Graffiti Moon, by Cath Crowley

From Goodreads: “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.

Christina: I don’t even know where to start. Did you ever finish a book and want to give it a hug? Take it out, show it to all your friends, make out with it? Don’t look at me like that.

I LOVE THIS BOOK. A LOT. I even dropped the f-bomb on twitter *gasp* IT’S THAT GOOD. Graffiti Moon doesn’t hit stores until February 14th (Valentines Day FTW), so I’ll gush but try and keep anything too spoilery to a minimum.

The writing is amazing. AMAZING amazing. My galley is full of highlighted paragraphs and phrases that I just wanted to read over and over again. I want to write Cath Crowley’s words on scraps of paper and keep them in my pocket. The descriptions are so vivid that I could see the city and the stars and each painting on every wall and exactly how Shadow felt when he painted it.

“It’s a painted night sky that’s faded at the edges so I can see the wall underneath it. Painted birds fly across, hit the line where the sky blurs into brick, and turn back. Their feathers glow. Moon birds trapped on brick. They’re not dirtied by the world; from here they look more beautiful than the real ones flying around them.

LUCY. I’m already picking out our BFF necklaces.

‘Where’s the fire, Lucy Dervish?’

In me. Under my skin.

Gah, I love her. Lucy is Bad. Ass. She’s hilarious and smart and doesn’t take any crap from anyone. I want to be besties and talk about art and glass blowing and ride around the city together while we hunt for Shadow. I fell in love with this girl on page one.

Then there’s Ed. OMG ED. He’s dropped out of school and lost his job, he’s completely lost and you just want to take him home and make him a sandwich and *maybe* watch him eat it. Trust me. He is Swoony Boy x infinity.

So I did, and after that day she took the world off my chest, lifted it so I could breathe. (maybe one of my fave lines ever)

and…

Her words are pictures, and I’m painting them on the wall in my head as she talks.

and…

All around the city. I did them thinking she’d see and know me and keep whispering those secrets in my ear. I wanted her to know I’d painted them without me having to say. There’s one near the Hoover Street Station. A picture of me, grass growing out of my heart while I’m talking to her. She looked at the wall but she didn’t see us.

*flail*

Can you feel my love? This book was a total five star for me. It has amazing characters, great dialogue, beautiful writing, it’s laugh out loud funny and sweet and smart and touching and and and. Ok, gushing now. It gets all the tags:

• Badass Chick on Board
• I Will Reswoon Soon,
• Straight to the Favorites Pile
• Swoony Boy Alert

HAVE YOU PRE-ORDERED YOUR COPY YET? *sigh* I loved it so much that as soon as I finished reading my galley, I ordered two copies. That’s right, WE’RE GIVING ONE AWAY! Tell us why you want to read, or if you have, tell us what you thought. Or just say HI!!! in the comments below and you could be our lucky winner.

About Cath Crowley: Author of A Little Wanting Song, Chasing Charlie Duskin, Graffiti Moon and the Gracie series. She lives in Melbourne and is writing her next book. Website – Twitter – Facebook – Goodreads