I Must Have You showcases JoAnna Novak's raw, real, and vivid voice in the character of Elliot, a sharp-tongued, sharp-witted, and complex young heroine unlike any we've met ... [Novak's novel] goes into the darker reaches of a culture that casts a long shadow across the lives of girls and women today.
—Marya Hornbacher, New York Times bestselling author of Madness, Wasted, and others
JoAnna Novak's voice is unforgettable and her irreverent, addictive debut is sure to position her as one of the great stylists of her generation.
—Diana Spechler, author of Who By Fire and Skinny
"I Must Have You is a tragic, funny, and moving coming-of-age story. It was impossible not to be swept up in JoAnna Novak's gorgeous, inventive prose, or to stop yourself from falling in love with her irreverent, wild, and ultimately human characters. I loved every word."
—Anton DiScalfani, New York Times bestselling author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls and The After Party
"JoAnna Novak's I Must Have You is a rhapsodic, tumbling, yet rigorously controlled excavation of the secret worlds within us all. Her characters hurtle toward the painful pleasure of self-destruction, uninterested in stopping themselves, determined to find the next prick to make them feel alive. It's a visceral process, like picking off a scab. This is a necessary book."
—Sarah Gerard, author of Binary Star and Sunshine State
“I Must Have You presents a harrowing and immersive story of compulsion and disorder, addiction and obsession, with frequent detours through the teenage cultural wasteland of the late nineties, all rendered in JoAnna Novak’s crazed, slang-stilted, glinting prose.”
—Teddy Wayne, author of Loner
"I Must Have You is a book about girls—their secret languages and private codes, their painful preoccupations and complex compulsions, and their scary tendency, when caught in the gazes of society, men, (and worst, each other), to diminish themselves—sometimes to the point of disappearing completely. With risky, confident prose and brazen psychological renderings—not to mention a knack for getting the 90's just right—Novak takes us on a seductive, uncharted journey through modern womanhood, obsession and illness. I can honestly say I have never read anything like this book."