Providence

by Caroline Kepnes

"A journey of two best friends that is part love story, part detective story, and part supernatural thriller, from the acclaimed author of YOU, whose work Stephen King describes as "hypnotic and totally original." Growing up as best friends in small-town New Hampshire, Jon and Chloe are the only ones who truly understand each other and their intense connection. But just when Jon is ready to confess the depth of his feelings, he's kidnapped by his substitute teacher, a discredited scientist who is obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft and has a plot to save humanity. After four years in captivity, Jon finally escapes, only to discover that he now has an uncontrollable power that endangers anyone he has intense feelings for. He runs away to Providence to protect Chloe while he searches for answers. Across town from Jon, Detective Charles "Eggs" DeBenedictus is fascinated by a series of strange deaths--young, healthy people whose hearts just. stop. Convinced these deaths are a series of connected, vigilante killings, he jeopardizes his job and already strained marriage to uncover the truth. With heart, insight, and a keen eye on human frailty, Kepnes whisks us on a journey through New England and crashes these characters' lives together in the most unexpected ways, exploring the complex relationship between the powerful and the powerless, love and identity, self-preservation and self-destruction, and how the lines are often blurred between the two"--

• ISBN10: 0399591435
• ISBN13: 9780399591433
• Publish Date: 19 June 2018
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Lenny
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

I like a good genre-bender. Eggs and Lo were more interesting than Jon and Chloe. I’ll never quite understand the throes of teenage love. A better novel if Jon just TOLD Chloe what was up? The vigilante cat-and-mouse with the supernatural twist worked for me, though. As did the fan convention(s). I read it all in one day.

[Leah]

Providence is Kepnes’ first novel not to feature the brilliant Joe. It’s also her first dip into a bit of sci-fi and while it reads well enough and I enjoyed it, I did finish the novel and wonder what the point of it actually was? There was no resolution or answers.

There is so much Kepnes could have explored with Jon, and it just all fizzled into this romance with Chloe. The most interesting storyline was Eggies. His was the narrative I was always keen to get back to and even that died a death.

I just don’t know what Kepnes was going for. It felt like 300 pages that just went nowhere which was incredibly disappointing. She is such a good writer, but it’s like she didn’t want to delve properly into what happened to Jon and so it all fell very flat.