Review: Chasing Charlie Duskin by Cath Crowley

Chasing Charlie Duskin by Cath Crowley

Pages: 240
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: April 28th, 2005
IBSN: 9780330421607

Charlie Duskin is running. Fleeing from failures and memories and friends who have given up on her. And she's not only running, she's chasing things - like a father who will talk to her, friends who don't think she's as invisible as a piece of cling wrap, and an experience with a boy in which she doesn't look like an idiot. But Charlie Duskin is about to have the best summer of her life. She's about to meet a friend who'll change her forever. She's about to fall in love. She just doesn't know it yet.

This book may be better known by the title it was published under in the US, A Little Wanting Song. It tells us the story of Charlie, a sweet muffled melody to everyone else's boisterous song, finding her voice.

Narrated in the dual perspectives of Charlie and Rose, the different outlooks on the characters and events give us added depth. We understand how things that happened or were said affected people in different ways, we can see our characters' personalities complemented and juxtaposed -- all due to alternating perspectives. A perfect example of when this definitely added something to the story.

Both characters narrated with distinct and relatable voices in the beautiful, ornate writing style that I was already familiar with from Cath Crowley's Graffiti Moon. Full of vivid imagery and poetic metaphors and similes, every other sentence makes you let out an involuntary and happy sigh.

The characters were all -- every last one -- fleshed out and realistic. I was especially taken with Charlie, whose tone was so soft and sad that I wanted to just big her a huge hug and then hold a microphone up to her so everybody else could hear her, too. Both her and Rose had clear character arcs that intersected in a lovely moment near the conclusion as they began to become real friends.

With narrators that escape the page and seem more real than fictional, beautiful prose, and relatable and touching character development, Chasing Charlie Duskin is a must-read for fans of contemporary or coming-of-age novels.

I give Chasing Charlie Duskin a 5 out of 5.

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.