Customer Reviews

You Know Where to Find Me

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

Laura and Miles grew up together. They were cousins who lived so close that Miles could sneak out of her room on scary, stormy nights and escape to the safety of Laura's bed. They spent hours in their tree house and hiding out in their favorite bookstore. As little girls became adolescents, though, being related and living near each other didn't guarantee closeness.

Miles liked to eat and drink. And smoke. Her body put on weight, her poorly-dyed hair never behaved, and she escaped the world by reading. Her grades sucked. She didn't care.

Laura was a beautiful, social butterfly. She was pleasant. Got good grades. Had the perfect boyfriend. The adoring father. So why is she the one who killed herself?

And Miles wonders why Laura got everything. Everything. She even got to escape the world. She got what Miles wanted. Miles planned on joining her. Who would even care if Miles died, anyway?

With that frame of mind, Miles takes several downward turns which continue to lead her in the direction her life had been heading for a long time. Laura even left Miles a secret stash of drugs to help her cope. For a while, Miles chooses to live life in a state of numbness. The worst thing to her was when the fog faded and she had to face life
without her cousin.

As you read YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND ME, you find touching characters. You care for them--not just Miles--but her father, Laura's father, even Laura herself. Miles falls to such a low that everyone worries about her chances of survival. But somehow in this cocoon of a druggy fog, there's a spirit of a person. A person who is stronger than many people realized. People are not always what they seem. Sometimes they are stronger. Sometimes weaker.

Rachel Cohn has written a touching novel that covers so many issues. And it leaves you thinking. Wondering. Hoping.

Reviewed by: Dianna Geers

Two cousins grew up like sisters, and though their life wasn't ideal, it was bearable because they were together. Then Laura commits suicide, and Miles, the girl left behind, falters.

You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn is intense, to say the least. While detailing Laura's death and Miles' downward spiral, Cohn doesn't soft-pedal anything. The fallout is intense without being overwhelming.

One of the many things I enjoyed about Find Me was the search. I didn't know exactly what Miles would do next or where she would end up. I didn't predict the ending. I didn't need to. And with this, with her, I wished for peace and hope. Also, for something she could call her own.

With this novel, Cohn definitely challenges readers. If she gets just one person to reevaluate what could be the ultimate decision . . . wow.

Beautiful Laura and chubby Miles are sister-cousins, cousins by blood but as close as sisters. That is, until adolescence, when perfect Laura ditches Miles for more popular friends, and outcast Miles is dubbed "8 Mile." But during Laura's last year of high school, the cousins reconnected over a shared love of getting high. Miles thought she had gotten Laura back; she didn't know how far they really were until Laura commits suicide. Miles now finds herself lost, not knowing who to turn to or what to care about. You Know Where to Find Me follows a struggling Miles as she tries to figure out how life will go on.

I found You Know Where to Find Me a confusing novel at best. In all honesty, I liked the first and last chapters but pretty much nothing in between. Miles' character was very confusing, and I didn't feel that the rest of the characters were developed enough, especially Miles' parents. I also never really felt the connection between Laura and Miles that should've been there. The novel follows Miles' life, but I often felt myself thinking, "Well, so what?" You Know Where to Find Me lacks a certain something that could make it a really great novel, and I regret to say that this book greatly disappointed me. I originally expected this novel to be similar to other spectacular novels dealing with death and suicide such as The Day I Killed James by Catherine Ryan Hyde, Saving Zoë by Alyson Noël, Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, and Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe, but You Know Where to Find Me unfortunately failed at this.

I'm sorry to say that You Know Where to Find Me is probably the first book I've read that I don't recommend at all (not including school-required novels). This book was just too disappointing.

This book starts out with the suicide of Miles's cousin, Laura, and steadily progresses into something deeper and more complex. Laura and Miles grew up best friends, but their tight-knit relationship couldn't withstand high school, where Laura was the perfect popular one, and Miles was an overweight reject.


But Laura was the one who wanted to die. After the suicide, Miles's mom goes to London to be with her long-distance boyfriend, her best friend develops an unexpected relationship with Laura's best friend, so Miles is left alone and missing Laura. She turns to drugs to try to get away from her problems, and tries to fill the void that Laura left behind.


This was a very short but powerful book about love, loss, and family. But while that sentence sounds so typical of an average teen novel, You Know Where to Find Me is anything but typical or average. Miles is a strong but misguided main character, and she's so used to being around Laura that it takes her awhile to adapt to being alone. I love this book simply because it gave me insight to a world that I've never been part of, and it showed a very realistic struggle from a very realistic girl's point of view. Rachel Cohn definitely did not disappoint in her latest novel, and I look forward to reading more by her.

Miles and Laura have grown up side-by-side, like sisters. Laura's always been the popular one, the beautiful one, the rich one the smart one and...well, the list goes on and on and on. Yep, Laura's always been picture-perfect. That is, until, she kills herself.

Over the last few years, the two girls have had one big fat thing in common- one that has nothing to do with the fact that both their houses are on the same sprawling property. Both girls have a mutual love, and passion for narcotics. Yep, pills. The only difference is, until Laura dies, Miles has never really considered using her "true love" to kill herself.

