David Levithan was the first author who introduced me to characters who with the same identity crises I saw in myself. With Two Boys Kissing I saw characters, who for the first time, defied the classical boy meets girl storyline and for that, I love him.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a wonderful book, done in collaboration with John Green, that features some of the teenaged darkness and questions I think are so often overlooked. When You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina LaCour released, I was eager to same some of the same virgin territory being tackled.
The book features alternating chapters told from the perspectives of Kate and Mark. While these two have been in class with each other for an entire year, side by side in Calculous, they’ve never spoken. Not until a strange night where Mark bursts out of his shell and Kate runs away from the moment she’s been anticipating for months to meet the girl she might be in love with.
In a sudden moment, they realize they understand each other both in personality and in struggles and they come together to help navigate the final week of high school and all the challenges facing them both.
The first chapters were disappointing. The dialogue felt flat, unrealistic. The plot line was contrived and easily estimated move to move. Turning to the internet, fearing that I might be questioning how much I love Levitan as an author, my opinions were supported by other reviews who found the book “inauthentic” and “surface level.” Yet, there’s a multitude of positive feedback.
As the book continued, we see a senior wrestling with the decision of impending college and the realization that she isn’t excited. A gap year is offered as a genuine option. At the same time, we see a boy in love with his best friend who doesn’t love him back and they actually talk about it. For myself and many other reviewers, while there’s issues, a lot of good is hidden within those clumsy moments like the most basic positive: there’s representation of LGBT characters. There’s also a heavy focus on friendship, which so often falls to the side with romantic, YA novels.
Also, many people simply say “Levithan gets me,” and it’s true. He somehow has manages to remember very clearly the angst of growing up and searching for yourself and someone to love you at the same time.
While the dialogue stumbles around and the novel rushes, You Know Me Well reminded me that Levithan is still attempting to tackle things that might be the non-norm.
While much of the text rushed or tried to hard, in the final chapter, there’s a flash of brightness is a arguably unimportant scene of a young boy meekly attending his first PRIDE. In that moment, I saw both myself and the Levithan that had once so inspired me to claim his as my favorite author.
It’s brief, but that moment was a bright enough flash to illuminate the holes in the rest of the work.
For an adult reader, this novel will probably present much of the same issues I noticed, however, Levithan is an amazing author to introduce to middle schoolers and teenagers so they might see themselves in his characters too. Start with Two Boys Kissing, How They Met and Other Stories, or Will Grayson, Will Grayson first though because they are stronger examples of his work.
