So addicting. You keep reading even though you know what's coming is a collision of epic proportions and yet every time I would stop reading to do something else I was drawn back into this dark story full of angst. Pick up this book but be warned you won't want to put it down. Happy reading!

I loved the description of Rose's play in middle school. It was poetic and magical. I really enjoyed the evolution of Isabel's college paper. In fact, I now want to read [book:The Souls of Black Folks|931414]. Sadly, these were bright gems in an otherwise dull story of two women's odd friendship. For awhile I thought there would be a build up of suspense as Rose invaded more and more of Lacie's life, but it quickly became stagnant. Between the stalemate they maintained and the crass and jarring descriptions of sex, I was not thrilled with this book. Maybe sex was detailed in that way to contrast with the rest of the book, but instead of making a point it just felt awkward. I didn't really like it, but I didn't dislike it enough to only give it 2 stars. The book did have promise, it just didn't meet it for me.

Talk about self-destruction! Rose is probably one of the most annoying characters I’ve ever met. As soon as I’d start to sympathize or relate to her, she’s do something RIDICULOUS and piss me off again.
This book has a lot going on, though. Coming of age, sexuality, feminism, art, romance & friendships (both twisted & sweet). I liked all the flashes to Rose & Lacie’s youth in the 90’s, all the descriptions of New York neighborhoods, and all the references to art whether it be writing, theater, or weaving. I liked the bits of mystery always keeping me on my toes. I really liked Lacie- her traditions and go-with-the-flow attitude. McCarthy’s writing made me genuinely FEEL Lacie trying to navigate the landmines of her friendships- especially the toxicity with Rose.
This book is a great example of perception- how two people can experience the same youth and remember it so differently... feel so oppositely on the middle of it.
I’d recommend this to artists, fans of coming-of-age stories, and those interested in sexuality & feminism. A unique read.

Kyle Mccarthy delivers a debut novel that is simply stunning. Her writing is exemplary; poetic, descriptive, and thought-provoking. Also, the story is very well-plotted. But, at about 20% in I almost gave up on it. I'm glad I persevered as the ending is sublime.

But, why did I contemplate giving up on it? Frankly, it's a bit of an uncomfortable read. See, our lead character, Rose, is a genius. Maybe because of this, she's always felt like an outsider, and this shapes her approach to people and life. Being in her head is at times troubling, and at times simply fascinating. That's what makes it an addictive read.

Rose is obsessed with the past and the present, but mostly obsessed with her best friend from high school, Lacie, the one she drove away. There is definitely a "single, White, Female" vibe to it, minus the knives. Nearly a dozen years after high school, after the fall-out in their junior year, Rose manages to insinuate herself into Lacie's life. This is eerie because Rose is writing her debut novel, and Lacie is her main character. Rose recognizes the twist of fate, but her drive to succeed at the delivery of her novel overrules logic:

"Living with Lacie while writing about her had gone from deeply bizarre to completely normal in a remarkably short amount of time. After all, I wasn’t writing about the real Lacie, but the cipher in my mind. It seemed simple enough to hold them apart, though every so often I plucked a detail from her life. No harm in that. But now Portia wanted me to get into her head"

But getting in Lacie's head is harder then she thinks. She reflects that "Lacie had always worked by implication and discretion, high-stakes negotiations conveyed through metaphor." It's a block and Rose feels nothing of her way around that. At times she's very judgemental of others, but she fails to see her actions as anything but okay. And her feelings about Lacie are beyond complicated and evolving. There's a new element to it, or is it? New that is. Her feelings, her actions, are always just a measure or two emotionally removed, as though she's a voyeur of her own life.

Rose is such a contradiction - she's disconnected but with her IQ, highly contemplative. This is HER a study in character, in the human psyche, and how Rose shows love. The book is rightly categorized as "Friendship Fiction" and "Psychological Fiction" and also evoking the "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (a personal favorite). If any of those appeals to you, do not give up on this book.
5 Stars and recommendation!

