Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers.

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.



I read Graffiti Moon when I was meant to be doing schoolwork and it was so fantastically awesome that I had to put it down every few pages because it was overwhelming me. And then I'd lose track and I'd read thirty pages or so and then I'd have to stop myself and go and have a snack or watch TV or something because the book was going too fast and I was going to finish it soon and I didn't want it to end. So I had to slow down. I slowed reading as much as I could but I still finished it in one day. It was that sort of book.

I met Cath Crowley at the launch of Emily Gale's Girl, Aloud earlier this year and I hadn't read any of her books then (now, I've only read Graffiti Moon, but I'm going to go back and read everything else she's written). And I kind of wish I could go back a bit in time and give Cath and a hug, You get it. Thank you. (Except I suspect other people might find this odd. And I'm not much of a hugger.) My life is drastically different from all of the characters in the book, but the feelings of being in that space between childhood and adulthood and on the verge of something massive and unknowable that's supposed to be your life... it was so real and so honest and so beautifully written.

Graffiti Moon is possibly my favourite book in the world right now. The characters, the storyline (though occasionally a bit preposterous, I love love loved it), the fact that it was set over one night, the different POVs... but most of all the way it was written. Graffiti Moon made me wish I wrote like Cath Crowley (but instead of feeling as if I won't ever measure up to the writer I admire - which is usually how I feel when I read brilliant books - I felt inspired! And my writing wasn't too copy-cattish. I don't think).

Seriously - read it. It's hilarious and wonderful and all of the characters are brilliant (Ed and Leo are my favourites. And Lucy! She's fabulous) and you will love it. And they need to give Cath Crowley an award. Who 'they' are I don't know, but they have awards to give out and I know who they should be giving them too.

Graffiti Moon on the author website

Graffiti Moon on Goodreads

Proudly designed by Mlekoshi playground