But as the reality of Laura's death sinks in, Miles finds herself drawn to the idea...or at least not totally opposed to it. Her drug sampling turns from a fleeting distraction, to full-blown addiction, to a slippery trip down a very serious path of self-destruction- one that Miles does not know if she can come back from.

You Know where to Find Me is so different from Cohn's other books, I had to re-check the author's name each time I turned a new page. But true to all her books, Cohn provides her readers with deeply intense characters, involved in harrowing, true-to-life, situations. And oh yeah, You Know Where to find Me also explores Cohn's own passion (?) for Washington D.C, which provides for one hell of an interesting backdrop.
-reviewed by Jill MacKenzie

Not often does a novel come around that leaves readers thinking about it long after it's been finished. But nor should readers rush into a re-read.

This is intense, emotional stuff, with characters I wish I'd had in my life. Laura, the cousin/sister/BFF. Jamal, the true and loyal friend. Jim, who takes so many people under his wing. Buddy, who knows he's done bad but has changed and is making amends for the better. And Bex, who for a rival is actually quite lovely. Indeed, Miles is lucky to have all these people.

But the character most like me is narrator Miles. Even though we're very different in our looks and coping mechanisms, emotionally we are very similar. And I love that we both have the same political opinion: "He is everything wrong with America. He's that GO TEAM RAH RAH RAH, American-flag-pin-on-his-suit-lapel, same old white man who orates about liberty and freedom and then authorises the Pentagon to plunder other nations in the name of 'democracy'."

This novel is thought-provoking, emotionally draining and forces (unintentionally or otherwise) readers to undertake personal reflection. This is neither easy nor fun, but is powerful and memorable in a way that very few novels are - put simply: a must-read.

I thought this book was very dark and depressing... and there were too many different character personalities that all seemed to clash. She didn't seem to develop the character of Laura very well if you ask me. There were too many little sprinklings of what she once was, all of which contradicted the last personality trait.

Miles, the book's, "protagonist" was very unlikeable. She seemed to be suicidal, a drug addict and someone who constantly whined about feeling sorry for herself, her weight and her friend. The plot was constantly circling and it felt like there were a lot of unnecessary characters that didn't really fit into this dark tragic sort of story. I kept waiting for Miles to come to her senses and be strong but she only delved deeper into her own problems and always left me feeling empty every time I picked up the book.

The book may have been better if the protagonist wasn't so dark, self-pitying, "I Hate Everyone" sort of person and maybe if there were some semblance of humour to lighten things up every now and then.

But it seemed to have hardly a point and took way too long to tell the story, so I put it down and couldn't finish reading it... It was pretty disappointing, and I really like a lot of Rachel Cohn's other books.

I enjoyed reading this book, and it did make for a fast-paced read, but I can't say it was fully developed or great.

If I were to compare the character development, plot and storyline of this novel to other Rachel Cohn novels, then I would say she came short writing this one. But if I were to compare the themes depicted in this novel to her other novels, then I'd have to say there were some very interesting, profound and serious themes that needed to be accentuated or even played up.

Miles is not a very likeable character. At first, with her cousin committing suicide, the depression, mourning and grief, I figured, it's alright, it's to be expected. It's a phase. She needs to go through this to see the light. But she never did. And it got tiresome after a while. The obsession with her weight was completely unexpected. Not from her anyway. At some point I was starting to get sick of her references to her weight. Sure, I do think weight has become a very serious issue with teenagers - especially females - and should be explored and addressed, but Miles did not strike me as one to be concerned with appearances overly much - not to this extent anyway. So the fact that she kept obsessing about it, and even tried to find ways to lose weight quickly in order to get a guy to like her, and to think that the only reason her best friend's in love with a girl is because of her body, made her seem just silly and immature. Which was sad. And it was definitely a downgrade from where I had first placed her when I started reading the story.

Yes, Miles has many problems she's dealing with, her looks being one of them, but she was smart, independent, liberal, outspoken and opinionated. That sort of person does not think that if I was just as skinny as that girl, my best friend would have fallen in love with me instead. No. That person is concerned with deeper things like books and politics and "freedom".

If Cohn wanted to address the weight issue in teens, she could have used Bex as the perfect candidate to explore in-depth what sort of problems girls get themselves into in order to fit a certain weight-criteria. It just didn't fit with Miles personality. Not in my opinion anyway.

Furthermore, the politics theme, although interesting, just seemed to come out of nowhere. When picking up the book and reading what it is about, you would never consider it to be a book that would make such a strong political statement. Yes, the story takes place in Washington D.C., and Jim - Laura's dad - is gay, so you have the gay rights theme, and Jamal - Miles's best friend - is black, so you have the racism theme, and SOWM - Bex's dad - is a Congressman. All of this put together presents you with the whole picture of where the politics come in. And Miles has a lot to say when it comes to America's political agenda, and she states her opinion throughout the book several times. However...it still does not mesh with the overall plot! Yes, reading it is great, and it's interesting, and it makes you think and nod or shake your head at some of the claims and viewpoints, but it pretty much has nothing to do with the storyline.

