by Charles Benoit
My daughter was fortunate enough to meet Charles Benoit -- author of You -- at a local teen book event. I was intrigued enough with the concept of a young adult book written in second person point-of-view to buy the book for her.::: The Plot :::Kyle Chase is a teen living a life he isn't sure he wan...
Kyle is a hoodie – one of those kids that sits in the back of the class, tries not to be noticed, doesn’t do his homework (only because he doesn’t see the point), and dresses in the same “uniform” every day – black jeans, black shirt, black hoodie. You can find hoodies in every school even though th...
You are a strawman, a character created in order to demonstrate how one bad choice in middle school can send your whole life spiraling out of control. But don't blame yourself. The author really stacked the deck against you. The thing that you supposedly love to do best is something we never get t...
When I first started reading this book I really liked it.Since Charles Benoit wrote YOU in 2nd person, it was like nothing I've read before,I absolutely loved it.I would love to find more books that are written like this.It started out great, and I started getting so excited because I thought I foun...
Benoit slices high school open and lays its steaming, stinking entrails on a stainless steel table, ready for the reader's autopsy.
I do believe this is the only actual published book written in second person POV that I've ever read, and I think there's a really good reason for that. Second person is...well, it's demanding. Literally, it demands that the reader be the protagonist, that they put themselves right there in the pr...
Few writers write as brilliantly about adolescent angst Charles Benoit does in this novel. Robert Cormier, Chris Crutcher, Robert Lipsyte, Chris Lynch are a few that come to mind. Benoit is definitely in that league. This is one of the best YA novels I have read this year. Brutally honest realism.
Kyle is a hoodie – one of those kids that sits in the back of the class, tries not to be noticed, doesn’t do his homework (only because he doesn’t see the point), and dresses in the same “uniform” every day – black jeans, black shirt, black hoodie. You can find hoodies in every school even though th...