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A Quick, Fabulous, Finding Yourself Novel with two Great LGBT Characters // Thoughts on You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan
8/13/2016You Know Me Well
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: June 7th 2016
Format: eARC
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, You Know Me Well is a story about navigating the joys and heartaches of first love, one truth at a time.
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I got an eARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. None of my thoughts are altered by that.
You Know Me Well was a pretty anticipated book among the book blogging community. I mean, why wouldn't it be? You've got two great authors, working together to write a book about two gay characters, working their way through their problems together.
Before reading this book, I had read Everything Leads to You by Nina so I had pretty high hopes for this book and they were definitely not let down. I had a great time reading about Mark and Kate and it was interesting to read about their friendship and what happens to them within the week that this book takes place. I think the book also covered some topics some books don't usually mention. Other than heartbreak, I also love how this book talks about the pressure of college and maybe taking a year off before going? These topics spoke so much about Mark and Kate and I'm glad they were mentioned.
I really loved how both characters are gay and I also loved how this was the kind of books where gay characters weren't made a big deal. They were just gay and that wasn't something that took over their identity. They weren't only known for being gay and I think it's pretty important for a character to exist outside of their sexuality. (And as more books with gay characters roll in, making their sexuality very casual and not emphasized is pretty important.) The only problem I had with the characters in You Know Me Well was that I didn't really connect with any of them. Yeah, I liked all of them but there wasn't a character that especially stood out for me that I particularly loved, which is a bummer because I thought the characters in this book were pretty well written.
Another thing I enjoyed about You Know Me Well was how much of a "finding yourself" story it was. It only takes place within a span of a week but it talked about the characters going through changes when it came to their friends. I mean, they meet new people, lose some friends and because of that, this story is a very "finding yourself" one, which I think was very necessary for the characters. Kate was about to go to college and meet someone she had really wanted to meet for awhile, Mark was dealing with some feelings. I would really love a spin off novel about these characters, partly because I would love to read about Kate and Mark post the week that they met and just to see how that week affected their future.
Writing this book in alternate perspectives was also necessary for this story because this book talks about two very different story lines for each character. They're just friends who are going through two different things rather than two people going through something together. The writing was fabulous as well. I also really loved the San Francisco setting and appreciated how it actually did play a part in the book.
I hope everyone enjoyed my thoughts on You Know Me Well, a book you can clearly tell I enjoyed.
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