Book Review: You Against Me by Jenny Downham

You Against Me by Jenny Downham

ARC 413 pgs (Published in Hardcover)

Published 9/2011 (In the US) by David Fickling Books (Random House)

Reading Level: Young Adult

Source: Amazon Vine

 If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge, right? If your brother's been accused of a terrible crime and you're the main witness, then you banish all doubt and defend him. Isn't that what families do? When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her at a party, his world of work and girls begins to fall apart. When Ellie's brother is charged with the crime, but says he didn't do it, her world of revision, exams and fitting in at a new school begins to unravel. When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide. Brave and unflinching, this is a novel of extraordinary skillfulness and almost unbearable tension. It's a book about loyalty and the choices that come with it. But above all it's a book about love - for one's family and for another.

 Surprisingly this was one I selected by the description only.  Somehow I hadn't heard anything about it before but once I got it I realized this was one book that had some rave reviews!  And once I started reading it I realized why!  I absolutely loved this book!  

It has an interesting story line with two characters that fall in love when they should be mortal enemies.  They didn't mean to fall in love, it started out as a way to figure out revenge (secretly, of course) but then something happened, they really cared about each other.

Both characters grow a lot in the story.  Now, I had wrote up two long paragraphs about how they evolved, but it probably doesn't really matter.  It just matters that they did.  They became something more.  And both of their families are messed up.  Mikey's mom is a drunk, Ellie's father is a jerk and neither family is completely right about anything.  

I really liked that in the beginning we don't really know who is right and who is wrong and what was great is we got to kind of judge for ourselves, make our own decisions.  And while we do get the whole story of what happened it's not until the end.  And I thought it was planned out well and very well paced.

I also liked that the book was British.  It took place in the UK and had lots of awesome British slang.  I kind of love that.  It just gave it a different vibe, ya' know?  But some things I don't know.  Obviously their school system is different and some of the school talk didn't make sense to me, I don't understand what they meant.  But that stuff wasn't really important and didn't take anything away from the story.  I am curious now though... What the heck is revisions?  

I loved that the story is told in third person but both perspectives.  I never felt confused about who's story was happening since it was in third person but I liked seeing every side of the story.  It made it mess with your head a bit more, ya know?  Like you see how sweet they can be, how could they do something bad?  

The romance was so sweet!  SO sweet!  It had obstacles, obviously, but yet it seemed somehow easy.  I mean there wasn't too much of the complicated feelings of not wanting to like him/her, etc.  Yeah, that happened, but somehow it seemed less complicated then I would have imagined.  They knew what they felt and for the most part they let it happen.  

Although I LOVED this book I do have a minor complaint.  In the very beginning I felt like I was thrown into something that I should know more about.  It was just a bit much because I had no clue what was going on.  It cleared up quickly but then later in the story it was odd how things went from being so fast to kind of jumping around.  I think it was saving us from tediousness, but I had a difficult time knowing how much time had passed.  And while it's revealed in the chapter, it's not there when you start.  So I'd start the chapter thinking it was immediately after the end of the previous chapter and really it was weeks later.  Now, it's really a minor issue for me because I liked the book so much, but some won't be caring for that.

This book is for the older young adult crowd.  There's sex (not descriptive, but it does happen) and there's a bit of bad language.  Mikey is 18 or 19, so that gives you a bit of an idea that there's some mature things.

I highly recommend this book if it sounds like your thing.  Although it's fairly large at over 400 pages, I read it in a day.   I had a very difficult time putting it down!  I'm definitely going to be checking out the authors previous book, Before I Die.  

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You Against Me


Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book free of charge for review purposes.  I was not paid or influenced in any way and all opinions expressed are my own.