Laura committed suicide, and Miles needs to move on - so where does the politics fit in? She abuses drugs and pharmaceuticals, she sleeps too much, she eats too much, she does not take care of herself, she attempts to sabotage every relationship she has, be it with her best friend or father or principal/counselor. And that's understandable, those are all signs of grief and her way of coping with her loss. But politics?

Jamal did get irritating as well. Miles is his best friend, and he's been through most everything with her, and she had just lost her cousin - who was pretty much the closest thing to her - and yet, he was barely there for her. Yes, he claims that he was in fact there for her but she never accepted the help or friendship he offered, but she has just LOST HER COUSIN/SISTER! How could you even think that that was a proper explanation to why you weren't there for her? Seriously? So you stopped by a few times, and she was high and passed out with a book on her lap, so that's it? You just walk away - at least you tried, right? You stopped by and found her asleep, but hey, you did stop by, so that counts! And then he starts a serious relationship with the deceased's friend, and slowly grows distant from his best friend, but is always portrayed as the overly caring guy who always looks out for her. I completely disagree with that breakdown of his character.

Let's look at the evidence - when Miles passed out in Floyd's bathroom, the same bathroom she went to, to check up on his girlfriend in the first place, who dropped her home and made sure she was okay the next day? Nope, not Jamal.

When Miles lost her job because the bookstore she worked at her whole life, that same place that was her safe haven, was out of business, who came to ask about her and make sure she's okay? Nope, not Jamal.

When Miles was 'kidnapped' to go on a road trip with her best friend and two people she hardly knows or gets along with, who ditched her the entire time and then spent the night having loud sex with his girlfriend and leaving Miles on her own with the grief-stricken, sexually-aroused, ex-boyfriend of the deceased? Yes, you got it, that was Jamal.

Oh oh, let's look at the 'hard' evidence, shall we? When his best friend overdosed and almost died, who was the first person she called for help? Hmm...let's think about that one for a bit...oh, wait...NOT Jamal!

I think that fact alone proves my point that he really was not there for her. And to be mad at her, and refuse to see her when she had almost died, even after it had happened because he is still so mad at her and cannot seem to forgive her, knowing he is leaving the city soon makes me think he's the worst kind of friend. But that's just my analysis of Jamal. A fraud.

That aside, I honestly did find the book entertaining, but I just think there were so many thoughts, ideas, and themes Cohn was trying to convey that they ended up being scattered all over the place, which ultimately had an impact on the consistency and flow of the story.

However, Rachel Cohn remains an incredible writer, and this is my first book for her as a stand-alone author without David Levithan's input. Reading it, I know I'll be picking up more books for her.

"Pixie-perfect Laura" and Miles "8-Mile" are cousins who grow up as sisters. High school puts them at a distance, but in Laura's senior year the girls reconnect over a shared love of Oxy and Percocet. Miles is struggling with her image; the overweight goth girl feels that her best friend Jamal is "the only thing keeping her lily-white ass from being kicked on a regular basis." Laura has it all: the Ivy-League acceptances, the perfect boyfriend, the slender body, and the thing Miles envies most: the courage to kill herself.
Enter Laura's high-school best friend, the athletic and reportedly anorexic Bex, who begins joining Jamal and Miles on their adventures. Miles loathes her already for "stealing the last few years of Laura" and for ultimately becoming Jamal's girlfriend and the first white girl Jamal is willing to date, both of which are distinctions Miles grudgingly admits to wanting for herself.
The main thing I would change is Bex. Nothing about her specifically--for a rival she's a cool character and much more relatable than Miles, to tell the truth. That said, I don't think we got to see enough of her character, especially since a lot of Miles' thoughts about her are basically rumors that Bex never gets the chance to set straight ("I can hear Laura...'she's too thin, even for Bex. Something's not right.'" "I bet he (Jamal) ate the entire bag [of Twizzlers] himself with no help from her.") In one interaction, Miles finds Bex crying and assumes it's because she is hungry from starving herself. Miles is jealous of Bex's body, but the way Miles attempts to convince herself and the audience that Bex is anorexic isn't fair to Bex's character at all. Miles, a self-diagnosed sufferer of "anorexile envy" who at one point decides to "starve her way down" is also glamorizing Bex's supposed eating disorder; since Bex is an honest, relatable character who a lot of girls might look up to (me included), this is not a way to treat Bex's character and could be triggering for female readers, especially those in Miles' situation. Also, Miles herself clearly suffers from binge-eating tendencies and at one point is starving herself, and I feel like that doesn't get enough coverage as it is overshadowed by her Percocet addiction. They're both serious, and I'm not saying Miles should have a perfect body by the end of the book, but Cohn should have at least made it clear that binging/starvation habits are not healthy and can't just be dismissed when there's a bigger problem.
That all said, this book is great. It can be heavy, but it's lightened with appropriate doses of Ye Old Jivespeak, Miles so clearly caring about politics while pretending not to, and Jamal's self-deprecating humor. I also like the way Cohn treated the issue of Jamal's family's resistance to him having Bex as a girlfriend, proving that "reverse racism" can exist and treating it just as seriously as conventional racism.