Review: Every You, Every Me By: David Levithan

Title: Every You, Every Me
Author: David Levithan
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 235 Pages (September 13th, 2011)
From: The Publisher & Amazon Vine

Synopsis: In this high school-set psychological tale, a tormented teen named Evan starts to discover a series of unnerving photographs—some of which feature him. Someone is stalking him . . . messing with him . . . threatening him. Worse, ever since his best friend Ariel has been gone, he's been unable to sleep, spending night after night torturing himself for his role in her absence. And as crazy as it sounds, Evan's starting to believe it's Ariel that's behind all of this, punishing him. But the more Evan starts to unravel the mystery, the more his paranoia and insomnia amplify, and the more he starts to unravel himself. Creatively told with black-and-white photos interspersed between the text so the reader can see the photos that are so unnerving to Evan, Every You, Every Me is a one-of-a-kind departure from a one-of-a-kind author.

Review: 3 Stars - You, Every Me By: David Levithan was intriguing from the first time I heard about it. Somewhat of a Young Adult picture book, the story is told with words and photos. The Collaborative work between author and photographer added a whole new layer of depth to an already mysterious story.

The main characters in this title – Evan and Ariel are best friends. However, the book is written solely from Evan’s perspective. The way it’s written you really question if what you are reading is Evan’s truth or if there’s more to these troubled teens. Ariel is more of a ghost in this one, a ghost in the sense that she’s a key ingredient to the story, but you never really get to know exactly who she is. I mean we do learn a bit more as you read on about the characters and about Ariel, but I felt I was always trying to grasp for just a bit more.

I never really connected with the characters, however in the end I knew I was reading and enjoying the story for the mystery, to find out what the heck was really going on and the pictures because I wanted to find out more of their meaning and to see more of how they would further impact the story. The two twisted and blended together extremely well.

While I loved the mystery of the book surrounding all the characters, it was somewhat hard and distracting to read with so much of the text having a strike through it. However, it’s through this text that you almost get another character. As mentioned above, It’s all part of Evan’s thoughts which make you wonder just how much of what he says and doesn’t say is truth, or at least more his truth.

All in all, I did enjoy this one, just wasn’t what I was expecting, which can for the most part be a good thing. Maybe it was me, but I just didn’t love it. The mystery kept me reading, as did the photos. The characters I never really connected with, but I did want to find out what would happen next with them, which really is what counts. Do I recommend this title? I do, for the mystery and pictures and because it’s something new and different. I know many will enjoy it, Happy reading.

FTC Disclaimer: I did NOT pay for this book, nor have I been compensated at all in any way or means for reading and writing this HONEST review.