Review
The most convincing portrayal of the adolescent mind since Vernon God Little - Like Holden Caulfield on Mephedrone. --Ewan Morrison
Engaging, funny and sharply-written. I loved it. Somehow manages to be both brutally uncompromising and really warm-hearted. --Chris Killen
GROW UP is absolutely knockout - Brooks is blessed with a blinding grasp of terse, lyrical prose, and has the timing of a genius stand-up comic. Top class. --Richard Milward author of Apples
A new literary bomb. --Shame Jones author of Light Boxes
Ben Brooks is a magical imp who pumps out dark nuggets of poetry and makes you snort with laughter. --Noel Fielding
Sickeningly good. So confident, so stylish. An unacceptably witty and original debut. --Tim Key
In a world in which youth is fetishised as much as it is, Brooks revels in what everyone secretly knows -- namely, that teenagers are all, in some way or another, idiots. Jasper and his friends are as earnest as they are ironic, selfish, cruel, giddy and unthinking. Adults, he is confident, are clueless and easily manipulated ... although by the end he starts to twig that perhaps they are not as stupid as he would like to believe. --Times
This is a totally convincing portrait of being a wayward teenager now, that only a teenager could have written. It's so pertinent it actually kind of trips you out. It's pretty mental that Ben Brooks is any good now: imagine how good he could be by the time he actually does grow up. --Dazed & Confused
Brooks has an ability to show us the world through the eyes of a teenage boy and his fast-paced, expressive narration. Without all of this, we might feel as though we were being led down too many familiar paths; instead, our expectations are neatly subverted. --Scotsman
Engaging, funny and sharply-written. I loved it. Somehow manages to be both brutally uncompromising and really warm-hearted. --Chris Killen
GROW UP is absolutely knockout - Brooks is blessed with a blinding grasp of terse, lyrical prose, and has the timing of a genius stand-up comic. Top class. --Richard Milward author of Apples
A new literary bomb. --Shame Jones author of Light Boxes
Ben Brooks is a magical imp who pumps out dark nuggets of poetry and makes you snort with laughter. --Noel Fielding
Sickeningly good. So confident, so stylish. An unacceptably witty and original debut. --Tim Key
In a world in which youth is fetishised as much as it is, Brooks revels in what everyone secretly knows -- namely, that teenagers are all, in some way or another, idiots. Jasper and his friends are as earnest as they are ironic, selfish, cruel, giddy and unthinking. Adults, he is confident, are clueless and easily manipulated ... although by the end he starts to twig that perhaps they are not as stupid as he would like to believe. --Times
This is a totally convincing portrait of being a wayward teenager now, that only a teenager could have written. It's so pertinent it actually kind of trips you out. It's pretty mental that Ben Brooks is any good now: imagine how good he could be by the time he actually does grow up. --Dazed & Confused
Brooks has an ability to show us the world through the eyes of a teenage boy and his fast-paced, expressive narration. Without all of this, we might feel as though we were being led down too many familiar paths; instead, our expectations are neatly subverted. --Scotsman
Review
'Liquid gold.' - Observer
Product Description
Who says youth is wasted on the young? Jasper wants to get on in the world, but life is distracting. He's got his A-levels to contend with, his mother pushing him to overachieve, weekly visits to his psychologist, come-downs, YouTube suicides and pregnant one-night-stands. And then there's his step-dad - the murderer. Hilarious and heartbreaking by turns, GROW UP is the ultimate twenty-first-century coming-of-age novel. It paints a vivid portrait of the pills and thrills and bellyaches of growing up today. Funny, smart and twisted, it is the story of one young man transformed.
About the Author
Ben Brooks was born in 1992 and lives in Gloucestershire. He is also the author of four other books Fences, An Island of Fifty, The Kasahara School of Nihilism, and Upward Coast & Sadie. Brooks' work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in the Dzanc Best of the Web anthology.
