You Know Me Well by David Levithan, Nina LaCour

You Know Me Well

by David Levithan and Nina LaCour

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.

Reviewed by Sam@WLABB on

4 of 5 stars

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There were so many things I loved about this book.

I loved Mark, and I loved Kate. These two were each so special, and I instantly wanted to protect them from everything that was going on in their respective lives. I loved the friendship between Mark and Kate. Fate brought them together, when each of them were dealing with personal crises, and they looked to each other to navigate the rough waters. The unconditional support each of them gave to the other warmed my heart. They just understood the other needed and when they needed it. I really enjoyed watching that friendship develop and grow. We also watch as our MCs acknowledge some friendships changing or fading. These are those difficult moments, but it's real. Not all friendships stay the same. People grow and change, and sometimes the friendships need to grow and change too.

I have always loved how Levithan gives us a peek into the LGBTIQ community. I am straight, but I worked as a high school teacher for 12 years, and saw first hand the difficulty some teens have with coming to terms with their sexuality. In this book we had the out and proud, we had the ones with troubled home lives, we had the ones who were still in the closet. Books like this could make such a difference in someone's life, and it makes me happy to know it exists.

I loved all the feels. This is my first Nina LaCour book, but David Levithan always gives me a fun story, with a lot of humor and a lot of heart. His characters always seem very real to me, and I know, even before I open the book, that I am in store for a great experience. I was happy, I was jovial, I was hurt, I was sad, I was frustrated. I felt so many different emotions, and I loved the whole rollercoaster ride.

The heart of this story is a romance - Kate finally meeting the woman she has only known through pictures and second hand correspondence, and Mark finally being honest about his feelings for his best friend. This is where I struggled a little. My heart ached and the tears fell, when one of our MCs did not get the HEA. Honestly, it is probably my heart giving 4 verses 5 stars to this book.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 28 May, 2016: Finished reading
  • 28 May, 2016: Reviewed