For a long time I’ve been searching for a book that delivered the same adrenaline filled ending that Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas gave me, with the utter creepiness that You by Caroline Kepnes had. I think I’ve found the winner!
Made for You is deliciously creepy, just enough paranormal, and incredibly suspenseful. I was completely captured by this story and couldn’t stop until I got answers. This gave me nightmares!
This is narrated by three different people: Eva, Grace (Eva’s best friend), and Judge (the killer). Judge’s voice is the creepiest of all, with him being super obsessed with God and rationalizing his behavior by saying that his killings were “messages”. I loved (and this is weird saying this because I actually loved a killer’s POV), listening to his perspective. I loved hearing the way he rationalized his behavior… the way it was always Eva’s fault or how he was doing it to help her.
Eva herself was a wonderful character. She was very relatable and down to earth, although at first came off as vain because of the accident. I liked Eva, and never found her annoying. I could see myself reacting the same as her in most of those situations, so I think she was written spectacularly well.
The romance is really cute and different than usual. It doesn’t have overwhelming amounts of angst, and both characters are honest with their feelings; they don’t skirt away from saying how they really feel. Their romance is a best friends to lovers kind of story and I really ate it up.
This book is written amazingly well! The killer’s identity is not actually withheld, so I came to guessing it pretty early, but the real terrifying part of the book is seeing Eva interacting with him, him being one of her friends . It had my heart racing and my palms sweating and I had to restrain myself from actually yelling “IT’S HIM EVA! IT’S HIM IT’S HIM!”.
Eva’s family also plays a nice role in the book, and they’re very supportive. They were always important to the story and played a huge part in Eva’s life. Her friendship with Grace was such an amazing female to female friendship as well! They were always so great with one another, always completely honest, and they never tried to take each other down.
This is a bit more mature YA than the rest. It has lots of sexual references and innuendos, and I don’t recommend this to the younger YA audience.
Listening to this book on audio was definitely a great experience. I loved listening to every second. All the narrators were incredibly talented, they all conveyed what they were supposed to, and I felt so enthralled with this. Definitely pick this up on audio if you have the chance.
Overall, this was a spectacularly written book. With the right amounts of romance, mystery, paranormal, and a whole lot of creepiness. The writing is sooooooo captivating, and you’ll find yourself wanting to know what happens as soon as possible!
[rating-report]
Boricuan Bookworms 
Awesome review Marianne, this book sounds absolutely chilling! I do so love to read from the perspective of the killer and try to understand their motives, no matter how psychotic this can be. The romance sounds sweet too (yay for non-angst! YAY), and I super appreciate the family and friendship aspects of it! This sounds like one mystery I’d pick up soon.
– Aila @ Happy Indulgence
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If you’re looking for another YA book from the perspective of a killer, there’s also The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Or You by Caroline Kepnes if you’re into non-YA books as well. 🙂 I hope you enjoy this if you get to reading it!
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I need to find my copy of this book. I remember seeing so many good reviews about it. Melissa Marr is so good at bringing on the creeps!
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I haven’t read any of her other books! I really want to read one of hers.
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I liked this one too. It’s hard to find a truly creepy YA but it was.
Karen @For What It’s Worth
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Totally agree!
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Oh, this sounds great. I do like a good thriller and finding YA ones (like Karen already mentioned) can be rare!
-Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com
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Oh, this sounds great. I do like a good thriller and finding YA ones (like Karen already mentioned) can be rare!
-Lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com
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Yes! That’s why I was so excited about this one 🙂
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Ooh, I absolutely love a creepy read, and it being more of a mature YA only intrigues me more. I have enjoyed Marr’s other books so I’m definitely going to check this one out 😀
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I haven’t read any of Marr’s other books! Must do!
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Ooh, I absolutely love a creepy read, and it being more of a mature YA only intrigues me more. I have enjoyed Marr’s other books so I’m definitely going to check this one out 😀
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Oh man, how graphic were the killer/murder scenes though! I totally agree, it was weird how they revealed his identity early but it was still pretty thrilling!
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Reslly graphic! I was creeped out!
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This would make a GREAT audio book I feel like, I wish I had thought of that format! But I agree, The Judge was hella creepy and this story was such a page turner! I’m happy you liked it, I’m still looking for books a la Dangerous Girls, so if you have any recs, send them my way!
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This would make a GREAT audio book I feel like, I wish I had thought of that format! But I agree, The Judge was hella creepy and this story was such a page turner! I’m happy you liked it, I’m still looking for books a la Dangerous Girls, so if you have any recs, send them my way!
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I haven’t read it, but I’m told The Secrets of Minnow Bly (I could be wrong on the title, sorry!) Is a reslly good book!
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I have heard people say amazing things about it. I still have no idea what it’s about 😂
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Hmmm. I’m not a fan of Dangerous Girls so I wasn’t really sure what to make of the start of your review. Part of me thinks this sounds pretty good but the other part is totally wary of YA thriller type books, because I don’t find them complex enough 😦 I think I’ll keep this in mind for an audiobook listen though, I can always use more of those!
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Ohh I shouldn’t have made the comparison as I hate the whole “If you liked this try this” publicity thing. But point is the story was thrilling for me. 🙂
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I have heard SO MANY good things about this book! For some reason I find it hard to be really creeped out by YA books, but it seems like this one hits the mark pretty well *cheers*
I actually have a copy of this because after I heard about how good it was when it was released, I couldn’t resist it. BUT I still haven’t read it because I am terrible at reading books I own. But your review has brought it to mind again, so hopefully I can read it soon! I am totally up for a creepy book 😀
Lovely review, dear! ❤
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I have heard SO MANY good things about this book! For some reason I find it hard to be really creeped out by YA books, but it seems like this one hits the mark pretty well *cheers*
I actually have a copy of this because after I heard about how good it was when it was released, I couldn’t resist it. BUT I still haven’t read it because I am terrible at reading books I own. But your review has brought it to mind again, so hopefully I can read it soon! I am totally up for a creepy book 😀
Lovely review, dear! ❤
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