Recent Reads #14 - You Know Me Well

Remember that time when I talked about how I was going to turn my Recent Reads series into a bimonthly thing? Yeah, I kind of slipped up on that on the second issue for October. As I was ill, I just couldn't bring myself to shoot the photos and write the post - sorry about that!
However. I'm now back, better than ever, with one of my favorite books from this summer.

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When I picked up You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina LaCour I knew next to nothing about it as I wanted to be suprised when reading it by the pool in Tenerife, and let me tell you, I was suprised.

You Know Me Well follows the story of the two teenagers Mark and Kate.
 Mark is hopelessly in love with his best friend who is afraid to come out of the closet, yet occasionally hooks up with Mark without wanting any commitment.
Kate is in love with a girl she was only ever heard about but never met. Violet is her best friends' cousin, well-travelled and cultured and extremely intimidating. When faced with the opportunity to finally meet the girl of her dreams, Kate is more than overwhelmed and runs away.

When a series of incidents leads to a meeting between the two of them, a whirlwind friendship develops. Even though they hadn't ever talked to each other before, they grow extremely close to one another in the space of just one week as they learn about the other's past and become each other's support system as they try to tackle their more than complicated romantic relationships.


Something I instantly loved about this book was all the representation it offered. Both of the main characters are gay, a lot of their friends or other side characters are also part of the LGTB community and the book is set during Pride Week, which I found super cool. I've been trying to read more books that feature LGTB characters this year (such as The Art of Being Normal), and the immense amount of representation and pride to be found in this one was amazing.

I also found it really easy to relate to Mark, he seemed like such a real character and all of his emotions and actions were so understandable I sometimes felt like I could reach into the pages and give him a squeeze. I rooted for that boys from the first few pages on, y'all.
Kate is a very interesting character, especially because she's a talented artist and by the way her paintings were describe, I could imagine them so vividly I almost saw them, and I also enjoyed her storyline, but at times she was a little too headstrong for me to comprehend. But you know, that's alright because it's also part of her character.

The only thing I didn't particularly love about this book is the short timespan it is set in. That one week is just too little to watch all of the characters grow and their development unfold and leads to a lot of my questions unanswered. I would've loved to see more about all of these unique, quirky characters - and believe me, there's a lot of them - but there was so little time!


Overall, however, I think that this is such an adorable read for when you feel like reading but don't want to start a too demanding lecture - there's of course some drama, but most of all it's the incredibly sweet story of two people how accidentally become best friends filled with lots laughs as well.
You Know Me Well might come off as your typical YA book, but I'm sure that this is one that not only young readers might enjoy.

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Recent Reads is a bimonthly series and comes out on every first and third Wednesday of the month.
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