You Know Me Well

By Author / Illustrator

David Levithan, Nina LaCour

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

11+

Publisher

Pan Macmillan

ISBN

9781509823932

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

02-06-2016

Synopsis

Who knows you well? Your best friend? Your boyfriend or girlfriend? A stranger you meet on a crazy night? No one, really?

Mark and Kate have sat next to each other for an entire year, but have never spoken. For whatever reason, their paths outside of class have never crossed.

That is until Kate spots Mark miles away from home, out in the city for a wild, unexpected night. Kate is lost, having just run away from a chance to finally meet the girl she has been in love with from afar. Mark, meanwhile, is in love with his best friend Ryan, who may or may not feel the same way.

When Kate and Mark meet up, little do they know how important they will become to each other - and how, in a very short time, they will know each other better than any of the people who are supposed to know them more.

Told in alternating points of view by Nina LaCour and David Levithan, the bestselling author of Every Day and co-author of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (with Rachel Cohn) and Will Grayson, Will Grayson (with John Green), You Know Me Well is a deeply honest story about navigating the joys and heartaches of first love, one truth at a time.

Reviews

David Levithan continues in his series of collaborations with other authors and it seems to be working well. Set in San Francisco and its suburbs this is a story of coming out and moving on. Mark is out at school and unusually for the stereotypes is the sporting hero. His best friend Ryan is the more usual character, the paper editor, into art and taking chances but is in the closet. Mark is in love with Ryan; Ryan is not in love with Mark. On a secret trip to the Castro area of San Francisco Mark unexpectedly comes across a female classmate, Kate; she is also gay. Mark asks her that evening if she will be his friend and she agrees. She has problems of her own, her best friend has spent ages trying to fix her up with a cousin who is so sophisticated and lives in Europe and is now coming back to California. Kate is sort of in love but too scared to meet Violet. Oh, and a world famous photographer is randomly thrown into the mix and makes Mark and Kate famous overnight. This is a thoughtful book that is truly about friendship and growing up, there is a point when you get to the end of your school career when you realise that everything is going to change. Friendships and romances are tested often to breaking point. You Know Me Well is an enjoyable read; it does not break new ground but will speak to teenagers gay and straight. The double voiced narrative is interesting and melds well. What is refreshing about this new wave of gay teen fiction is that being gay is hardly ever the issue; the characters are teenagers who happen to be gay going through the same difficulties as there rest of their class, apart from instant fame of course. 256 pages / Ages 14+ / Reviewed by Caroline Downie, librarian.