Stories of friendships gone awry can be fascinating - and the premise here initially intrigued me. Rose is working on her debut novel upon completion of both an undergraduate degree from Harvard and then a post-graduation spot at the prestigious Iowa workshop. Her book is loosely autobiographical about her childhood best friend and the end of their friendship just prior to their senior year of high school. Now adults, a mutual new friend brings them back together. Rose struggles with life in New York City and soon falls into her old adolescent patterns.

Most of the book is spent in Rose's own rather toxic thoughts - both in her past and present with Lacie. And while Rose certainly comes to life in many ways, she is aggressively unlikable. Though the book isn't long, it feels super drawn out without much actually moving it forward. It's hard to muster up feeling for either woman - their relationship doesn't even really seem worth being the subject of two books (this one and the fictional one). The romantic relationships here are frankly bizarre, too.

Honestly, I wish that I hadn't bothered finishing this one. The very end includes the only interesting bit of plot, and even though that had echoes of where it was heading from their earlier relationship's break, the book feels cyclical and pointless as none of the characters really grow or develop. I felt a bit like I had wasted my time reading about these rather boring and awful people.

I managed to get through this book but it was a struggle. I didn't like the main character (who would?!) and so much of the book was just her thoughts and her warped sense of reality.

A strange book for sure!

This is a difficult book to review, because I am not sure what I actually read. My initial thought is that it gave me the Single White Female vibe, which is not my favorite movie.

Rose is our protagonist in this story. She is highly educated but going nowhere with her life. She meets an old High School friend and works her magic so Lacie let’s her move in. Rose also gets a job as a tutor at an elite after school prep program. On all accounts things should be looking up.

Quickly this book takes a turn for the strange. Rose starts going through Lacie’s things, talking clothes and what not. Also, Rose is working on her first novel, which happens to be about Lacie.

This book moves quickly into uncomfortable territory, which I did not enjoy that much. Rose is beguiling throughout this attempt at a romp of a book. I am sure there is an audience for this book. I stuck with this, because what the author wrote keep me intrigued, but it never really got to point where I was satisfied.

Thank you NetGalley and Ballentine for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Holy cow, what a book, makes you scared to even have friends! I don’t know why, but I really enjoyed this very creepy and chilling book! I think it was well written, not original in storyline but done originally, and absolutely realistic, which makes it completely bone chilling! It was well written, but a bit odd too. I found it to be quite captivating and was shocked throughout! If you enjoy books about awkward people and toxic/dysfunctional friendships, I think this book would be a great choice for you!
Will make sure to buzz it around the different platforms and use low Amazon reviewer number on release date!

Everyone Knows How Much I Love You by Kyle McCarthy was a tricky read. Going into this book, I saw a lot of mediocre reviews and DNFs. From the very beginning, I was intrigued by the premise. Two former High School best friends, Rose and Lacie (who also have a tumultuous history), reconnect when Rose moves to New York City. Through a chain of events, Rose ends up moving into Lacie's apartment and their friendship begins to heal and take root again. I found the plot extremely interesting and engaging, details definitely unpack as a slow burn that kept the reader hooked. I saw several people comment on the plot being slow or boring - personally, I didn't think that was the case at all. The only part of this book that I didn't really appreciate was the raunchy middle section. I am far from a prude but the language and scenes from Part 2 were a little too aggressive for me. If, miraculously, this would have further developed the plot - I think I would have been a bit more understanding of this inclusion. It seemed like this vulgar content was included for shock-value or to be edgy. Overall, I did enjoy this book (sans a section of part 2). I thought the story was entertaining and I was engaged. The ending went somewhere I wasn't expecting but it definitely fit the overall vibe of the book. I was originally thinking this was going to be a 4-star read for me but unfortunately I have to bump it down due to the previously mentioned content.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House - I received this book free in exchange for an honest review.

At thirty-years old, Rose moves to New York City, resolved to finish the manuscript she’s been writing for years. For cash, she joins Ivy Prep, a firm of elite tutors helping the city’s wealthiest and smartest scions. Then, she lunches with Lacie, her childhood best friend with whom she hasn’t spoken in a decade. Unbeknownst to Lacie, Rose’s book is about the high school love triangle between Rose, Lacie, and Lacie’s boyfriend, Lou.

