125Pages

You Know Me Well by David Levithan, Nina LaCour
Published by St. Martin's Griffin on June 7, 2016

You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina LaCour is a touching story of first love, both found and lost. Mark and Kate have never been friends but on one crazy night at San Francisco Pride, they become an intrinsic part of the other’s life. Kate is running from the girl she has loved from afar and Mark is trying to tell his best friend he loves him. From dance clubs to crazy parties to school and dealing with parents, Mark and Kate become each others life raft through a few crazy days.

I really enjoyed the plot of You Know Me Well. Young love is hard to handle and it was treated with care and consideration. Yes, at times it was very obvious what was going to happen, but it all made sense in the telling. The writing of David Levithan and Nina LaCour was very well matched. Sometimes with co-authors it is very easy to tell where one author starts and the other one begins, but here, they were one cohesive voice telling two distinct but intertwining stories. The pacing had a few issues in the transitions, but nothing that affected my reading experience. The world built was great. Bright and detailed I could picture every scene. The emotions ran high in this story. Young love is always fraught with many feelings and they were on display here in a great way. I loved most of the characters. Mark and Kate were fantastic and they really played well off of each other. Kate’s school friends left me a little cold as they were only concerned with themselves, but they were also teenagers so it fit.

You Know Me Well is a sweet look at teen love that I really enjoyed. David Levithan and Nina LaCour wrote a touching story that made me smile throughout my reading. I love that the authors treated diversity with such normalcy, as it should be, and that they took care to show their characters with real feelings. Yes, I could tell what the ending was going to be and I didn’t care, as the path to it was done in such a fun and touching way.

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.