You Against Me by Jenny Downham

You Against Me

by Jenny Downham

If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge.
If your brother's accused of a crime but says he didn't do it, you defend him.

When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her, his world begins to fall apart. When Ellie's brother is charged with the offense, her world begins to unravel. When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide.

This is an unflinching novel from the bestselling author of Before I Die. It's about loyalty and the choices that come with it. Above all, it's a book about love.

Reviewed by notajammiedodger on

3 of 5 stars

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When I picked this book up from the library (it was on my TBR list) I didn't actually realise that it was by the same author as Before I Die until I picked it up to read a few days ago. When I realised this I was a little worried. I didn't like Before I Die very much. It just wasn't for me. But I liked You Against Me.

You Against Me is a story about a the brother of a young girl that was raped, and the sister of the boy who was accused. Mikey meets Ellie at a party and has the intentions of getting her to fall for him. She does. But what Mikey doesn't intend to happen is for him to fall for her.

I like Mikey and Ellie. I liked that parts that they were together most in the book. They were just so cute. Shy and innocent Ellie and man whore Mikey who had never felt this way about anyone before. They are so opposite yet so perfect together. Mikey is the kind of guy that has a new girl friend every week; Ellie is the kind of girl that has never had a boyfriend before. So the two of them seem the most unlikely couple, but they work so well together.

I am not personally a big fan of Jenny Downham's style of writing. I don't know how to explain how she writes. In Before I Die Tessa was a very strange and sort of morbid character. Some of the things that she thought disturbed me sometimes. It isn't as bad in this story, but there is one part in the book where Mikey is sitting on the toilet and she writes about how he grabs a wad of toilet paper and wipes himself. I personally don't like that style of writing.

That aside I did enjoy You Against Me, the love story was sweet and Mikey was amazing. Very fictional crush worthy material :P I am glad that I liked it, I was a little worried as I didn't like Downham's other book very much. Although I know that it is very popular. So I would definitely recommend them both, you may like them more than me :)

This review is also on my blog The Confessions of a Book Nerd :)

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 28 August, 2011: Finished reading
  • 28 August, 2011: Reviewed