midnight Feast

How did Joe Goldberg become Joe Goldberg? What led to his first love . . . first obsession . . . first kill? Find out in the highly anticipated prequel to New York Times bestselling author Caroline Kepnes's hit You series, which inspired the blockbuster Netflix show.

Joe Goldberg is ready for his life to start. He's seventeen years old, working in Mr. Mooney's bookshop, falling in love with every girl on the subway all while wondering who will be the one. He knows what he needs: A woman who will force him to get his GED, go to night school, and make something of himself. But who would ever fall in love with him?

Then he spots it: MISSED CONNECTION, NYC Bookstore Babe.

Someone is looking for Joe. And that someone is Vail Gunderson, a production assistant with a passion for rom-coms. The only catch: she's twenty-four, which means that Joe has no choice but to lie about his age...and, naturally, nearly everything else in his life. Joe thinks he's found true love, but when Vail needs more convincing that Joe is her happily ever after, he's determined to convince her...no matter what it takes...

With her incisive and darkly comedic prose, Caroline Kepnes captures Joe poised on the edge of manhood, entering the vicious, dog-eat-dog New York dating scene for the very first time, and buffeted by forces that will determine what kind of man he will become--and how he will write his own twisted love story.

Review Quotes

"You has always mirrored the culture. The first book was published the same year as Serial debuted, kicking off our burgeoning obsession with true crime and our tendency to romanticize the male perpetrators while often homogenizing their overwhelmingly female victims into cautionary tales. . . . In a way, the You series has been about the male loneliness epidemic before it had a name."--TIME

"The most distinctive voice in thrillers is back with a master class in tone and tension. A deliciously dark treat--Caroline Kepnes is in a league of her own."--Lucy Foley, New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Feast

"Joe Goldberg at his most raw and vulnerable before love curdled into violence . . . Caroline Kepnes delivers a dark, disturbing, and utterly compelling origin story that feels chillingly authentic, with writing so sharp and character work so precise it makes every turn feel inevitable."--Liv Constantine, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish

"A Y2K setting, adolescent anxiety, laugh-out-loud details, and a drum-tight, propulsive plot: This book is everything you ever wanted in a You novel and then some. Buckle up, because Teen Joe's mind is a dark, dark place--and I loved every second of my visit."--Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Ferry Out

"At last, we have the answers to who Joe is. . . . Caroline Kepnes has created an unnerving, astounding psychological portrait, a book you can't close until the last page is turned. Deep, dark, twisted and beautifully written."--Catriona Ward, USA Today bestselling author of Nowhere Burning

"American Psycho meets You've Got Mail in this scathing, brilliantly written antihero origin story that asks, When it comes to love, are we all monsters?"--Sarah Langan, author of Good Neighbors

"Unsettling, intimate, and oddly hot, darkly seductive and impossible to put down, You First creeps under your skin."--Lukas Gage, author of I Wrote This for Attention

"Kepnes has fun dropping Easter eggs into the narrative and getting creative about the precise details of Joe's burgeoning criminality. The result is a wicked treat for series fans and newcomers alike."--Publishers Weekly

"In this revealing prequel, fans of Kepnes' You series will revel again in Joe Goldberg's incisive wit and love-crossed menace. . . . Joe's all-caps commentary offers laugh-out-loud humor, and his increasingly unhinged narrative turns pages."--Booklist

About the Author

Caroline Kepnes is the New York Times bestselling author of theYou series, which was adapted into the blockbuster Netflix hit show. You First: a Joe Goldberg Prequel is her fifth book in the series. She is also the author of Providence. Caroline's work has been translated into many languages. She graduated from Brown University and then worked as a pop culture journalist for Entertainment Weekly and a TV writer for The Secret Life of the American Teenager. She is also the author of dozens of short stories. Most recently, "The Bad Friend" was selected for Best American Mystery and Suspense and "Room 24" was nominated for a 2025 Shirley Jackson Award. Caroline grew up in Cape Cod, and now lives in Los Angeles.