Although it seems Lacie has only met with Rose as a favor to her boyfriend, Ian, who met Rose at an artist’s retreat, Rose cannot stop thinking about her, going so far as to visit her neighborhood. She slowly insinuates herself into Lacie’s life, convincing Lacie to let her move in, wearing Lacie’s clothing and earrings, and reading her books. Soon, she wants Ian as well.

The toxicity in the relationship astounded me—just when I thought Rose had sunk as low as possible, she fell deeper. Her feelings toward Lacie twined love, desire, resentment, and jealousy so closely, they were impossible to parse. As the friends are reenacting their past, Rose is writing about it, getting feedback from her agent. At one point, she tells Rose that Lacie’s point of view is missing, and she should write from her perspective. I wish I had more insight into why Lacie allowed the friendship to continue, knowing Rose and the harm she could inflict.

Ian, too, seems to have little ability to resist the power of Rose’s sexuality—and I found the sex scenes particularly disturbing. They were explicit, but that didn’t bother me, it was more that they were degrading to Rose, yet Rose enjoyed being demeaned, or at least tolerated it as the cost of getting what she wanted—yet sex seemed to be what she wanted.

Rose clearly articulates her feelings in the moment—and I loved the writing style of the book—but doesn’t fully analyze her motivations other than having a sense from childhood of being an outsider, unseen, and disregarded. Perhaps Rose’s identity as a writer compelled her to capture the past by reliving it.

Not only is there a book-within-a-book, there is a play within the book, an award-winning, one-act that Rose wrote in high school about Adam and Eve which gave Eve more agency than in the original story. Everyone Knows How Much I Love You has three sections which seem to reflect the three panels of Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights. The potential analysis here—what Kyle McCarthy might be implying about women, sin, and punishment—is fascinating to me, and that mental work is the most interesting part of the book.

While I thought the writing was lovely with unique and vibrant images, I don’t think this is a book for everyone. If you like reading about really screwed up friendships, you won’t be able to find a more relevant book. Also, if you enjoy literary fiction and the possibilities of textual analysis, this has rich material.

Picture our main character, Rose, she’s 30, a Harvard graduate, winner of several writing prizes, working with an editor on a book, and living in New York. Sounds like a super successful young woman, right? However, she is obsessed with her childhood friend Lacie, they’ve been estranged for years, but Rose has just met up with her again in New York. It seems that Rose is so obsessed that she wants to BE Lacie, she’s writing about her in the book, she cons her way into moving into Lacie’s apartment, she wears her clothes, and goes after her boyfriends.

I was hoping for a dual perspective story here, it would have been interesting to get the take from Lacie’s point of view. I just wasn’t completely sucked into Rose as a character, in fact I found her very unlikeable, and this one left me wanting more. The books I read don’t all have to enlighten me, but this one didn’t seem to have much of a message for me. There’s a bit of a mystery with what happened in high school to Lacie’s boyfriend, but that is glossed over.

The ending seemed a little flat, so I have to say that overall, I was disappointed in this one. As this is a debut novel, I hope that the next book from this author is more compelling.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of "Everyone Knows How Much I Love You."

Toxic female friendship? Sign me up! I was really excited about the premise of this book, but it was a bit disappointing. I kept reading, hoping it was going to get better, but it just fell flat in so many parts. There was nothing new to the plot, and I found myself skipping ahead in parts. Overall, it was good, it just didn't wow me!

Everyone Knows How Much I Love You stars Rose, a woman who thinks nobody notices her. She's awkward, weird (but I think the weirdness is almost forced because she thinks so much of herself, all the time), extremely intelligent, and a high achiever in so many areas, while thinking she is a loser. The thing is, she throws away opportunities and brushes off the big, good things that happen to her, in order to indulge in her obsession with her best friend, Lacie. 

