IN BLOOM.

IN BLOOM by MATTHEW CROW.

SOURCE: A GoodReads win.

Francis Wootton's first memory is of Kurt Cobain's death, and there have since been other hardships much closer to home. At fifteen years old he already knows all about loss and rejection - and to top it all off he has a permanently broke big brother, a grandma with selective memory (and very selective social graces) and a mum who's at best an acquired taste. Would-be poet, possible intellectual, and definitely wasted in Tyne and Wear, Francis has grown used to figuring life out on his own.

Lower Fifth is supposed to be his time. But when he is diagnosed with leukaemia that wide-open future narrows, and a whole new world of worry presents itself.

There's the horror of being held back a year at school, the threat of imminent baldness, having to locate his best shirt in case a visiting princess or pop-star fancies him for a photo-op . . . But he hadn't reckoned on meeting Amber and finding a reason to tackle it all - the good, the bad, and everything in between - head on.
...... Inner front cover.

FIRST SENTENCE (Before): My first memory is of Kurt Cobain's death.

MEMORABLE MOMENT (Page 177): Just as she was about to leave there was a ruckus on the stairs and the girls appeared in my doorway, looking like the Ghosts of Christmas future. Or a frightening version of what can happen when you approach middle age without dignity. At their time of age they should be wearing trouser suits and baking cakes, maybe spending their days penning hand-written letters of complaint to newspapers. Not drinking alcopops with crude straws in them.

MY THOUGHTS: A story all about relationships and most of all about first love. To define this as just another novel about cancer would be to do it a great disservice.

Set in my home county of Tyne and Wear and written by local author Matthew Crow In Bloom (his first novel for Young Adults though he has two books for adults under his belt) isn't always an easy read in that, yes, the spectre of teenage cancer is always there, ticking away like the proverbial time bomb. And yet painful as it may at times be it is also oh so funny and, oddly enough, life affirming.

Packed full of the most memorable characters. The author does a truly amazing job in getting into the head of Francis, in creating an altogether believable teenager who is at once intelligent (in a geeky kind of way) whilst, at the same time, immature and thus plagued by all the typical insecurities of boys his age - not to mention the additional ones of almost constant nausea, total hair loss and possible death.

But make no mistake this isn't a 'one man show'. The other supporting characters are just as unforgettable. The lesser featured of them written with just as much care, with as much attention to detail, as any of the major ones.

One of if not my favourite reads of 2013. Whilst aimed at the Young Adult market it isn't in any way dumbed down for teenage consumption and thus I'd recommend it as equally readable for the more mature reader.

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