Review: Graffiti Moon

Graffiti Moon
by Cath Crowley
Published November 1st 2005 by Ellora's Cave

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.

~goodreads


Rating: 5 shining stars
Review

I swear, Australia must be dubbed the Land of Lost Talented Authors.
HOW did I not discover Aussie authors before last year?!
Ever since reading Melina Marchetta's books, I have developed a new perspective about Aussie authors--that they are amazing!--and Cath Crowley has only further proved this!

I'll be honest, I did NOT have high expectations for this book when I first started. was actually quite  hesitant to start this novel because I thought I was going to be subjecting my brain to literary mediocrity. After reading the blurb, I  thought I knew what was going to happen. And because of that, I thought the book was going to be meh at best.

I am now eating those words.

This book was written in alternating the alternating POVs of Lucy and Ed--which I normally detest, but in this case, it made me like love adore fall in love with connect with each character so much more. It was made crystal clear from the very first chapter (I think) just who Shadow was. My initial thought was that this would make the book dreadfully dull because the big secret was already out in the open for readers, but DO NOT THINK THIS.

This book was had surprising depth and emotion--mainly on Ed's part--and the story captivated me. The characters too. The story follows Ed and Lucy (obviously) but also as their respective friends Leo (who is "Poet"--another graffiti artist) and Jazz, as well as Dylan and Daisy. These characters were so.... fantabulously amazing in every. Single. Way.
Ed and Lucy were absolutely perfect for each other, despite how different they are, and I loved the fact that their love story happened despite the misunderstanding at their very first date (before the events of That Night take place) that resulted in a broken nose. I also LOVE the fact that they're both super funny. And no, I'm not talking about that dry sarcasm that most YA characters use to be Oh So Cool. Their humor was so real, not trying to be all obvious--it was kind of understated, but I thought some of the dialogue was absolutely hilarious.

Even the minor characters were amazing. They all had amazing depth and complexity and realness. Words cannot describe how much I adored them. Even though the story mainly focuses on Ed and Lucy, it actually ended up giving me three different stories about each couple--without taking away from the main protagonists of course.

Oh lordy, I could just gush about this book endlessly because it was literally all that and a chicken salad... but I'm afraid that if I continued, my words would just turn into incoherent babble punctuated by girlish squeals.
Yeah. It's THAT good.

If you haven't discovered Aussie authors yet or just haven't read this book.... what they FRAK are you still doing here?! Go and get this book!