Best friends since the age of ten, Rose has always been jealous of Lacie. Lacie is the one boys noticed, even if they were teasing her in their younger years. One way to become "closer" to Lacie is through Lacie's boyfriends, in the way that betrays Lacie the most. But Rose has no guilt over what she does to Lacie and Lacie's things...she'll go through all of Lacie's belongings, invade Lacie's life in every way possible, sleep with Lacie's boyfriend and more. Because of what happened with Rose and Lacie's high school boyfriend, they don't see each other for twelve years. I don't understand why Lacie would let Rose enter her life again, at the age of thirty, especially when it seems stalkerish that they run into each other twice in a short time. But Lacie lets Rose live in her apartment, shares her things with Rose and seems oblivious to Rose overstepping boundaries, right and left. 

There is a book within a book aspect to the story since Rose is writing a book about Lacie and their life, from the time they were ten. I personally think it will be a boring book since Rose is boring to me. Lacie is fine but I'm sure that only Rose thinks this book needs to be written but that's the thing, Rose is really writing this book for herself, everything is about Rose when you come down to it. Rose is a wrecking ball of obsession and destruction and a boring one at that. 

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC.

The writing in ‘Everyone Knows How Much I Love You’ is fantastic and the characters are fascinating. The story follows the friendship of Rose and Lacie in two timelines, as children and as adults, focusing more on present-day. They are best friends as children through high school, but their friendship ends abruptly. The book picks up when they are both about 30 and reunite. The book’s narrator, Rose, is not sympathetic or even slightly empathetic and details her unhealthy, jealous interest in Lacie. The beginning and end really hooked me, but the middle is a little uneven, but I liked being a voyeur into the Rose and Lacie’s friendship.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group / Ballantine Books for providing this ARC.

Rose and Lacey have been BFFs since they were 10. Or have they been? Rose, an totally unreliable narrator, has been jealous of Lacey for all that time. She may have gotten great grades and gone to Harvard but Lacey has always had the e-telligence Rose lacks. Things fell apart between them when Rose sedced Lacey's boyfriend Leo in high school- which led to a tragedy. They're 30 now and Rose has weaseled her way back into Lacey's life. She's underachieving (tutoring kids) and writing a novel about the whole Leo episode but she can't help herself0 she's obsessed with Lacey. These are two really privileged women (there are some broad statements that should have been edited out to make them more appealing) but they are interesting. This is a slow burn with relatively low key drama, making it more of a character than plot driven novel. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

This book was one of those that tried to be dark and edgy, full of the complexities of female relationships. I usually like these kind of books, but for me I just could not connect with either of the main characters. I felt awkward and just really not into finishing reading this. So I unfortunately wasn't able to complete this book. Many apologies on an incomplete review.

I like thrillers with interesting characters, good plot twists, and unique writing. Unfortunately, this book didn't have any of those things. It's not bad, it's just not for me.

I weirdly feel like I just read this book. Rosie and Lacie. Friends. One is obsessed with the other. It is not healthy. They are never on equal ground. It seemed like it could have been more than it was, but I just had a feeling of deja vu throughout. I wish for some originality. Without writing more, I'm willing to bet anyone reading this could guess quickly the events that follow.

Oh man if I read one more psychological thriller, I will tear my hair out. Why do I keep requesting the same type books? It's my fault maybe but I gave this book 2 stars.

Rose and Lacie, friends from the past. A betrayal. Friends get back together. Rosie is a little cuckoo. Lacie let's Rosie stay with her. Rosie is obsessed with Lacie and is writing a book, about guess who? I'm not one for spoilers and I don't think this is a spoiler, but she's writing about Lacie. This is where it starts getting very confusing for me. Honestly, I could've written a better book. Just Kidding. Think of Single White Female, but not nearly as good!


Special thanks to NetGalley Random House Publishing and Ballantine Books for my ARC of this book.

Sorry, I really tried to get into this book, but it just wasn’t for me. Maybe I’ve read to many similar stories. I’m giving these stars only because it’s required.