AUGUST 2016 - AudioFile
Lauren Fortgang gives this gripping audiobook a supple and quietly dazzling performance. Every character has a recognizable and appropriate voice. When a 16-year-old appears in a flashback, you recognize her voice, but it’s younger. (Wow.) Fortgang shifts fluidly from female to male, old to young in this high-stakes family drama set in the world of competitive gymnastics. Abbott delivers an education about “amateur” sports in America and the hidden costs of ambition. It’s the backdrop for a deeply involving plot in which a violent death shatters a community. Her characters are vivid, human, and real, and with perfect control, Abbott drops small jagged fragments of the picture into place as in a kaleidoscope until you see, finally and devastatingly, what really happened. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
PRAISE FOR YOU WILL KNOW ME:
"[Abbott] is in top form in this novel. She resumes her customary role of black cat, opaque and unblinking, filling her readers with queasy suspicion at every turn."
—Jennifer Senior, New York Times
"...brilliant...beneath the glittering carapace of Abbott's lush, skillful, subtle writing, it's impossible to know what we're supposed to think. One of the strengths of this novel is that it doesn't mind what we believe—it is cooly at peace with whatever our take on matters might be...we, as readers, are made entirely responsible for our own theories and conclusions. In that sense, this is an exceptionally plausible work of fiction...The wrong kind of ambiguity in a crime novel can be fatal. Abbott judges it impeccably here..all of this Abbott pulls off with groundbreaking skill...excellent."
—Sophie Hannah, New York Times Book Review
"Taut and raw, this is a mesmerizing story from a master of suspense."—Kim Hubbard, People
"Compulsively creepy...a can't-put-it down novel that's a little bit Nancy Kerrigan vs. Tonya Harding, a little bit The Omen."—Leigh Haber, Oprah.com
"It's Abbott's psychological smarts that make You Will Know Me such a standout...Abbott steadily commands our attention with a suspense plot that unexpectedly somersaults and back flips whenever a landing seems in sight."—Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post
"Megan Abbott has written a book with the taut and muscular ruthlessness of a gymnast, a book that disorients with eerie countermelodies...You Will Know Me takes swift, unsettling, apparently effortless flight."—Annalisa Quinn, NPR.org
"Abbott's finest novel thus far, a dark inquest into the pressures to which American society subjects its girls."—Charles Finch, USA Today
"Master of mystery Abbott...brings her noir sensibility to the world of elite teen gymnastics."
—Entertainment Weekly
"Mesmerizing and nerve-jangling...beautifully adept at capturing the intensity of feeling inherent in the flush of youth, the more-innocent aspects of growing up...But it's how she infuses the ordinary with distinct oddities that keeps this tale humming scarily along."
—Daneet Steffans, The Boston Globe
"Brilliant and disturbing."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
"[A] sharply plotted novel."—Oline Cogdill, Associated Press
"Abbott commands our attention with a plot that somersaults and back flips whenever a safe landing seems in sight. But what's even more ingenious is how artfully her novel draws us readers into that closed world of BelStars Gym...You Will Know Me is a terrific accompaniment to this summer's Olympic frenzy. It's an all-around winner."
