Review: You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour & David Levithan

Title: You Know Me Well
Author: Nina LaCour & David Levithan
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release date: June 7th 2016
Pages: 248
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: Purchased
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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.

I wanted to love this book, since both of these authors are fantastic writers, and I loved the premise. And it was definitely a decent book; but I was kind of bored by parts of it, and it just wasn't anywhere near as great as either of these authors' individual books.

One thing that I did really enjoy was the depiction of Pride and of queer spaces, and the different explorations of queer intimacy. Every single character (except for the main characters' parents) in this book is queer, which was awesome. Most of this novel is set during SF Pride, and we get to see a lot of different elements of Pride, which were super fun to read about. I really appreciated the exploration of queer intimacy; while there is definitely romance and heartbreak, at the heart of the story is queer friendship/platonic queer intimacy, primarily through Kate/Katie's and Mark's friendship, but also through both of their friendships with their respective also gay best friends. Queer friendships, platonic queer intimacy, and queer mentorship and community is something we rarely get to see due to the focus on romance, so this depiction is really important.

But unfortunately, I couldn't really get into the story or connect with the characters. Mark was an endearing character, but I was honestly kind of annoyed by Kate/Katie (I was very confused by the way she insists on being called Kate, yet the book itself refers to her as Katie...) throughout the novel. Her inability to communicate was super frustrating, and her whole identity crisis about not wanting to go study art anymore just seemed really random because we never get any insight into why. It kind of felt contrived, as if we just needed some kind of conflict for her so that Mark wouldn't be the only one in need of help from a new friend.

I also found the instant friendship between Katie/Kate and Mark to be unrealistic and overly emphasized-the concept of this new friendship was cool, but did they need to start doing *everything* together--including going on Kate's dates--as soon as they met!? I understand how it's necessary for the premise, but the whole concept of them immediately becoming best friends after spending one evening together felt a little forced to me.

Both romance storylines were lacking development, in my opinion. Katie's idealization of Violet felt very manic-pixie-dream-girl-esque and overdone, and Violet never felt like a real person to me. While I appreciate the focus on Mark's and Katie's friendship, it meant that the romance was under explored and never felt real. For example, we barely get to see Katie and Violet spend any time together without Mark also coming along, so how are they suddenly in love? Similarly, Mark's evolving relationship with Ryan just didn't seem realistic.

This one definitely had potential, and I appreciate this different approach to exploring queer spaces and queer intimacy, but the story and characters just didn't work for me. But of course I'll still read anything either of these authors will come out with.