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Type of bind: Hardcover
EAN num: 9780689878596
ISBN number: 0689878591
Label: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 208
Printing Date: March 04, 2008
Publishing house: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Age index: Young Adult
Sale Popularity Level: 30124
Studio: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
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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 uncharacteristically unsmiling face. I knew because Laura always did what I wished I could do.
First cousins Laura and Miles grew up like sisters. Miles thought of Laura as the golden one -- smart, beautiful, rich, and popular -- while Miles considered herself the unwanted one -- an unattractive, underachieving outcast. Laura's suicide shatters Miles and leaves her feeling completely alone, and sets Miles on a dangerous downward spiral. But in the strength Miles finds in herself and in those she didn't believe cared about her, she is able to rebuild her life in unexpected ways.
Rachel Cohn's emotionally powerful new novel views serious issues such as depression, suicide, prescription-drug abuse, and alternative family configurations through the lens of family love and survival.
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Rated by buyers -
I'm going to be honest here. I picked up YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND ME based on the cover with a little cred from the author. I was expecting something a little spookie. What with the illusion of a ghost. So...mark me surprised when I find out it's about suicide, drug abuse, obesity and self-loathing. This said, there's more than one way to see a ghost.
Miles, or "8 Mile" as she's so kindly referred to by her peers, has just lost her cousin Laura to suicide. Miles loved Laura like a sister, they grew up together, they did everything together. Now, true, they had grown apart a little once they hit high school, with Laura being a perfect blond beauty and Miles preferring items of the Goth-ier persuasion, but they always shared the treehouse, and their drug stash. When Laura kills herself with those very same drugs they've shared, Miles is sent into a tailspin of grief-stricken abuse.
"All those finger-waggers admonishing about what no to do -- Don't do drugs! Don't smoke! Don't drink! -- completely miss that there's a reason people do these vices. They feel good, in the moment. The risks and consequences - addiction, disease, a life spiraling out of control, even death -- don't matter when you're inside the do (p 140).
Ok, now, all of that sounds entirely too dire and dark to be AT ALL enjoyable, right? Well, you're forgetting about the author. In the hands of Rachel Cohn, the darkness is skillfully plumbed, but not without some wit and humor. We are talking about the woman who brought us Cyd Charisse and the Levithan collaborations, you know. So there's an ever-present dark, witty humour in the voice of Miles. For instance, at Laura's funeral:
"The private-school girls are straight-haired, skinny fashonista clones who look like their every mood is accessorized; yesterday their lip gloss is in the shade of Sad (p 35).
Deep down, Miles is most angry about the fact that Laura just had the courage to do what Miles doesn't. To kill herself. A life that Miles could barely stand already just becomes more difficult without the person she lived for. Unfortunately, her summer is about to get worse, when her best friend, Jamal, falls in love with one of those skinny fashonistas. They say sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can get better, but will Miles survive the experience?
Even though Miles is losing herself there are people in her life that are fighting to keep her: Her father, Laura's dad, Jamal's mom, Jamal, Laura's fashonista friend; all strong characters trying to help the girl in anyway they can. If she'll just let them in.
Beyond the obvious issues present in the novel, I also found fascinating the topic of D.C. statehood that was a passion for a couple of the characters, including Miles. Not having anything but a cursory connection with The District, it was important both structually, educationally, and for entertainment (Miles is mad smart - this allowed for some very fun rants).
Favorite quote: "The dream is real while you're in it" (p 140).
Also: This book REALLY made me want a grilled cheese sandwich.
The book should be read Author name: Those who like Rachel Cohn or Ellen Hopkins, My Big Fat Manifesto, Stay With Me, and 13 Reasons Why.
Rated by buyers 
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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 very 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 very first book I've read that I don't recommend at all (not including school-required novels). This book was just too disappointing.
Rated by buyers 
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Rachel Cohn has been lauded by young readers and critics alike for her popular books like GINGERBREAD and (with David Levithan) NICK & NORA'S INFINITE PLAYLIST. In titles like these, she gains teens' respect by writing honestly and openly about difficult subjects, even within the context of "traditional" romance fare. With her latest novel, YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND ME, Cohn takes this honesty a step further in her darkest and most intense fiction to date.
"To us, 'cousin' meant almost the same thing as 'sister,'" writes 17-year-old Miles about the relationship between herself and her cousin Laura. The two girls, raised almost as close as sisters, shared nearly everything, from the ominously imaginative games they played as children to the horde of prescription drugs they abused as teenagers. In many ways, Laura and Miles could not have been less similar, especially as they entered adolescence. Laura was the fairy tale princess, strikingly beautiful, immensely popular at her exclusive private school. Miles, with her pudgy body and lack of self-esteem (Laura's "wider, duller half"), never quite fit in to her mostly grey Washington, DC charter school, where she was nicknamed "8 Mile."
But when Laura, following in the footsteps of her favorite fairy tale princess, Sleeping Beauty, decides never to wake up --- killing herself with an overdose of the prescription medications she and Miles have used recreationally --- Miles realizes that perhaps she and Laura shared the same outlook on life's hopelessness after all. Plunged into grief and helplessness by the loss of her cousin/sister and best friend, Miles embarks on an odyssey of self-destructive behavior in the months following Laura's death. Along the way, she discovers painful realizations about her complicated family life, about her feelings toward her best friend Jamal, and even about her loyalty to Laura.
Rachel Cohn pulls no punches in her depiction of Laura's death and Miles's response to it, offering frank descriptions of the effects of certain drugs, the ugly aftermath of suicide and the devastating effects of grief. Some may find Miles's painful soul-searching too agonizing to read. Others will recognize it for what it is: one of the few painfully true accounts of what it means to grieve the loss of one's closest, most promising friend and ally. "I dread waking up to that light. Each day it reminds me that Laura is gone, and the world I know is immediately plunged into darkness. It's like the day didn't even have a chance. The sun got to me first."
At turns fanciful and grittily real, Cohn's language effectively illustrates both Miles's inner world and her mundane reality. Narrated in Miles's world-weary voice, the brutally honest story is a testament to the writing talents Miles herself disputes that she possesses. Readers will certainly empathize with this prickly but vulnerable protagonist as she struggles to write for herself the happy --- or at least hopeful --- ending she and Laura had always tried to imagine.
--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers 
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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.
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