Review: Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Series: Stand-alone

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia

Publishing date: August 1st, 2010

Pages: 244

Summary: "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.

Rating: 5 stars

ATTN READING MANIACS AND BOOK LOVERS: To all of you who have regular reading slumps, READ THIS. I can guarantee this book will get you out of it. 

So, I finished this book 4 days ago and I'm still trying to gather my thoughts into coherent sentences. 
The writing was so beautiful that I kept stopping to stare at the words. I wanted to crawl across the page and come up to the words and snuggle them. And also hug the characters. 
This is the kind of book that puts a huge smile on your face. The kind of book that makes your day better. Hell, it makes your day, period. 
The storyline was realistic and lovely, the characters had depth and personalities, the banter was perfect and I just wish I could take a swim in this novel and never come out. And hug the characters. Always hug the characters.

I do hope the author will make some kind of companion novel to Graffiti Moon. She has more than enough talent to pull it off, and honestly, I'm not ready to say goodbye to these folks quite yet. I'd even want to read the parents' story (they're actually multi-dimensional! And interesting!) I don't care. JUST WRITE MORE.

I would recommend this book to anyone, anybody who loves good writing and lovable characters. It's right up there with Saving Francesca (review here) and the likes. And if you don't trust me, trust the judging panel of this year's Australian Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Graffiti Moon won the first prize in the "Young adult fiction" category. Yup. Go read now.