You by Charles Benoit Published by HarperTeen on August 24th 2010
Pages: 240
Goodreads
This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go.
You’re just a typical fifteen-year-old sophomore, an average guy named Kyle Chase. This can’t be happening to you. But then, how do you explain all the blood? How do you explain how you got here in the first place?
There had to have been signs, had to have been some clues it was coming. Did you miss them, or ignore them? Maybe if you can figure out where it all went wrong, you can still make it right. Or is it already too late?
Think fast, Kyle. Time’s running out. How did this happen?
This is not a book that I would ever have chosen for myself. I picked it up at a library sale after meeting the author at last year’s Rochester Teen Book Fest. It was an interesting premise, and I had to ask myself: is it really possible to write a convincing and intriguing book entirely in second-person?
Yes. Yes, it is.
You wasn’t my favorite book, but I never expected it to be. Contemporary is not my favorite genre, and I’m not sorry. However, You cut through its genre and dug itself into my subconscious, captivating me until I finished it in a day and a half.
Kyle Chase is an interesting main character, and the side characters all seem like people I actually went to high school with. The book begins with the end, then goes back to explore what led to that scene, which was fantastic. It really pulled me in from the very beginning and held me– I knew what was coming, and I had to find out how they got there!
This book is masterfully written, and if it were more “my thing”, I would probably give it five stars, but I’m giving it a 3 1/2. I liked it, but I don’t know that I’ll necessarily read it again. I would urge anyone who likes contemporary to pick this up immediately.
From my bookshelf to yours,
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