Grow Up

by Ben Brooks

Who says youth is wasted on the young?

Jasper wants to get on in the world, but he's got a lot on his A-levels, his mother pushing him to overachieve, weekly visits to his psychologist, come-downs, YouTube suicides and pregnant one-night-stands. Then there's his stepdad – 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.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Contemporary, Coming Of Age, British Literature, Novels, Humor

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Ben Brooks (born 1992 in Gloucestershire) is the author of the novels: Grow Up, Fences, An Island of Fifty, The Kasahara School of Nihilism, Upward Coast and Sadie, Lolito, Everyone Gets Eaten, and Hurra. Writing for children, he has published the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller Stories For Boys Who Dare to Be Different, Stories For Boys Who Dare to be Different 2, Stories For Kids Who Dare to be Different, The Impossible Boy, and The Greatest Inventor. His first non-fiction book for adults, Things They Don't Want You To Know, was published by Quercus in September 2020.

He contributed the story Kimchi or a Partial List of Misappropriated Hood Ornaments to Frank Ocean's Boys Don't Cry, accompanying the release of 2016 album Blonde.

Reviews

[Tobi · Rating 4 out of 5]

20 year old Ben Brooks wrote this book about being a teenager in England when he was 17.

His mastery of the novel is stunning. The writing is fucking amazing.

His vivid depiction of sex, violence, confusion & drugs rules!

Jasper is very funny and insightful and totally mixed up all at once, like a real person. Half genius half idiot.

Grow Up is entertaining and moving. Disturbing and hilarious. Like being a kid. This English perspective on teenager-dom is existential and fraught and tangled and not at all fake or sentimental or moralizing or sappy.

WARNING: If you don't want to be inside the mind of a fucked up white middle class teenage boy this book is not for you.

I like this review

[Meli · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5
No sé. Simplemente no sé.
Me gusta el estilo del autor y al comienzo sentía la historia como un "El guardián entre el centeno conoce Skins" y eso me entusiasmó porque amo ese tipo de historias que te interpelan e incomodan, con personajes rotos y excesivos. Que todo sea políticamente incorrecto.

Pero no, lo que parecía que iba a ser un libro duro pero cargado de significado, terminó siendo la historia pretenciosa de un chico con muchos problemas que no se deja ayudar y causa mucho daño a los demás (daño en serio, a nivel criminal). Se puede dislumbrar una veta buena y reflexiva por lo bajo, pero creo que al autor se le fue de las manos y de tanto romantizar una juventud corrompida, creó un personaje nefasto.

Aunque disfruté del estilo no creo volver a leerlo. Todos sus mensajes están torcidos. Desde el mal trato que le da a la salud mental hasta terminar minimizando una violación. Disculpe, don Brooks, pero queda cancelado.

[Alejandro Saint-Barthélemy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than expected: really stylish and confident (nowadays it's getting harder and harder to trust blurbs, but that is an accurate one). Brook's literary skills and insightfulness at such a young age made me feel stupid thinking of my own adolescence. He knew far more about life, the world and people with 17 than me with 23. He was into drugs, sex and parties while I was into French poetry, languages and working out, and I cannot stress enough how intelligent he sounded as a teenager living his youth, a person making it with a novel and a talented writer through all the book to me. Ben deserved the hype but, sadly, his career has gone downhill from here, and the older he gets the more ludicrous his juvenility turns out to be (paradoxically, I think this is his more mature work to date, along with "Fences", being "Lolito" and "Hurra" worse than "Grow Up" and "Fences" in almost every way I can think of).

Favourite parts: in the supermarket, metaliterature in the last pages and in the dream, happy while partying on drugs, the rape scene (Houellebecq calls rapists and pedophiles the scapegoats of our sickening society, so I think Ben portrayed well a dark side of many people's hearts), modern metaphors and comparisons (pacman)...

Worst thing: English dry humour (Oh, the moon... [because a girl, rightfully so, says that she loves the moon]). One of the cheapest and sickest ways of posing as clever and hurt other people's feelings ever created.


