Grow Up - Softcover

Ben Brooks is the author of Fences, An Island of Fifty, and The Kasahara School of Nihilism. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He was born in 1992 and lives in Gloucestershire, England.

“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.” 
— Kirkus Reviews

“Engaging, funny and sharply-written. I loved how [Grow Up] manages to be both brutally uncompromising and gloriously warm-hearted.”
— 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.”
— Noel Fielding, co-creator of The Mighty Boosh

“Sickeningly good. So confident, so stylish. An unacceptably witty and original debut.”
— Tim Key

“Liquid Gold.”
— 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.”
— Dazed & Confused

“Navigates the travails of school and beyond with a quick wit.”
— 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.”

— The Scotsman (U.K.)

“Brilliantly captures 21st-century youth.  Hilarious.”
— Times (U.K.)

“I couldn’t stop reading Grow Up.”
— www.Volume1Brooklyn.com

“Funny from unexpected places.”
— www.3amMagazine.com

“A dirty, dirty book. It is a wonderfully filthy book.”
— 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.”
— www.TheStar.com