Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers on August 1, 2010
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Pages: 264
Source: Purchased
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"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.
What I Thought…
- I’ve always loved graffiti art. Even though it’s not a painted canvass or a sculpture it’s still beautiful art. I would have loved to have seen all the pictures that Shadow created.
- I really liked Lucy and Ed. They were so different, but similar at the same time. They are one of the few couples in books that I feel have a really strong connection and if you take away the crazy night and introduce them in normal situation I think they would still make it.
- Watching Lucy fall for Ed was so sweet! She was so obsessed with finding Shadow but there were all these little moments between Lucy and Ed that were just… awww.
- All of Lucy’s and Ed’s friends were a perfect compliment to them. A little bit quirky and a whole lot of fun (though it does lead to some trouble). The ending was a bit crazy but not enough to make it ridiculous.
- Graffiti moon was a little deeper than I thought it would be, but that’s a good thing. I was expecting it to be mostly fluff, and it wasn’t so that was a pleasant surprise.
- Lucy not knowing about Ed drove me nuts, but in a good way! Obviously the reader knows, but there are all these little hints that it’s him, and she is a little slow in picking up on them.
- The dual narrative didn’t really work for me. There was so overlap between Lucy/Ed and I didn’t care for reading the same thing twice in a row, with only slightly different thoughts between them. The first time it happened I thought it was a mistake, it was that close to being the same.
- Not related to the book but every time I feel like graffiti should be spelt grafitti. If I was in charge of the dictionary I would make this happen.
- I know a lot of people really, really loved Graffiti moon but there was something missing for me. I can’t put my finger on it exactly what is missing, but something is.
- I feel like I should like Graffiti Moon more than I do. It was beautiful writing and a great story, but I’m just not sure it’s that memorable for me, which is why I’m giving it 3 stars instead of 4.
Notable Quotes
“Every time he looked at me I felt like I’d touched my tongue to the tip of a battery. In art class I’d watch him lean back and listen and I was nothing but zing and tingle. After a while, the tingle turned to electricity, and when he asked me out my whole body amped to a level where technically I should have been dead. I had nothing in common with a sheddy like him, but a girl doesn’t think straight when she’s that close to electrocution.”
Not a fan of mindless graffiti (IE someone scrawling their name/some obscenity or other on a wall etc) but I think much of this graffiti art is so well done as to be classed as art.
Great post, thanks.
Graffiti art is so cool looking, gang tagging and obscenity graffiti is not at all cool and makes me sad.
I think you so should be in charge of the dictionary! Can we please find a new word for dyslexia? Because it’s evil to have such a crazy word for people who already have trouble READING AND SPELLING!
I SHOULD be in charge of the dictionary! I would get rid of all the acronyms that they made words, I would add a few of my own and I would totally change the word for dyslexia to something way easier.
Sorry you didn’t like this one as much as I did, but that’s okay. We can still be friends :)
Thanks lol! I think my expectations were a bit too high and that’s why I didn’t absolutely love it.
I’m not a big fan of graffiti, but I’m all about some grafitti!
I’m kind of surprised that you only rated it a three because your review sounded so positive! But I kind of get it because of the overlap you were talking about, I can see where that would get annoying!
Kate said you were feeling sick today, I hope you are doing better!
Lol. It was good, but it’s just not memorable, if that makes sense. Like I already don’t remember much about it and this was only like 2 weeks ago. That’s why I rated it 3 instead of 4.
I am feeling better, thanks!
I’ve heard really good things about this book and I want to read it. I’m glad it was deeper than you expected but sorry that there was something missing and the duel narration sounds annoying. I read a book once and knew the love interest was secretly a drug dealer within the first three pages of meeting him (maybe less), so it totally annoyed me when the main character was shocked about it at the end of the book. PS–I totally laughed about your spelling comment.
I’m just saying that I should be in charge of the dictionary.
It was a good book, just not one I would gush over.
Yeah, lots of bloggers seem to LOVE this book. I want to read it, but I’m not rushing out to read it. I’m glad you enjoyed it, though! And I totally get you about feeling like something’s missing–I’ve read quite a few books like that, where they’re good, but something is just lacking… Great review, Kim! (And yep, it’s an Andrea-Comments-A-Lot day!) ;)
Yeah I feel like I missed something because I didn’t LOVE it, but… I just didn’t.