Review: You Against Me by Jenny Downham

Title: You Against me
Author: Jenny Downham
Release Date: December 2nd 2010
Publisher: David Fickling
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary

If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge, right?

If your brother's accused of a terrible crime but says he didn't do it, you defend him, don't you?

When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her, his world begins to fall apart.

When Ellie's brother is charged with the offence, her world begins to unravel.

When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide.

This is a brave and unflinching novel from the bestselling author ofBefore I Die. It's a book about loyalty and the choices that come with it. But above all it's a book about love

When I saw the cover for this book in the shop, I knew I had to have this baby in my hands! I mean look at it. Isn’t it lovely? I thought the book was going to be one of the soppy boy-meets-girl fall head over hills with each other and have a happy ending full of happy thoughts and happiness. How boring. But this book was nothing of that sort. This book was an emotional rollercoaster for me! Seriously, the emotions mixing in while reading this book were just so powerful. I loved this book. It was just so gripping, from the very beginning I didn’t want to put this book down; even for a second. As soon as Mikey and Ellie met I knew that something going to happen. By the way they spoke to each other, the way their characters clicked. Their relationship is so interesting! Mikey plans to get information out of Ellie to help his family and pretty much use her, but then he develops feelings for her; feelings that he can’t control and needs to act on them. They were not meant to fall in love with each other, but they did.

The plot is dark and gloomy however Ellie’s and Mickey’s relationship almost soothes and comforts the bad part of the world that they both live in. Their love means that there is some good, that there is a reason to not give up on their relationship.

The whole book brought about so many emotions it seemed surreal. The loyalty to family and each other, love and courage, hatred for the crime committed against Mikey’s sister. Both Ellie and Mikey have been put in a bad position. Their families were slowly being turned upside down with Ellie’s brother being accused of rape and Mikey’s sister being the victim. You would protect your sister by seeking revenge; you would also stick by your brother and believe in his innocence. The story brings many questions for Ellie, making her question her own family, her own brother and his innocence. The one person that you were meant to trust turns out hurt another girl.

I cannot even being to say how much I love this book, I cannot live without it. I can’t do it. Just knowing that the book is on my shelf with the great story line and the great characters and everything about it being great makes me warm and fuzzy inside. I can’t wait to read this again.

P.S. I read this book back in 2011