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Charles Benoit is a former high school teacher and the Edgar Award–nominated author of three adult mystery novels. This is his first book for young-adult readers. He lives in Rochester, New York.

This wasn't the way it was supposed to go.

You're just a typical fifteen-year-old sophomore, an average guy named Kyle Chase. This can't be happening to you. But then, how do you explain all the blood? How do you explain how you got here in the first place?

There had to have been signs, had to have been some clues it was coming. Did you miss them, or ignore them? Maybe if you can figure out where it all went wrong, you can still make it right. Or is it already too late? Think fast, Kyle. Time's running out. How did this happen?

You is the riveting story of fifteen-year-old Kyle and the small choices he does and doesn't make that lead to his own destruction.

In his stunning young-adult debut, Charles Benoit mixes riveting tension with an insightful—and unsettling—portrait of an ordinary teen in a tale that is taut, powerful, and shattering.

Advance praise for You:

"You is authentic, ambitious, and gripping. A serious book that reads like a suspense novel, the story it tells—of the ways in which we become imprisoned by our own choices, big and small—is both frightening and frighteningly real."

—Lauren Oliver, New York Times bestselling author of Before I Fall

"Charles Benoit has written a shattering, gut-wrenching novel that puts You right in the center of the story. Pick it up and you won't put it down!"

—Michael Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Gone

"I sat down to start this book—and didn't get up until I'd finished it, a riveting three hours later. You is pitch-perfect: funny, real, touching, brimming with tension and foreboding—and still surprising right up to the last page. one of the best ya novels I've read in years."

—Patricia McCormick, National Book Award finalist, author of Sold and Purple Heart

"A sandstorm of a novel, as harshly real as hell or high school. I loved it."

—Robert Lipsyte, Margaret A. Edwards Award–winning author of The Contender and Center Field

"Wanna know who the real bad guys in your school are? Read You. This book will keep you reading, and then it will start you thinking. And talking. You is good stuff."

—Chris Crutcher, Margaret A. Edwards Award–winning author of Deadline

Publishers Weekly

A sense of doom pervades this gripping YA debut from adult mystery writer Benoit, made all the more devastating by an empathetic main character. Second-person omniscient narration invites readers into Kyle's grim story: "Welcome to the official start of tenth grade. Welcome to the last year of your life." Previous bad choices have landed him at Midlands High, and as one of the school's burnout "Hoodies" (so-named for their requisite hooded sweatshirts), Kyle finds his world increasingly circumscribed. "Every day you get up, go to school, fake your way through your classes, come home, get hounded about your homework... and the next day you get to do it all over again." Bright but unmotivated, Kyle is easily swept into newcomer Zach's sinister orbit, as the wealthy and psychologically brutal Zach defends, charms, and then seeks to destroy him. Kyle's internal thought processes (frequent lists, parental nagging, one-sided conversations) convey a conflicting swirl of emotions--rage, distrust, betrayal, empathy, and love--while an overarching defeatism prevents him from acting on constructive impulses. Disturbing content blends with skillful, fast-paced writing, adding a thriller spin to the novel's vicious realism. Ages 12 up. (Sept.)