"An amusing, sometimes ironic look at one fairly feckless lad's coming-of-age...What comes as a surprise is the wonderfully poetic voice Brooks has given his protagonist...Eat your heart out, Holden Caufield [sic]." --
Michael Cart, Booklist "Eminently readable... Hyper-self-aware...Filled with black humor and fleeting tenderness... Its protagonist, Jasper J. Wolf, imagines himself as a prettier Holden Caulfield, but the end game reveals that the self-reflective young writer is more along the lines of a John Hughes hero, albeit with volumes more narcotics...There's a timeless if caustic quality to [narrator] Jasper's minimalist rants [and] there's an unexpected humor even to the murkiest sequences. Brooks' work feels richer [than] the transgressive teen drama
Skins...as it explores generational angst and the blue-black damage of adolescence."
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Kirkus Reviews "Engaging, funny and sharply-written. I loved how [
Grow Up] manages to be both brutally uncompromising and gloriously warm-hearted."
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Chris Killen, author of The Bird Room "Ben Brooks is a magical imp who pumps out dark nuggets of poetry and makes you snort with laughter."
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Noel Fielding, co-creator of The Mighty Boosh "Sickeningly good. So confident, so stylish. An unacceptably witty and original debut."
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Tim Key "Liquid Gold."
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The Observer (U.K.) "I thought [
Grow Up] was amazing. One of the most hilarious and well observed accounts of teenage debauchery you are ever likely to read....Alarmingly good. Jasper is great fun, naively perceptive, often LOL-funny company. A totally convincing portrait of being a wayward teenager now . . . It's so pertinent it actually kind of trips you out."
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Dazed & Confused "Navigates the travails of school and beyond with a quick wit."
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Independent on Sunday (U.K.) "A sharp and witty exploration of adolescent life...
Grow Up is one part serious, the rest is simply laugh-out loud funny....{Brooks] is able to deal with issues such as self-harm and suicide with a tenderness and sensitivity that one would have thought beyond his years....contagiously funny, well-written and no doubt marks the start of a promising career for a talented young writer."
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The Scotsman (U.K.) "Brilliantly captures 21st-century youth. Hilarious."
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Times (U.K.) "I couldn't stop reading
Grow Up."
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www.Volume1Brooklyn.com "Funny from unexpected places."
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www.3amMagazine.com "A dirty, dirty book. It is a
wonderfully filthy book."
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www.Areadinglife.com "A vicious, often hilarious--and hilariously blunt--microcosm of contemporary, ketamine-addicted British youth." --
blacklisted "An undeniably fun read, thanks to the leanness of its prose and its sense of humour, which is as sharp as it is affected. This is Oscar Wilde with a Tumblr account, or Martin Amis remixed by Skrillex."
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www.TheStar.com