Tell me about your latest book and why we should read it?
Hidden Bodies is the sequel to my first book, You. It’s the story of a bookworm who has boundary issues, to put it mildly. It’s like climbing into someone’s head and living there for a little while. And suddenly he’s killing people, for love, and your head is spinning.
My next book is out in June, Providence. This is a whole new story. You’ll have three heads to climb into, three people who are dealing with co-dependency issues, again, to put it mildly. If you like to analyze people and if your heart gets in the way of your head, you will enjoy my books.
And exciting news! Greg Berlanti and Sera Gamble have adapted You into a television series on Lifetime. I saw and loved the pilot, it just glows and chills, what a special thing. It will be on in early-ish 2018. We all know it’s way more fun to watch the show when you’ve read the book…So you know, tick-tock.
If someone was to write your life story what would the title be?
Dear Diary, You won’t believe what happened today…
What’s the strangest fan question or request you’ve received?
“What’s your address so I can stalk you?”
If you could co-write with anyone in the world (alive or dead) who would it be?
Truman Capote, thinking about In Cold Blood a lot lately.
Tell me something nobody else knows about you (yet!).
I memorized most of the dialogue in Raising Arizona and Le Divorce and sometimes I play those movies in my head. I mix them together. Time well spent.
Finally please recommend 3 books that you have recently read and tell me why you’ve chosen these.
Blackbird by Michael Fiegel, It grabbed me and it made time slow down. It was compelling to hear both sides of the story because the story was about these sides. Also so much fast food. I love all things fast food, I can’t eat it every day but I can read about it every day, in novels and on Eat This Not. This book is truly unique.
She Regrets Nothing by Andrea Dunlop. This book was thoroughly, wildly enjoyable. It was old fashioned in the classic, classiest sense that an outsider enters elite society. It was really smartly woven together, pleasing. You read it and you smile and then you cringe about the perils of the sometimes one-way street of love.
This Sweet Sickness by Patricia Highsmith, It’s my favourite of her books. You feel every page. That’s one of my things a writer, wanting to give the reader that feeling of living in this book. I revisit this one, I study it, I get sucked into it and just marvel at the power of the pain, the atmosphere, the pure weird sparkle of it.
The Beloveds by Maureen Lindley. Dark as f——–k. As in lights out dark. If you are in a rough place, this is your book. Bleak, bitter, deranged, beautifully British. I suggest reading it in the sun because it’s like a reverse beach read. Everyone around you will be splashing and you’ll be reading about this woman who wants to kill her family. Heehee.
- Note Caroline obviously can’t count – but as the books sound fab I will let her have 4!
Who is Caroline Kepnes? Caroline Kepnes is from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Her first novel YOU was translated into 19 languages and shortlisted for a CWA New Blood Award. Her second novel HIDDEN BODIES is a sequel that Booklist describes as ‘the love child of Holden Caulfield and Patrick Bateman’. Caroline earned a BA in American Civilization at Brown University and worked as a pop culture journalist on Entertainment Weekly and a TV writer on 7th Heaven. She now writes full-time and lives in Los Angeles. A 10 episode TV series based on YOU will premiere on Lifetime Network in 2018.
