When Redheadedgirl sent me a link to You Will Know Me, a thriller featuring a young gymnast, I was like OMG GIVE IT TO ME NOW. We’ve both been watching a lot of Olympics gymnastics (although I’m a four-year-fan, she’s a die hard), so it fit in perfectly with our summer activities. Unfortunately it was a book that worked a lot better for me then her.

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott is a psychological thriller centering around the Knox family. At sixteen years old, Devon Knox is an outstanding gymnast with Olympic dreams. Her parents, Katie and Eric, have sacrificed everything to make her dream come true–wracking up five-figure credit card debt and taking out two mortgages. Every spare moment is spent in training, even when it means overlooking Devon’s younger brother Drew.

Most of the book is told from Katie’s point of view. She’s juggling a lot of plates–her husband who seems as determined for Devon’s success as the gymnast herself. Drew who is clearly neglected for attention. The other gymnast moms and dads (and booster club) who look at Devon as the shining star that will bring better resources to their gym (and by extension their children). Then there’s Devon herself–a quiet and intense teenager. She doesn’t do normal teenage things. Instead she’s got a laser-like focus on her gymnastic dreams, though her thoughts remain a mystery through most of the book.

When a handsome young man tangentially involved with the gym dies in a horrible accident, it throws Katie’s world in flux and makes her question her priorities. It also makes her a take much harder look at the people around her – people she’s not sure she can trust anymore.

Elyse: Well that was 1000% an Elyse book right there.

RHG: That was – 1000% an RHG book. I wanted to give it a try because I like the subject, but the style was just not me at ALL. I can see why someone would like it, but I did not.

Elyse: Okay, so what specifically didn’t work for you? Characters? Plot? Voice?

A think a lot of psychological thrillers have a really frenzied feel to them that reflects the element of “am I going crazy here?” and that doesn’t work for everyone.

RHG: I was into it until the staccato writing style just got to be exhausting. The way that Abbott would just have little sections that were a page to two pages long and was just like, snippets of what was going on, and how everyone talked with double meaning and PORTENT just got annoying and tiring. And since I was annoyed at the start-and-stop-and-start-and-not-even-start style, I didn’t care about any of these awful people.

And I can’t even say it was BAD writing, it just wasn’t for me.

Elyse: I think that the author was trying to create this atmosphere of being surrounded by untrustworthy people and in order to do that you had to get deeply into Katie’s head and that can be really complicated. She didn’t do a bad job, but I think her style is more suited to literary fiction than thrillers, to be honest.

The reason we were both drawn to this book was the gymnastics element. What did you think of that?

RHG: There wasn’t enough of it! I think the point was that Devon (the gymnast daughter) was barely IN the book, but like, everyone’s every thought was ABOUT her. If Devon does well, then the gym makes money, the other gymnasts get better coaching and facilities, so everyone is counting on her, even people who are just sort of peripherally involved.

As to what Devon thinks about much of anything – who knows? No one seems to care that much, even her mom is caught in this “what’s best for my kid” and “but we’ve invested so much” trap.

So in that sense, it worked. You?

Elyse: I think the thing that disappointed me a little was that you could insert-any-sport here. Yeah we got some details about the vault, etc but I wanted competence porn about gymnastics. I wanted that part to be really immersive and it wasn’t.

You’re right, though: you don’t get a sense of who Devon is or what she thinks – which was clearly intentional. Devon is arguably the most important person in the book and the person we know the least about.

I did guess the mystery part right away so that wasn’t a big reveal for me, which was a bit of a bummer.

RHG: The mystery barely even registered. I didn’t care? The victim barely registered as a person, so when the victim showed up dead, it was like…well, that’s a thing, I guess. But since the writing style was so choppy, there wasn’t much time to delve into what this really meant.

I, also, was hoping for more competence porn, but it’s like Abbott learned what a Yurchenko vault was (or that this was a name of a vault, I’m not convinced she knows what it IS) and used that as a substitute for all gymnastic knowledge.

So, since I haven’t read a lot in this genre, is the scant character development a normal thing?

Elyse: Yeah, it’s a thing. The idea is that the people around the narrator remain mysterious and therefore untrustworthy.

RHG: That’s annoying to me, too.

Elyse: See, that totally works for me.

I would say if you like psychological thrillers, this book will work for you. If you’re just picking this up for the gymnastics angle…welllll…

RHG: I feel like I can’t grade this book, because I recognize that just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean it was BAD. It was a fine psycho-thriller (apparently), so I defer to you in the grading.

But hey! We have two copies to give away!

Elyse: I would give this book a B-.

You Will Know Me doesn’t seem to know if wants to be a psychological thriller or literary fiction and it’s not quite either of those things. I could see the final reveal a mile away (which was a huge reason I downgraded) and I wanted more gymnastics details. Even with all that, I had a hard time putting this book down and read it pretty much straight through.

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Anyone up for winning a copy of You Will Know Me?

We have (2) two copies up for grabs. To enter, comment below with what other sports would make for a great mystery/thriller setting! The giveaway will end Friday, September 16, 2016 at noon, EST, so get your comments in before then! Winners will be picked at random and announced that same day.

Standard disclaimers apply. We are not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Open to US residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18. Powder your hands before hitting the floor. Leotards with more rhinestones do have an advantage. And I think we can all agree that being on a balance beam is pretty frightening.

Good luck!

UPDATE: Our giveaway winners at Allison and JennyME! Keep an eye on your inboxes and thanks so much to all who commented!