(ARC) YA Book Review: Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

Release Date: 14 February 2012

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

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Goodreads description:

Senior year is over, and Lucy has the perfect way to celebrate: tonight, she's going to find Shadow, the mysterious graffiti artist whose work appears all over the city. He's out there somewhere—spraying color, spraying birds and blue sky on the night—and Lucy knows a guy who paints like Shadow is someone she could fall for. Really fall for. Instead, Lucy's stuck at a party with Ed, the guy she's managed to avoid since the most awkward date of her life. But when Ed tells her he knows where to find Shadow, they're suddenly on an all-night search around the city. And what Lucy can't see is the one thing that's right before her eyes.

My Thoughts...

Sometimes a book just knocks you on your butt and leaves you smiling and thinking and dreaming---and Graffiti Moon is THAT book.  I went into this book with pretty high expectations. I made the "mistake" of reading a few reviews before I was ready/had the time to read this one, so I did go in expecting awesomeness (and if I'm honest, expecting to be disappointed).  But let me tell you--this book hooked me on PAGE ONE. The writing is a beautiful, lyrical, living thing that will blow you away.

I want to run right into Shadow and let the force spill our thoughts so we can pick each otehr up and pass each other back like piles of shiny stones.

-p2, eARC

The story takes place over a single evening and is told from alternating POVs, mainly Lucy and Ed with snippets from Poet (Leo).  Leo's short sections struck me as particularly poignant.  They're written in beautiful, succinct verse and give you just enough of his inner dialogue to fall a little in love with him.  Lucy and Ed are really out main focus in this story and I honestly loved every minute that they spent together.  Lucy is on the hunt for this enigma graffiti artist--Shadow--who she is pretty much in love with without ever having met him.  Ed IS Shadow, but Lucy doesn't know that--and he's still recovering from falling for her and getting his nose broken on their first (and only) date.  From the moment that the two meet up in the cafe, the story blossoms and grows, as does the tension between the two.  I don't think that I've wanted a couple to get together SO BAD in a really long time.

I liked that he had hair that was growing without a plan. A smile that came out of nowhere and left the same way. That he was tall enough so I had to look up at him in my dream sequences. I really like his T-shirts. When he asked me out he was wearing this one with a dog walking a man on a leash.  And there was always this space around him. The sort of space you'd queue to get into.

-p28, eARC

I could sit here and share quote after quote after quote with you because there were simply so many moments and words and phrases that made me smile.  I don't think that I've read anything else in recent history where the writing struck me in such an amazing way. And the thing that was most impressive about it was that the language didn't come across as stilted or odd for a teenager to say--or possibly it was just THESE teenagers. I found myself bookmarking page after page on my Nook so that I could come back to certain passages later.

I like the idea of her bottles. Memories that are nothing but a strange shape floating inside of you, memories that are nothing but empty bottles. And the good stuff, glassed in so it can't float away.

-p123, eARC

If you're in a reading slump or simply just looking for something fabulous to read, you've definitely got to pick this one up.  It's the kind of book that I know I'll be pushing on many coworkers and teenage patrons at the library and the kind of book that you want to buy for all of your friends so that they too can understand its awesomeness. I'll be running out to the bookstore on 2/14 to buy this for myself (and then giving it to my husband to give to me for Valentine's Day).  Trust me--it's one you'll want to have on your bookshelf.