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Book Review: You Know Where To Find Me by Rachel Cohn
Title: You Know Where To Find Me
Author: Rachel Cohn
Published: New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2008
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 204
Total Page Count: 56,469
Text Number: 163
Read For: reading books about suicide, checked out from the library
Short review: Cousins Laura and Miles grew up like sisters, but high school has separated them—attending different schools, Laura has become attractive and successful, Miles overweight and underachieving. When Laura's sudden suicide separates them for good, Miles begins a downward spiral of overeating, drug use, and depression. You Know Where To Find Me is based on the absence of Laura, but it heart lies with Miles, her downfall, and her journey back to life. This should be enough content to make up a novel—but, unfortunately, it's not. Miles is a believable narrator, but there are so many issues cluttering the short book, from politics to drug use and of course Laura's suicide, that no one element has the chance to stand out. The subject matter may interest younger readers, and there's nothing outright bad or overly objectionable, but on the whole this book is lackluster and I don't recommend it.
You Know Where To Find Me has many promising aspects but no major strength. The initial concept—Laura's suicide—makes for an intriguing opening and an unusual book, where the primary driving force is not a character but instead her absence. Unfortunately, Laura's backstory is revealed so early and so easily that it is stripped of longterm interest. The book's of the other promising aspects have similarly anticlimactic developments. Cohn approaches these many aspects in good faith, creating both hopeful potential and premature world-weariness in Miles, and exploring things like the D.C. setting and Miles's drug use in realistically gritty and still approachable detail. However, there are so many factors—such as those I've mentioned, and young love, local politics, and issues with sexual activity, race, diet, and parental relationships, as well as suicide, loss, and grief—that no one aspect has the chance to rise above the others and shine.
As a result, this book is cluttered and brief, too short a text with too much going on. No one aspect is explored in enough interest or depth, and even worse the ending is too swift and too easy. Wrapped up in a simplified conclusion, Miles is stripped of her otherwise realistic character growth and the long, painful journey through her grief and personal problems. Despite the premise and promise, You Know Where To Find Me doesn't deliver much. Cohn has an adequate, unexceptional writing style, and there's enough taboo subject matter (mostly drug use and suicide) to hold the reader's interest, particularly in a young adult. It's not a bad book, and the content (especially the accepting messages about race and body type) is largely non-objectionable—I wouldn't warn away the interested reader. But there isn't enough to make this book worth reading, and so I don't recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Rachel Cohn
Published: New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2008
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 204
Total Page Count: 56,469
Text Number: 163
Read For: reading books about suicide, checked out from the library
Short review: Cousins Laura and Miles grew up like sisters, but high school has separated them—attending different schools, Laura has become attractive and successful, Miles overweight and underachieving. When Laura's sudden suicide separates them for good, Miles begins a downward spiral of overeating, drug use, and depression. You Know Where To Find Me is based on the absence of Laura, but it heart lies with Miles, her downfall, and her journey back to life. This should be enough content to make up a novel—but, unfortunately, it's not. Miles is a believable narrator, but there are so many issues cluttering the short book, from politics to drug use and of course Laura's suicide, that no one element has the chance to stand out. The subject matter may interest younger readers, and there's nothing outright bad or overly objectionable, but on the whole this book is lackluster and I don't recommend it.
You Know Where To Find Me has many promising aspects but no major strength. The initial concept—Laura's suicide—makes for an intriguing opening and an unusual book, where the primary driving force is not a character but instead her absence. Unfortunately, Laura's backstory is revealed so early and so easily that it is stripped of longterm interest. The book's of the other promising aspects have similarly anticlimactic developments. Cohn approaches these many aspects in good faith, creating both hopeful potential and premature world-weariness in Miles, and exploring things like the D.C. setting and Miles's drug use in realistically gritty and still approachable detail. However, there are so many factors—such as those I've mentioned, and young love, local politics, and issues with sexual activity, race, diet, and parental relationships, as well as suicide, loss, and grief—that no one aspect has the chance to rise above the others and shine.
As a result, this book is cluttered and brief, too short a text with too much going on. No one aspect is explored in enough interest or depth, and even worse the ending is too swift and too easy. Wrapped up in a simplified conclusion, Miles is stripped of her otherwise realistic character growth and the long, painful journey through her grief and personal problems. Despite the premise and promise, You Know Where To Find Me doesn't deliver much. Cohn has an adequate, unexceptional writing style, and there's enough taboo subject matter (mostly drug use and suicide) to hold the reader's interest, particularly in a young adult. It's not a bad book, and the content (especially the accepting messages about race and body type) is largely non-objectionable—I wouldn't warn away the interested reader. But there isn't enough to make this book worth reading, and so I don't recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.