Book Review: You Know Me Well, Nina LaCour & David Levithan

Title: You Know Me Well
Author: Nina LaCour & David Levithan
Published: 07/06/2016, St Martins Griffin
Pages: 248
Source: Netgalley
Format: Ebook
Rating: 2/5
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.

You Know Me Well was really just an okay read for me. In a way, I found it original, but I also found it pretty unoriginal at the same time, if that makes sense. I mean, I've never read a book like this, but I'm aware of similar books. I just didn't find the idea behind the story unique. I also felt that You Know Me Well should be a really quick read, but it just seemed so slow to me. It probably didn't help that I took about a week to read this book.

You Know Me Well is set in San Francisco, however, I know next to nothing about San Francisco so it was a bit ambiguous. But, of course, that will probably be just me. I would say, though, that the characters could have been placed in any city with no effect on the story at all.

Kate and Mark are both likeable enough as main characters. But I just could not connect with either of them. They kind of annoyed me a bit too. They meet and become best friends in a day - that's almost as bad as insta-love! I also felt they were a bit too cardboard-cut-out-like. I just found very little substance to their characters.

You Know Me Well is told from the alternating first-person perspectives of Kate and Mark. I the authors wrote one of these perspectives each. However, there was no indication as to when the story would change point-of-view, so that irritated me a bit. Both perspectives read fairly similarly too for being different authors, which was actually really good.

For being a fairly short book (compared to other books I've read), it took me ages to finish You Know Me Well. This made the plot feel really slow and I just didn't feel I was getting anywhere. The story is also slightly on the predictable side. It was fairly obvious how it would end in some ways, especially with Mark. However, their story does wrap up nicely.

Well, when it came to my opinion of You Know Me Well I'm definitely in the minority. I just felt a lack of connection to the story and it dragged. Plenty of others rave about this book, though, so I'd say give it a go if you really want to otherwise give it a miss.

Goodreads / Amazon / Book Depository

Nina LaCour / Goodreads / Twitter

David Levithan / Goodreads / Twitter

Follow me via Goodreads, Twitter, Bloglovin, and Pinterest.

Feel free to leave a comment.