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
"Almost unbearably tense, chilling and addictive, You Will Know Me deftly transports the reader to the hyper-competitive arena of gymnastics where the dreams and aspirations of not just families but entire communities rest on the slender shoulders of one teenage girl. Exceptional."—Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train
"You Will Know Me hits that rarefied sweet spot between unnerving psychological suspense and a family drama with heart, inducing equal parts dread and unease, empathy and warmth. The pages couldn't turn fast enough...Luscious writing, a timely and unique premise, and an ending that will haunt you all summer long."—Jessica Knoll, New York Times bestselling author of Luckiest Girl Alive
"Is there anything Megan Abbott can't do? We will have to wait for the answer to that question because You Will Know Me continues her formidable winning streak. This story of an ordinary family with an extraordinary child is gorgeously written, psychologically astute, a page-turner that forces you to slow down and savor every word. And yes—please forgive me—she totally sticks the landing."—Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of Hush Hush
"Megan Abbott's latest thriller plunges readers into the shockingly realistic life of young, female gymnasts whose severely regulated lives come with unthinkable consequences. Gritty, graphic, and yet beautiful and dreamlike in the way the story unfolds, You Will Know Me comes barreling at you with all the power and urgency of a high-speed train, as Abbott asserts herself as one of the greatest crime writers of our time."—Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl
"You Will Know Me takes you into the dark heart of family, a journey that feels more menacing with every page. Abbott cranks the tension up in this disturbing tale of exactly what we are prepared to do for our children—I was reading compulsively into the night. A beautifully written, gripping read that feels unshakably real."—Kate Hamer, The Girl in the Red Coat
"Like stepping into a world with slightly too little oxygen. Dark and compelling, this is a 2 a.m. novel."—Lucie Whitehouse, author of Before We Met
"You Will Know Me is powerful and unsettling, a portrait of a family where tenderness can mean pain as well as love. Megan Abbott is exceptionally good at teasing out telling moments to reveal deeply buried truths."—Jane Casey, author of The Missing
"Chillingly believable, beautifully written...You Will Know Me is Megan Abbott's best novel to date. A triumph."—Paula Daly, author of The Mistake I Made
"Megan Abbott writes like a dream and grips like a vice. Weeks later, I still can't stop thinking about You Will Know Me."—Erin Kelly, author of The Poison Tree
"The tension starts in the second paragraph of page one and insinuates itself brilliantly throughout, unsettling and wrong footing me. I read it, holding my breath like Devon before the big leap. Loved every minute."—Fiona Barton, author of The Widow
"Look out for the gloriously talented Megan Abbott. She's ruthlessly acute, funny, heartbreaking, lyrical, brilliant...I've loved every one of her novels, but none as much as You Will Know Me. Three weeks after finishing it, I still pick it up again, to re-experience the delicious pleasure I felt, devouring it."
—Joyce Maynard, New York Times bestselling author of Under the Influence
"Thriller Award-winner Abbott (The Fever) takes a piercing look at what one family will sacrifice in the name of making their daughter a champion...Abbott keenly examines the pressures put on girls' bodies and the fierce, often misguided love parents have for their children."—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Abbott has a knack for dissecting the dark, beating heart of the most all-American activity. Her Dare Me (2012) brought a Fight Club intensity to cheerleading, and her she captures ripped palms and the muscle-bound physiques that attract the cruel taunts of classmates. But this equally dazzling tale is set not in the teens' world but rather in the adult boosters' strange tribe, exploring the agony and urgency of their desire, the unknowability of others, and the burden of expectations laid on the gymnasts. It's vivid, troubling, and powerful—and Abbott totally sticks the landing."
—Booklist (Starred Review)
"In true Abbott style, nothing is predictable here; the plot consistently confounds expectations with its clever twists and turns. Admirers of Patricia Highsmith, Laura Lippman, and Kimberly Pauley are in for a treat."—Library Journal (Starred Review)
"[Abbott] returns to the subject she always captures so intensely: the private desires of teenage girls."
—Entertainment Weekly
AUGUST 2016 - AudioFile
Lauren Fortgang gives this gripping audiobook a supple and quietly dazzling performance. Every character has a recognizable and appropriate voice. When a 16-year-old appears in a flashback, you recognize her voice, but it’s younger. (Wow.) Fortgang shifts fluidly from female to male, old to young in this high-stakes family drama set in the world of competitive gymnastics. Abbott delivers an education about “amateur” sports in America and the hidden costs of ambition. It’s the backdrop for a deeply involving plot in which a violent death shatters a community. Her characters are vivid, human, and real, and with perfect control, Abbott drops small jagged fragments of the picture into place as in a kaleidoscope until you see, finally and devastatingly, what really happened. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
