My Book Boyfriend- Leo/Poet

Check out the intro post here!

A while back, I read and reviewed Cath Crowley's Graffiti Moon which I LOVED.
And I may or may not have fallen in love with each and every character..... so I've done a previous post on one character, Ed, but Leo also stole a bit of my heart too so it's only fair that I share his awesomeness with you guys!

"Leopold Green"

• lives with his gran
• his previous relationship with a girl named Emma ended really badly, and made him hesitant to start a new relationships
• is a graffiti artist nicknamed "Poet"

"Leo's screaming good-looking, that's for sure. Five fingers to the power of ten. Tall, with a shaved head, soft eyes, and a tattoo."

His hand moves across the wall, signing our name. he always writes them the same way. His, then mine, in a font he calls Phantasm.
Poet.
Shadow.

Remember Love
Remember
Love doesn't make the world go round
Sex makes it spin for a second or two
If you're lucky
So do chips, sausage rolls, and girls in short skirts
Remember
Love
Lays its fingers on your heart
And holds it
Underwater
Remember that
When the next girl smiles

Favorite line from a poem?
         there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out
         -Charles Bukowski


"I was writing poetry. I owe Malcolm because I want to write poetry. You got attacked in the park for poetry." It's like once Leo starts saying poetry, he can't stop. "Mainly I work with free verse. I did a haiku last week though. 'I am in deep trouble / I owe lots and lots of cash / Malcolm will kill me.'"


"The general consensus seems to be that we're losers," I say.
"Well, we're not. Can you believe no one's offered to help is?"
"It's eighty-six degrees, and the city's going crazy. Would you help two guys push a pink van?"
"Yeah," he says, "I would."
"Yeah, you would," I agree. "You're a good guy, Leo."

My Book Boyfriend: Ed/Shadow

MBB is a weekly meme hosted over at the Unread Reader where you can post about any literary guy you're currently crushing on. Check out the intro post here!


Edward Phil Skye
-(named after his grandma, Philomena--who left him a collection of Pez dispensers)

-has hair that's "unplanned"

-dropped out of school after Year 10

-worked in a paint store so his single mom could take time and attend nursing school

-loves Vermeer

-his first date with Lucy ended in a broken nose for him


From Lucy's POV

“I can't believe you're still mad at me," Ed says.
"You grabbed my arse."
"You broke my nose."
"You broke his nose?" Jazz asks. "You grabbed her arse?"
"It was two years ago-"
"Two years, four months, and eight days," I tell him.
"-and I was fifteen, and I slipped and she broke my nose."
"Wait a minute. How do you slip onto someone's arse?"Jazz asks.
"I meant slipped up. I slipped up and she broke my nose."
"You're lucky that's all I broke," I say.                  
"You're lucky I didn't call the police."

“Let me meet Poet, too, but mainly 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. A guy who paints things like that is a guy I could fall for. Really fall for” 

I look over at Ed. He's staring out the window giving Leo the thumbs-down. I wait till he's looking at me, then i give him two fingers up. He gives me two fingers back. I give him the middle finger. He gives it back to me. I don't know any more signs, so I make up one. Three fingers. Take that, mister. He sticks up four. I call your four and raise you five. He skips straight to ten and does something with his thumb that disturbs me. I bounce my hands on my lap. Ed bounces his lap right back.

Ed's quiet for a while longer, then his laugh breezes over me.

"What?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking. You hit me because you wanted Mr. Darcy and I wasn't him."
"You know who Mr. Darcy is?"

"I exist, therefore I know who Mr. Darcy is."  

From Ed's POV

I watched her at school, too. While she was drawing these pictures of people tangled together. I kept dreaming me and her were tangled like that. Kept dreaming of this spot she had on her neck, this tiny country. I wanted to visit, to paint a picture of what I found there, a wall with a road map of her skin.
Mrs J. paired us up for a research assignment on Jeffery Smart and I was watching that spot and she looked up from her book and caught me making travel plans. “What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “Only. I was thinking. We should see a film.”

I try to put into words what it feels like to look at that painting, but I can't and that's the point. "Art like that doesn't need words. That painting tells you something by pulling you into it and pushing you out, and you know what it's saying without words being spoken."


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

It's funny how two guys can look at the same thing and see it differently. I don't see peace when I look at that bird. I see my future. I hope it's only sleeping.

I pull her hair back and think how I'd like to get closer. You'd have to be a different guy for that to happen, the shadows say. maybe i could be Maybe there's a way I could be a different guy from the one who painted the inside of that caravan. What way? the shadows ask, but I don't have an answer yet.

I should have been straight with her from the start, but it's too late. No wall I can paint can take us back there. And if I only have five minutes left on the roof of the free-love van with her, then I wasn't to spend them talking. Because I'll miss talking to her tomorrow.

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!