** spoiler alert ** While I was at YALC I bought a lot of books. You know me well was one of them. Of course, I got it signed by both Nina and David and it now has been the first book I picked up from my London book haul (okay, Cursed Child doesn't really count, everything HP is obviously going to be read the day I buy it).

I started this books with very high expectations. Not having read anything by Nina LaCour before (though I've heard nothing but good opinions about her novels) and loved everything I've previously read by David Levithan, You know me well was destined to be good.

Like the two other books I've read that David co-wrote with another author (Will Grayson, Will Grayson with John Grean and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist with Rachel Cohn), the book is written alternately from the perspectives of two teenagers and only covers the span of a couple of days.
David writes Mark. Mark is in love with his best friend Ryan who, despite their occasional make-out sessions, does not seem to have feelings for his best friend the way Mark would wish he had. Furthermore, Ryan has not had his coming out yet and while Mark does not want to push him, it does not exactly make things any easier.
Nina writes Kate. She is an artist who is about to start at UCLA. Her best friend Lehna is about to introduce her to her cousin Violet and everyone thinks they will fall in love immediately. Kate thinks so too, but what if it'll go other than planned?

I really like the setting of the story. San Francisco during Pride Week. I've never read a book which is set in that time, although I've heard a lot about it. The scene which is set at the parade was exactly how I'd imagine it. The atmosphere was caught perfectly (as far as I can tell) and it probably is my favourite one from the book.
Talking about first times: I've also never read a novel featuring a Poetry Slam before, though I've just been to one in real life. David and Nina each read a poem from this scene at YALC and had to smile when I read the said poems myself.
Giving the other characters a voice was interesting to read, because this is always a problem with 1st person narrators. They just can't see what is going on in other people's minds and lives. And I loved the way Mark and Kate deal with this insight. Them recognizing that a friend has had a really hard time and they didn't know. Because sometimes you find things out when it's too late and you cannot help anymore.

This leads to another aspect I'd like to mention. Both Mark and Kate have been struggling. Not only with their love lives, but with other aspects as well. Especially Kate shows signs of anxiety tha ultimately bring her to make a big decision: she does not want to start college this year as she cannot find the enthusiasm for it she'd like to feel. And her parents react in a way every parent should when their child decides on a thing like that. They support her and don't make a scene and I think this representation of supporting parents has been way to rare in YA.

The representation of the various LGBTQ+ characters in this novel is also great. There is a wide range of characters in various states of relationships and with various sexualities and genders and nothing feels forced or constructed, like it is the case in some other novels featuring queer characters. This is not a clichéed story of two homosexual best friends falling in love realizing they have been meant to be together since the beginning. This is not how life works. How any relationship works.

But somehow, despite all these aspects, the storyline got stuck on the way. While reading I felt like there had to be something more. It was as if I was waiting for a moment, an insight that didn't come. I can't express what it is I was missing, though it made me turn page after page looking for it (I read this book super quick, in relation to the problems I had in the past with me being stuck in a reading slump). Maybe it was the the fact that it felt like Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist met Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Not particularly in a bad way, there are just certain similarities I stumbled across.

You Know Me Well is an entertaining, quick read about falling in and out of love, following ones dreams and being showing one's pride in red and orange and yellow and green and blue and purple.