Review: Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Pages: 244
Publisher: Pan MacMillan
Published: August 1st, 2010
IBSN: 9780330425780

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.

[Synopsis by Goodreads]

Graffiti Moon's appeal to me was initially the story's backdrop being where I live. Then it won the Ethel Turner Prize For Young People's Literature, and I knew I had to read it.

The narration of Graffiti Moon switches between Lucy and Ed's perspectives, with poems by 'Poet' intermittent. While having both of them narrating left a lot of mystery out, it helps make the storyline feel more realistic.

Cath's writing style had a flowing, smooth quality to it that made it easy to become engaged by the story. The narrations felt genuine to the characters's ages, something I don't come across often and cherish whenever I find it.

The characters were all funny and quirky, and immediately likeable. I felt attached to them so much so that I was disappointed when I reached the last page and had to part with them all.

I give Graffiti Moon a 4 out of 5.

Recommend it for fans of: Beatle Meets Destiny, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist.

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I read this book for the Aussie YA Reading Challenge.