- netflix’s “you” is based on a series of books by caroline kepnes, which are quite different.
- love is not a killer in the books, ellie doesn’t exist and joe and love did not raise henry together.
- editor’s note: this post mentions suicide.
the netflix show “you” is based on the caroline kepnes book series of the same name, but they have some important differences.
the kepnes series consists of three books so far: “you”, “hidden bodies” and “you love me”. although some of the characters are the same, the plots and settings of the last book are quite different from those of the show’s third season.
You are reading: What books are you based on
Keep reading for things that happened in the books that are totally different from “you” season 3.
warning: major spoilers for the third season of the book series “you” and “you” are ahead.
joe is arrested in connection with the deaths of beck and peach while love is pregnant
during joe’s car accident on the way to peach’s house during the first season and the first book, a policeman stops him and says his name is spencer hewitt.
that same cop, officer nico, recognizes joe when dr. Nicky starts talking to the press about a patient who believed he was obsessed with Beck.
once officer nico and dr. Nicky realizes that Joe was obsessed with Beck and was near the Salinger estate when Peach died, Joe is arrested and jailed until after Love has the baby.
joe and love are not raising their baby together
After Joe is released from jail, the Quinn family gives him $4 million and a house in exchange for him agreeing to leave his family alone.
he signs a contract stating that he cannot have contact with love or meet his son, who is actually called forty in the book.
Although Joe watches Love’s Instagram stories to see how his son is doing, he never meets Baby Forty or continues his relationship with Love.
joe moves to bainbridge, not mama linda
in the books, joe’s house is on bainbridge island in washington, not uptown california where season three takes place.
While some of her neighbors are just as judgmental as those on the show, Bainbridge has more of a laid-back, small-town vibe than the snobbish, hip vibe portrayed on Mother Linda.
bainbridge is also a real place. cute mother is not.
joe doesn’t have a cage in his new home
During each season of the show, Joe has a glass box that he uses as a cage.
when joe lives in bainbridge in the book, he only holds one person captive and she is locked in his basement.
The basement of his house has a soundproof room called the “Whispering Room”, which he uses as a makeshift cage.
love is not a killer
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love has killed three women and her first husband even before the final season of “you” begins, adding to her death toll during season three.
In the book, love never kills anyone.
Joe kills Candace and Delilah, the forty-year-old au pair is not killed, and Love’s first husband, James, is killed in a surfing accident.
natalie does not exist
On the show, Natalie is the first woman in his new neighborhood that Joe becomes obsessed with before he meets Marienne.
In the books, the local librarian is the first and only woman Joe stalks and obsesses over while living in Bainbridge.
joe doesn’t send money to ellie
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ellie doesn’t exist in the books at all, as delilah only has one older sister who joe never meets.
During the third season of the show, Joe tries to support Ellie by sending her the money he earns stealing and repairing rare books from the library. since ellie isn’t in the book, joe doesn’t steal anything from the library.
in the books, marienne’s character is a married librarian named mary kay
The librarian Joe falls in love with on the show is Marienne, a recovering divorced addict trying to raise her young daughter with her abusive ex-husband.
In the book, Joe works with a librarian named Mary Kay who is still married when they meet.
His daughter, Nomi, is also older. she is a senior in high school instead of an elementary school girl.
mary kay doesn’t deal with addictions herself, although her husband, phil, does and dies after a relapse.
joe adopts three kittens
As part of his plan to impress Mary Kay, Joe adopts kittens that Phil didn’t want.
the three kittens are named riffic, tastic and licious, a prefix-free way of calling them fabulous, fantastic and delicious.
Joe is a surprisingly affectionate pet owner and even cuddles with the cats when he feels down about his relationship with Mary Kay.
sherry and cary seem to be inspired by melanda and seamus, although they outlive their literary counterparts
Although Sherry and Cary Conrad don’t exist in the books, social media gossip Melanda and fitness-obsessed Seamus live in Joe’s neighborhood.
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Joe puts Melanda in the room of whispers after she discovers him stalking Mary Kay, and she dies by suicide while held captive.
seamus also dies after someone shoots him while seamus tries to kill joe.
joe gets caught burying a body by a character that doesn’t exist on the show
The first body Joe buries in both Bainbridge and Madre Linda is that of a woman who did not commit suicide.
in the book, oliver, a private investigator sent by the quinn to keep an eye on joe, discovers joe burying melanda’s body.
Instead of reporting Joe, Oliver blackmails him into buying expensive art and furniture.
oliver becomes a big part of the book as his presence forces joe to limit his bullying behavior and prevents joe from killing.
oliver is also the one who saves joe from being shot by seamus.
joe and mary kay have a more serious relationship than joe and marienne
Mary Kay’s husband, Phil, dies of an overdose while Joe and Mary Kay are having an affair.
After Phil’s death, his brother, Ivan, comes to stay with Mary Kay and Nomi. Ivan eventually sells his house to pay his own legal fees, leaving the mother-daughter duo without a place to live.
mary kay and nomi decide to move in with joe, who then proposes to mary kay.
The two arrange a wedding, though they don’t actually end up getting married legally.
love shoots joe then dies by suicide
after seeing that joe has moved in with a new woman, love asks joe to meet her in california. he goes there hoping to finally meet his son, but instead love holds him at gunpoint.
love feels ignored and unloved by joe, who says he fell in love with her and only saw her as a vessel for his child as soon as she got pregnant.
She shoots joe in the head before shooting herself, but joe survives after spending 13 days in a coma.
She’s not allowed to see her son yet, but Love’s mom lets Joe follow her on Instagram so she can have pictures and videos of him.
joe still leaves town at the end of book 3 but doesn’t leave the country
At the end of this season, Joe moved to Paris to escape the mess he and his love made in Mother Linda and to continue looking for Marienne.
In the book, Joe moves out of Bainbridge to start over, but only makes it as far as Florida.
by the end of the novel, he has opened a combination bar and bookstore there.
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