P.S.
I have the feeling that Ben is lucid enough to be cursed, too insightful for his own sake, and/or maybe just somebody who matured way too fast and stopped way too early (his last book points out on this direction).
All things considered, I'm glad he made it with his art in order to live better, or just survive, but, but... I hardly doubt that he is going to artistically age well, meaning that I don't think he'll ever write a book as good as this one again, because this is what he had to say (and it was needed, 'cause Submarine sucks [only watched the film, and really hated it]), what time has shown he's good at (teenage stuff)... Bittersweet but true.

[Always Becominging · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conversations I had about this book:

me: im reading grow up
seems pretty good

spencer: i read like the first several pages
seemed engaging
been meaning to order it
seems like i'd have an unfair bias
like "who the fuck... does this guy think he is ..." re him being my age

me: yeah. seems really bleak that he's younger than me and already has multiple books

spencer: ya
and is also like
successful/attractive
seemingly healthy
like..

me: yeah
fuck

spencer: god damn it
ben brooks wtf

me: its because of his alliterative name


***


Carolyn: what r u reading

me: Grow Up
by Ben Brooks

Carolyn: nice :)
how is it

me: im enjoying it
seems 'lighter' than what ive been reading recently


***


i am reading grow up
ive read almost 100 pages
im enjoying it


***


I saw Grow Up in a bookstore today [It is now on the Staff Favourites shelf]. So I guess it's out in NZ now.
I want to email Ben.


***


I just finished reading Grow Up. I liked it a lot.


***


me: i just finished reading grow up

Stacey: oh man, i really loved that book. how did you find it?

me: i enjoyed it a lot
the end was really good i thought

Stacey: i loved it all
felt like i just pictured ben brooks as the protagonist in my head

me: i did that too but at the same time i was thinking "not all of this is true"

Stacey: i wonder what was true and what wasn't heh. i was looking at ben's facebook page once and a girl called tenaya wrote on his wal hehe
i really liked their relationship in the book
i liked when they were in that hot water cupboard together

me: yeah their relationship was really great

Stacey: you shoulf write a review of it

me: i was thinking "this is a amplified version of a certain aspect of ben. ben seems really intelligent"
wanna email him
looking for his email address now

Stacey: yeah, he seems interesting to me

me: have you ever interacted with him?

Stacey: once he said hi to me on facebook chat but i don't think it progressed much further


***


me: crispin bb. can you give me ben brooks email address?

Crispin: yeh
he is
cernisdead@gmail.com

me: thanks!

Crispin: ;)

me: i just finished reading grow up

Crispin: :) taking aus/nz by stawm

me: sure is
he's like the queen or something

Crispin: i love it
i got drunk with him just last night

me: fucking swag yo
you will be in the sequel

Crispin: heehee

me: i almost wrote 'sexual' instead of 'sequel'
because you are so sexual


***


me: i read grow up by ben brooks today

Jonathan: was it good?

me: very enjoyable

Jonathan: thats good
do you know ben at all?

me: i talked to him on fb chat once
he seemed cool

Jonathan: i have never spoken to him

me: have you read anything by him?

Jonathan: no

me: i would reccomend it. he's a good writer

Jonathan: I thought he prolly was


***


Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi
Hi

I just finished reading Grow Up. I enjoyed it a lot. It made me really happy when you referenced Biker Mice From Mars. I also liked the end a lot a lot. It feels weird listing everything I like about the book so I'm just going to leave it at that.

[Actually no I'm not. The knockknock/disco/disconnect joke was great]

I've had a copy of An Island Of Fifty for like a year now. I've started reading it three times. Each time I was thoroughly enjoying it but then stopped reading for some reason. I do this with about half of the books I read. I feel motivated to read it again now.

Why were you only giving money to Americans?

Hope you're well.

