You Know Where to Find Me

by Rachel Cohn

book data

245 ratings, 3.29 average rating, 86 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		18%
4		25%
3		29%
2		22%
1		4%

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published

March 4th 2008 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

binding

Hardcover, 208 pages

isbn

0689878591 (isbn13: 9780689878596)

description

Jamal said only, "Laura..." And I knew, just knew by the rip through my gut and the instant convulsion in my heart, knew by Jamal's uncharac...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 549)

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06/11/08

Ames rated it:

Read in June, 2008

OH MY GOD A FAT GIRL BOOK WHERE SHE IS NOT SKINNY AT THE END HALLE-FREAKING-LULLAH.

Rachel Cohn sort of irritates me as a writer without David Levithan to even her out. I don't know if it's genuinely her style or that she's really into Francesca Lia Block or something, but, man, Rachel, sometimes all the froufy language and switches in tenses and made-up stories just sort of irritate me.

In the plus column, I really loved the character of Jim. Of course in my head he was pl...more

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3 comments

07/20/08

J.d. rated it:

Read in July, 2008

Some nice writing, and I wanted to like it a lot more than I did, but:

1. When you have a character this angry and bitter, it's a real challenge to make the reader like them or even care much. Unfortunately, this book doesn't rise to the challenge.

2. I finally gave up after about the fifth lecture about DC Home Rule. Okay. I get it. I know this is an issue that the character cares a lot about, but it just gets preachy. see (1) above.

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05/13/08

Jennifer Wardrip rated it:

bookshelves: gold-star-award, trt-reviews

Reviewed by Dianna Geers for TeensReadToo.com

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 weigh...more

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12/04/08

Sarah Librarian rated it:

This is the first book I've read by Cohn that wasn't one of the two she wrote with David Levithan. I'd wanted something lighter, but had forgotten what You Know Where to Find Me was about. In the end, I didn't want to read anything other than this book. Cohn's writing is just as good as I'd hoped and her storytelling ability is as strong on her own as it was with Levithan. What makes You Know Where to Find Me so good is the main character of Miles. In many ways, this is because I identify with M...more

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11/20/08

Becky rated it:

Read in November, 2008

You can almost always find our heroine, Miles, popping pills, getting high, or smoking. She's a drug addict who is content--or content enough at least--living a very wasted life. She plans on dropping out of high school once she turns eighteen. Even the suicide of her cousin, Laura, (drug overdose) fails to get through to her. Life is meaningless, right? It doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. Miles is overweight, unhappy, and seeking release through drugs. She doesn't necessarily want to die...more

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06/01/09

Angelo rated it:

Read in May, 2009

This book is a comedy/depressing book. I chose this book because it looked scary and about a ghost because of the cover it has a girl in it and it looks wierd. This book is about a girl named Miles her nickname is Mel, she turned into a bad girl, she started smoking joints and she wanted to drop out of school. Jamal is one of Mel's best friends, he keeps her out of trouble and if she gets into trouble he's there to save the day. Laura is Mel's other best friend, she actualy graduated and Mel's j...more

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04/04/08

Hayden rated it:

bookshelves: suicide, teen

Read in April, 2008

This book is getting on my nerves. I'm about 40 pages in, and I'll give it 50, but unless it seriously picks up I'm going to chuck it. It keeps vacillating between omniscient past tense (the words "Once upon a time" are used repeatedly) and first person present tense. I get the feeling Rachel Cohn thinks she's being Very Extremely Literary, but in fact it just sucks.

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12 comments

03/15/09

Jeanne rated it:

bookshelves: young-adult

Read in April, 2009

I really wanted to like this book. Really. After all, I loved other books by Cohn (Gingerbread, Shrimp, and Cupcake). But this novel left me cold.

Miles is our protagonist. An overweight and somewhat bitter teenager, Miles has just experienced a great loss--her cousin, Laura, has committed suicide. Laura died from an overdose, and it is soon revealed that the two cousins liked to get high via "pharms."

Between her "pharms" and her bitterness, it i...more

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01/09/09

April rated it:

Read in January, 2009

I liked the idea for this book, it hit on tough real life issues for teens, like suicide, drug use, and sexuality. I did not like the way the author put the story together or how it was randomly broken up with odd scenes.I wouldn't say this was a pleasant book to read, it was full of reality and you are thrown into the head of a troubled teen. I liked how it ended and that she learned to like herself and got help with her drug problem. I guess to sum it up, this was a great first draft for what ...more

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12/10/08

Alia rated it:

bookshelves: ya

Read in February, 2009

About a page into You Know Where to Find Me, I realized that the book was set in DC. Oh nice, I thought to myself. I miss living in DC, I'm really going to like this book. And then I spend the next 200 or so pages being wrong.

This is the story of Miles. She and her cousin Laura were like sisters when they were little. As they grow up, they grow apart. Then Laura kills herself and Miles spirals downward into grief and depression.

Jim, Laura's father, was an interestin...more

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09/11/08

Juushika rated it:

bookshelves: borrowed

Read in July, 2008

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—b...more 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.(less)

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08/18/08

Steph (Reviewer X) rated it:

bookshelves: blog-already-read

Read in December, 2008

Cross-posted from my blog review: http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2008/12/yo...

Uh... Okay, how do I put this? No idea.

