Review - "You Know Me Well"

You Know Me Well
by Nina LaCour and David Levithan
rating:☆☆☆☆☆
published: 6th May 2016
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

"The heart is a treacherous beast."
"But it means well."

Galley provided by publisher.

Back at the end of last year, I was scrolling through my Twitter feed when I saw a link to the first two chapters of this. It piqued my interest because I had relatively recently read Nina LaCour's Everything Leads To You and loved it, so of course I had to check this one out. I read the first two chapters and when I got to the end, I realised two things: 1) this was a book that was pretty much guaranteed to break my heart, and 2) I definitely wanted to read it. I've been eagerly waiting for You Know Me Well since then and when I got the chance, I read it within about 4 hours.

I think this might well be one of the best books I have read or am going to read this year (and yes, it is only March. That's how much I liked this book). I loved the characters and the plotline, even if I did spend about 40% of it on the verge of tears.

Unrequited love is one of those tropes that breaks my heart every time. I don't know what it is about it, but it's always angsty and it never ends the way I want it to (with the characters getting together). And it's always a thousand times worse when they're best friends. Ryan and Mark ticked all those boxes, and so from the off, I knew it was going to be one of those books.

Another thing I loved was Mark and Katie's friendship. There are so few friendships between boys and girls in YA literature that this one was so refreshing (and also that it didn't end up something romantic, which is always nice, even if that was only because they were both gay). My favourite scenes were between those two characters, especially the ones where Violet was also present. I don't quite know how to describe just how much I adored them as friends, but they were so amazing, and the way they supported one another was great. I wish there were more friendships like this in YA lit.

The relationships didn't all turn out exactly how I would have liked (Ryan and Mark, mostly. I didn't particularly like Taylor, if I'm honest, but that's probably entirely because I only saw him from Mark and Katie's points of view), but I was so happy Ryan and Mark, and Lenha and Katie remained friends and sorted their problems through. I can't stand it when books leave arguments between friends unresolved, even when the resolution is likely to be the end of a friendship.

So overall, this book was amazing. It's definitely going on my favourites list for this year, possibly for all-time.