Swag
Swag
Swag
Swag
Swag
Swag
Swag

everything is fantastic

[Lydia Presley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently went to a friend with the following statement about this book: "Good golly I read a coming-of-age book last night that was so foul languaged and filled with sex, drugs and alcohol that I don't know how to talk about it on the blog.. because I actually enjoyed it."

Then I realized, that's exactly what I wanted to say about Grow Up by Ben Brooks. Frankly, I needed to grow up and face the fact that, in spite of its numerous moral deficiencies, this book tackles tough, hard issues teenagers are facing every single day and it doesn't give them a "hero" to make them feel as if they are losing some kind of battle because they can't measure up.

Grow Up is the story of a boy and a girl, best friends, who make mistakes left and right. They lie, they do drugs, they have sex, they drink, they party, but most of all, they are hurting and it's so transparent it made my heart ache. Because in the middle of all of these harsh realities and the foul language, the boy and the girl, they are there for one another in a bond of friendship so strong it gave me hope.

When I found myself faced with star ratings on review sites, I honestly struggled with myself because, in terms of how potent this book is, and how hard it made me think, and how quickly I devoured it, it rates off the charts. But the other messages being flagrantly broadcast, and here is the deciding factor on that, the lack of consequences for those actions tilts the rating factor to the opposite side -so I end up right in the middle.

Grow Up is not a book for the faint of heart. Don't go into the book expecting warm and fuzzy emotions and tears. Go in expecting to be offended and disgusted - but don't let those emotions overwhelm you because no matter how offensive the teens are in this book, just like the teens you will, no doubt come into contact with, they have something else buried deep in side of them just crying out to be heard.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book literally ends with the main character raping someone. Then he continues on his life like it wasn't a problem, and even stating "If I end up in court, I will just cry until they let me go home" while all the other characters tell him it didn't matter. This entire book is very crude and quite offensive and I am really annoyed it has such high ratings. The drug use and strong language weren't issues for me. The way this 17 year old, and nearly everyone who has rated this book, treat consensual sex is appalling.
Unfortunately, the writing wasn't horrible, and there were some parts that made me laugh out loud. However, the ending was disgusting and ruined the entire book for me.

**Even if the whole ending was changed, it still would have only gotten 1 star based on the obvious discrimination and blatant bullying of many different groups of people. This book was published in what, 2011? Time to Grow Up

[Cómete la sopa Kafka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una magnífica novela con una voz narrativa desenfadada que no se guarda nada. Leer este libro es como mirar por un agujerito los amores, odios y miedos de esa generación que aparentemente lo tiene todo tan fácil.
Más en nuestro vídeo-reseña de 3 min: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zvu_...

[Aviones de papel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitivamente me flipa este autor, Lolito ya me gustó pero este es todavía mejor, esta es una de las mejores novelas de realismo sucio que yo haya leído, el toque decadente, escatológico y depresivo que lo envuelve todo me fascina, está claro que este no es un género que sea para todo el mundo, pero es uno de mis favoritos.

[Mery_B · Rating 3 out of 5]

¿2'5 ★? ¿3 ★?

Si algo he aprendido tras llevar vivo diecisiete años es que a la gente le encanta tocar cosas. Tocar tiene que ver con la curiosidad. La curiosidad tiene que ver con la muerte.

