[1] The book tells the story of Evan, a young boy whose best friend, Ariel, has recently suffered a psychotic break.

The narration is addressing Ariel and tells how Evan is dealing with much guilt surrounding this experience.

This guilt is made worse by mysterious photographs that are being strategically left for him.

The book is named after the 1999 song "Every You Every Me" by British rock band Placebo.

Levithan said that "when I started writing the book, I wanted the novel to be my equivalent of a Sleeping with Ghosts era Placebo song.