I haven't been this excited about an author since I first read Melina Marchetta earlier this year. I'm not comparing the two since comparing anyone to Marchetta is like comparing a book to Hunger Games -- unfair, but Cath Crowley is now firmly on my "Will read anything this author publishes" list. I loved, loved Graffiti Moon and was prepared to be let down but still like this book. I mean, who could follow Ed and Lucy, Leo and Jazz? Answer: Dave Robbie and his black singlet can!

I'm schoolgirl giggling to myself as I read over my Dave highlights on my Kindle. Rose says about Dave,

"Whenever I'd call her Charlie Dorkin, he'd look at the ground till I stopped."

D'awwww, right? Is it any wonder that when Charlie looks at him, she imagines,

"I'm sounding so sexy that my song's hitting him in the chest and stealing what he keeps there."

I feel you, Charlie. I felt her longing, her isolation, her not fitting in, her wanting to scream and yell until people looked at her, really looked at her. I felt her disappointment when it seems her one true friend is growing away from her and her desperation to hold on to what was.

Rose, on the other hand, that bitch... you want to dislike her, she does dislikable things, but damn it, you understand her too. She just wants to leave her small town and the small future she sees in it and she'll do anything to get that wish. At 16/17, one of my clearest memories (and the impetus behind my applying only to colleges on the East Coast) was needing to leave -- and I lived in LA. I can't imagine the claustrophobia and fear Rose had, that if she stayed even one minute longer, she'd end up exactly like everyone else in that town -- stuck. And Rose is someone who wants to study science (another one!) and has a picture of protistan shells framed in her room.

This is a great book that touches on loss, wanting, friendship, and love but never falls into angst -- and thank you for that, Cath Crowley! I also loved the glimpses into each character's relationship with his/her parent(s), and how every teen seems to think everyone else has it better. Read this and you'll be singing the praises of Cath Crowley and black singlets in no time!