Everyone Knows How Much I Love You: A Novel

Product Description

In this “tale of toxic friendship at its most riveting” (People), a young woman finds herself inexorably drawn to repeating the worst mistakes of her past.“Masterly, mendacious, and a total thrill ride . . . Not since a certain Mr. Ripley have I been so consumed in another’s covetous desires.”—Justin Torres, bestselling author of We the Animals
At age thirty, Rose is fierce and smart, both self-aware and singularly blind to her power over others. After moving to New York, she is unexpectedly swallowed up by her past when she reunites with Lacie, the former best friend she betrayed in high school. Captivated once again by her old friend’s strange charisma, Rose convinces Lacie to let her move in, and the two fall into an intense, uneasy friendship.

While tutoring the offspring of Manhattan’s wealthy elite, Rose works on a novel she keeps secret—because it stars Lacie and details the betrayal that almost turned deadly. But the difference between fiction and fact, past and present, begins to blur, and Rose soon finds herself increasingly drawn to Lacie’s boyfriend, exerting a sexual power she barely understands she possesses, and playing a risky game that threatens to repeat the worst moments of her and Lacie’s lives.

Sharp-witted and wickedly addictive,
Everyone Knows How Much I Love You is a uniquely dark entry into the canon of psychologically rich novels of friendship, compulsive behavior, and the dangerous reverberations of our actions, both large and small.

Amazon.com Review

It will probably prove impossible to talk about
Everyone Knows How Much I Love You without mentioning
The Talented Mr. Ripley, and that is a very good sign. Because like Ripley, Rose is a character drawn with such surgical precision that the reader will feel as though they know her. At thirty, Rose is still trying to get her writing career off the ground. When she moves to New York, she randomly reconnects with her estranged childhood friend, Lacie. Both are bright young things, trying to make their mark on New York’s arts scene. So, despite a falling out in their past and misgivings on Lacie’s part, Rose still persuades her to let her move into her apartment. Author Kyle McCarthy articulates the darker corners of the female friendship—and the fine line between obsession and homage—as Rose begins to move in on Lacie’s life and love, making Lacie the heroine of the novel she’s writing in secret. This twisted coming of age tale, taut as a thriller, written with glittering, precise prose, holds you in its spell right up to the surprising but perfect ending.
—Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Book Review

Review

“A tale of toxic friendship at its most riveting.”
—People

“An utterly taut construction, as unsettling as it is propulsive . . . McCarthy’s debut, with the acumen of the best literary fiction and the suspense of a psychological thriller, is a marvel.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“
Everyone Knows How Much I Love You is breathless and precise at once, utterly gripping, animated by the propulsive unfolding of hungers that can’t be controlled or fully fathomed. It aches with insight and longing. It seduced me from the very first page with the pull of its own fierce gravity, like a darkly turning planet—its atmosphere swirling with mysterious, combustible desires; its truths merciless and bone-deep.”
—Leslie Jamison, New York Times bestselling author of Make It Scream, Make It Burn

“Everyone Knows How Much I Love You is masterly, mendacious, and a total thrill ride. I was hooked instantly, laughing alongside Rose, alternately cheering and chastising her entanglements and escalations. McCarthy is an edgy writer and the prose is all at once darkly comic, sexy, and razor-sharp in its psychological insights. Not since a certain Mr. Ripley have I been so consumed in another’s covetous desires.”
—Justin Torres, bestselling author of We the Animals

“A suspenseful, sexy, and gorgeously written excavation of best-friend envy. I read it with