Cover Image: You Will Know Me

You Will Know Me

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Member Reviews

Okay, wow. I'd heard a lot about Megan Abbott's work, her ability to tap into the dark recesses of teenager girls' minds, to probe those places that adults want to pretend don't exist. I knew about Dare Me and The Fever and even You Will Know Me, but I never felt drawn to reading them. I read The Girls and Girls on Fire last year, but in light of this book, I almost feel that I should revise those rating, because You Will Know Me blows them right out of the water. There might actually be something to all the Abbott hype after all.

Devon Knox is a gymnastics prodigy, the centre of her parents' Eric and Katie's lives. Everything they do is consumed by the need to see Devon succeed: all the practices, all the work, all the money and the second mortgage, all that ambition and desire and drive encapsulated in one teenager's extraordinary body. There are no lengths they wouldn't go to for her. But then a violent hit-and-run accident leads to an investigation and the lid is blown right off this can of worms. What's inside is a twisted world of secrets and lies and mystery, of things sacrificed and left unspoken, of marriages that hang on by a thread. How well do you truly know your daughter and what is she really keeping from you?

Where do I even start with this? The plot is full of twists and surprises, a tightly-wound coil that you need to make heads and tails of. It kept me on the edge of my seat, wanting to know what would happen next, always what would happen next. I was enthralled by Abbott's ability to tap into the idea of small town politics, the way the booster parent clique operated, each portrayed in brush strokes that nevertheless made them come alive. All mothers with dreams, grand dreams for their daughters, with the same goal in mind: to become elite, to become part of the national team, to be an Olympian. Katie, in contrast, seems almost to hold back a bit, to want Devon to want these things, while at the same time ignoring her younger son Drew (who sees more than he lets on, who keeps being dismissed and overshadowed by his sister's brilliance, who made my heart ache with tenderness). Eric, on the other hand, is able to deftly organise fundraisers and meets, always finding ways to make money for the gym, to bring in the best equipment, to ensure that Devon is never distracted by anything.

That’s what parenthood was about, wasn’t it? Slowly understanding your child less and less until she wasn’t yours anymore but herself.


At the core of this novel is Devon, sixteen and in the throes of teenage years, a strange mesh of woman and child, her body pounded by years of hard discipline. Abbott wastes no time in portraying that effect, the strength in her limbs and the fluidity of movement, the broken calloused palms and the taunts that follow her, the petty comments from other teenagers, reducing Devon to nothing more than her body. But she's also somehow outside of the narrative for large parts of it, the reader never truly allowed inside her head. Instead, we see Devon through Katie's eyes, through Eric's reactions, through Coach T and the booster parents, the rest of the gymnasts, someone wholly out of this world, someone they all want to live through vicariously. She is everything to them, which means she can't be the one thing in the world she actually is: a teenage girl.

Abbott's real skill though is in her ability to go beneath the surface, to get inside the world of teenage girls and to treat them like actual fleshed out humans, rather than just a butt of adult jokes. It is, it transpires, a world very much like the adult one, with jealousy and self-esteem issues, with sex and drama and desire, all interwoven with that level of ambition rarely seen outside professional sports. These girls are real and they are just as flawed as I remember myself being, just as intense, when everything truly was beautiful and nothing hurt. Abbott is able to expose those dark parts of ourselves, those hidden nooks and crannies, in ways that reminded me of Gillian Flynn. I was hooked from the beginning and at no point (not even the book's poor formatting would smash entire sentences together) did I feel I want to stop. It was intense and thrilling and very, very real.

Ultimately, the plot and the accident/hit-and-run/maybe murder, that's just the catalyst for the real story that Abbott wants to tell. Her ability to make everything seem sharp and focused, to paint a vivid picture and keep you guessing up until the end is not to be understated. As a rule, thrillers either really capture me (the Flynn phenomenon) or I find them stodgy and uninteresting (the B.A. Paris problem). Abbott definitely falls into that first category and I will be looking into her past works in the near future.

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I'm just going to say it: Megan Abbott is one of my favourite authors. I've read three of her books and I've loved three of her books. I get it - her writing isn't for everyone; but it's for me. Holy shit, is it for me.

It's hard to explain. Abbott writes about quiet people politics and the small details that all add up to something bigger. Suspense hums beneath the surface, turning the most mundane events into something darker, something more meaningful. She narrates real life and still keeps you on the edge of your seat.

You Will Know Me is a murder mystery, and yet it is mostly about a family that revolves around its anchor - a gymnastics prodigy called Devon. Like all my favourite mystery/thriller writers (Tana French, Gillian Flynn, etc.), Abbott makes her stories about so much more than the mystery. If you guess the truth - as you might here - it doesn't matter. It's about the whys, the hows, the intricate details and characterization. I think the telltale sign of a really good thriller is when the "whodunnit" can be spoiled and the book is still worth reading.

"That’s what parenthood was about, wasn’t it? Slowly understanding your child less and less until she wasn’t yours anymore but herself."

The Knox family are at the centre of this tale. There's Katie - a mother overwhelmed by her changing daughter; Eric - a father obsessed with helping his daughter achieve her dreams; Drew - an oft-neglected boy who notices more than anyone realizes; and Devon herself - a teenage girl caught up in the intense, competitive world of elite gymnasts.

Into their world comes a death - a death that could very well be a murder. It shakes their tight-knit community and brings many secrets to the surface. As everything unravels, it becomes clear that the Knox family might not know each other that well at all.

You Will Know Me is an adult book about a murder, but once again Abbott demonstrates where she really shines: in portraying that nasty, psychotic little world of teenage girls. How hard it is, how much it hurts, how cruel they are to one another. It's just real life, after all, but the writing simmers with a barely-suppressed mania.

Low self-esteem, desire, jealousy, sex, confusion... add some top-level ambition to the teenage girl pot and it's easy to see how this normal part of life can turn dark in an instant. Abbott captures it perfectly and convincingly, writing beautiful, simple little moments, filled with meaning:

"He’d never woken up, and the only sound now was his breathing, hoarse and ragged. For a second she thought she saw his lashes lift, the white of one eye looking at her, but she was wrong."

It is not what it’s about, but how the story is told. In fact, the more I read, the more I come to think that’s always the case. Writing pretty words into sentences is something that can be learned in a writing class, but being a good storyteller, like natural charisma, is something you simply have a knack for, or you don’t.

And, for me, Megan Abbott is one of the best.

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