How do I reenact this? Well, first we get an emoticon: o_O. Steam blowing from the side to indicate mental exertion? Optional. Whatever you call that sound you make when you’re blowing spit bubbles, playing in the background? MANDATORY.

(Shakespeare would’ve been proud.)

In the interest of brevity—I don’t want to spend more time ...more

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08/17/08

Caroline rated it:

bookshelves: faves, young-adult

Read in August, 2008

More Kudos to Rachel Cohn (my all-time favorite author) who manages to break outside the unwritten literary rules once again. She completely and totally breaks them all:

1. If your book starts out with a suicide of someone who is important to the main character, make the book centered around grieving and memories of the dead person.
Miles' cousin Laura, who used to be like her twin sister, has overdosed on drugs and died. On purpose. Miles just goes on thinking about how Laura wa...more More Kudos to Rachel Cohn (my all-time favorite author) who manages to break outside the unwritten literary rules once again. She completely and totally breaks them all:

1. If your book starts out with a suicide of someone who is important to the main character, make the book centered around grieving and memories of the dead person.
Miles' cousin Laura, who used to be like her twin sister, has overdosed on drugs and died. On purpose. Miles just goes on thinking about how Laura was always the pretty one, the one who had everything, and Miles felt like there really wasn't much to live for. But it was Laura who was brave and stupid enough to end it all.

2. If your heroine has a crush on her best friend, make her end up with him. Or have him realize it but not mess up their friendship.
Miles realizes she is in love with Jamal, her best friend forever. They have a fun friendship where they make up old-time jive talk and make midnight IHOP runs. But at Laura's funeral, Jamal meets Laura's best friend Bex, who has a scary polititian dad. And he falls for her. His family does not approve of Bex, but he doesn't care. He stays with her. And when Miles tries to kill herself, he gets so mad at her he doesn't speak to her for the rest of the book.

3. Make your heroine be an amazing person, even if she has low self-esteem.
Miles is far from being a saint. She's 50 pounds overweight and totally unmotivated to lose it (and she will, occaisionally starve herself. But then she'll gain it all back pretty soon). She's a fake Goth (Goths are skinny. Goths stand around moaning and hang out with other Goths.) Miles smokes (even though she's only seventeen). She doesn't have many friends, only Jamal and sometimes Jim (Laura's father). She's not a nice or good person, but she isn't totally evil.

4. If there's a bad boy, make the heroine fall for him and either convert him or see the error of her ways.
Floyd is a random guy who's pretty much done for. He's a drug dealer made of grease who, whenever Miles sees him, checks her out. Bex is always telling her, "Floyd was totally checking you out! EWW! DON'T go out with him." And Miles says, "Yeah, I know. I wouldn't." Because she's in love with Jamal.

There you have it. "You Know Where To Find Me."(less)

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08/05/08

Rachael rated it:

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...more

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05/19/08

Barbara rated it:

Laura and Miles were cousins but they might have been sisters, they were so close. They grew up together and shared everything--talks in the tree house, cigarettes, snacks, prescription drugs--until Laura kills herself, that is. Miles was left to deal with the emotional detritus left behind after Laura’s death. Miles can not understand why Laura did it when she had everything, beauty, popularity, a loving, rich father, a great boyfriend, where Miles was overweight, preferred her books to peopl...more

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05/03/08

Tez rated it:

Read in May, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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02/28/08

Kricket rated it:

bookshelves: 2009, grief, teen-fiction

Read in March, 2009

miles is an extremely realistic and extremely frustrating main character. she's smart- even brilliant- clever, and cares deeply for her friends and her community. but she loathes herself, and treats herself like crap. she desperately wants to change- but won't. can't?

it's a bad summer.
miles' cousin and on-again-off-again best friend, laura, has committed suicide. miles' other best friend, jamal, is leaving town in the fall, and has a new girlfriend. miles' mom, mel, has gone to...more

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02/27/08

Laura rated it:

bookshelves: ala-midwinter-arc08, ya

Read in March, 2008

3/16/08 02:06 pm

You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn. Ages 12+ Pub date March 2008.

When I picked this book up at the conference, I read the first line off the back. "Character named Laura, awesome!" I said. Then I read the next line. "...commits suicide. great." This is the story of first cousins Laura and Miles, and how Miles copes when Laura commits suicide (you never really meet alive Laura in the book, it starts with Miles hearing the new...more

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07/02/09

Cynthia Willis rated it:

Read in July, 2009

I usually love Rachel Cohn's novels, but this was not one of my favorites, I'm sorry to report. It is a touching story, with well-drawn, appealing characters that I genuinely cared about. Except for the main character, Miles. Her constant anger and bitterness, along with all of her pill popping and pharms, got to be a bit much for me. In addition, I felt as if I was being lectured to quite a lot, which I never enjoy. In summary, I didn't sympathize with this girl the way that I'd hoped to.

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02/22/09

Brenna rated it:

The only reason I gave this book three stars is because it left me feeling depressed and pessimistic; but that is exactly what made it so good. Rachel Cohn has a strong voice in her characters, presenting a protagonist who you can't help but despise and feel sorry for all at once. Though I genuinely admire the skill it takes to write such a depressing book, I still feel as if it could've left a bit more of a positive impact of the reader.

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"Bruises mapped my body from bumping into tables and tripping over curbs while walking with a book in my hand, my eyes focused on the pages instead of the live space around me." More quotes...