REVIEW: Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Wow. I really, really loved Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley. I'd heard really good things about the book and I was looking forward to reading it. But it was the sort of anticipation that really didn't disrupt any of my other reading plans. I knew it was there, and that I'd get to Graffiti Moon when I got to it.

And then there was a night this week where I'd made great plans to watch a movie and catch up on some TV programmes and just relax without a book, and just by chance, I clicked on Graffiti Moon on my Kindle. And that was it. From the very first page, I just knew that this book was beautiful. I knew that the night I had planned wasn't for anything else but for falling in love with Graffiti Moon, with the story and the characters. And I didn't do a single thing until I'd finished this book.

And reading this book through in one sitting was actually really hard for me. It's told in alternating view points from both Lucy and Ed as well as having poems from another character interspersed between those two narratives. And usually when I'm read a split narrative like this, I favour one character over another. Not with Graffiti Moon. I was hooked by it all. And the passion and enthusiasm have for art and glass-blowing and for poetry really made me curious. I wanted to put my Kindle down on several occasions and look up Henry Rollins. I wanted to see the paintings by Vermeer and Rothko that Ed and Lucy were talking about, I wanted to see the Dale Chihuly glass chandelier again that hangs in the V&A. And I love books like Graffiti Moon that do this, that inspire me in this way to find out more.

Graffiti Moon takes place over a single night as a group of Australian teenagers celebrate the end of their senior year. Lucy really wants to use the night to hunt down this elusive graffitist, Shadow, as she has a feeling she might just be in love with him, though she's never met him. Instead, she's spending the night wandering through town with Ed, the boy she went on the worst date in the world with two years previous.

Ed, of course, has surprises of his own. He has his secrets and things he'd rather Lucy didn't find out. Why he left school, what he really thought about Lucy on their date, the true identity behind Shadow's artwork. Honestly, I absolutely ADORED this book. It's shot immediately into my favourite books that I've read this year and I will constantly be recommending this book to everyone who will listen. It's so wonderfully writtten! I was on the brink of tears one minute and the next I'm laughing out loud. I loved the friendships between characters and watching the different relationships emerge - from new, sweet beginnings to things falling apart slightly and everything in between.

Graffiti Moon is amazing, a book that will stay with me for a long time!