[Trotalibros · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jasper, el protagonista de Crezco, ahora mismo tendría ganas de pillar el coronavirus para ir a estornudar a la cara de su padrastro, del que está prácticamente seguro que asesinó a su exmujer, o a la de su psicóloga, a quien le cuenta mentiras para tenerla entretenida, o a la de alguno de sus profesores del insti, que hace tiempo que no le ven el pelo. Así que saldría de su sucia habitación, donde ha estado chateando con una china en un chat porno, y se iría de fiesta, bebiendo o drogándose, con la esperanza de, si hay suerte, follar con una chica guapa y con coronavirus. Pero acabaría despertándose en su propio vómito, en casa de Tenaya, su mejor amiga, sin ninguno de los síntomas del virus. Y se cagaría en la vida, en el puto coronavirus y en él mismo por ni siquiera ser capaz de pillar esta puta pandemia que se propaga por todo el puto mundo. Crezco es la primera novela de Ben Brooks, que escribió con 17 años de resaca en resaca. Tras esta preciosa edición de Blackie Books conocemos a Jasper (¿el alter ego de Ben?), un adolescente egoísta, irresponsable y desencantado con el mundo. Aunque toda comparación de esta novela con el clásico de Salinger me parece desproporcionada, lo cierto es que he disfrutado de Crezco, de esta decadencia adolescente, de su ironía, de su sarcasmo, de su manera vulgar y soez de narrar su monotonía sin rumbo aparente (pero que entre líneas se aprecia cierta maduración, cierto crecimiento). Me apetecía leer este libro sencillo y escatológico y, aunque no estará entre mis mejores lecturas, quiero seguir leyendo a Brooks.

[A.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is weird. Not good weird or bad weird, just weird.

It's a snapshot of today's hedonistic youth: taking drugs, attending parties, getting laid, acting as if they'll be young forever with barely a thought given to the future. (If you've watched the TV series Skins, you'll have a fairly good idea what this book is like.)

It's also a meta-literary exploration of self. While I'm not a fan of metafiction, Ben Brooks somehow manages to pull it off; his writing is simple, his imagery effortlessly fresh, his choice of wording unusual. For his age (born in 1992!), Ben Brooks is a great writer who kept me engaged despite the lack of any clear plot.

I wouldn't recommend this for the faint-hearted. Being in the mind of a male teenager who indulges in all sorts of substances is certainly strange. But it was also amusing, touched with a whimsical humour. It reminded me of A Clockwork Orange, if Alex was a good kid instead of a violent thug.

Ironically, Grow Up isn't the type of novel that will age well. There are multiple references to popular culture - whether music (Los Campesinos!) or websites (Twitter, Formspring) - which might make this novel rather dated in a few years.

But for now it feels very fresh and very current. Recommended for fans of drug-fuelled literary explorations, or those nostalgic for the careless days of youth.

[Piesito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adornado con una bonita edición, liado con escenas hilarantes y mucho humor negro, divertido hasta que soy consciente de lo que me cuenta Jasper-Ben y se me hiela un poco la sonrisa. Y Sobre todo buena literatura

[Miguel Poveda · Rating 1 out of 5]

No soy capaz de entender el éxito de libros tan mediocres como éste, y menos que se ensalcen porque los ha escrito alguien joven. Básicamente porque si lo lees ya sabes que el relato de Jasper, un adolescente niñato donde los haya, y sus amistades (una colección de criajos maleducados e infantiloides), te queda claro que algo tan mediocre sólo lo puede haber escrito un chaval con ínfulas y poco o nulo talento. Si la historia es ficción, lo único destacable es que se lee fácil (dentro de una prosa muy pobre y con una trama inexistente), y si es cierto lo que describe es para compadecer a los padres del autor por tener semejante espécimen en casa. El remate es que alguien compare este mojón con "El guardián entre el centeno" (cosa que hace el personaje hablando de sí mismo al final del libro), resulta tan insultante como que esta necedad se haya publicado.

[Nate · Rating 2 out of 5]

DRUG USE DRUG USE DRUG USE DRUG USE INTERNET REFERENCES HIPSTERS DRUG USE DRUG USE RAPE LOL DRUGS DRUGS

[Mientras Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

El placer de una lectura gamberra pero en muchos puntos necesaria para no olvidar por dónde se pasa
http://entremontonesdelibros.blogspot...

[Mirexblood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ràpid i desordenat. Ben aconseguit l'efecte de ser escrit per un adolescent passat de drogues.

[Rachel Louise Atkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was basically about a gross teenage boy doing gross teenage boy things and thinking about sex 24/7. I found it funny and entertaining and think it was an honest and modern coming-of-age novel. The characters were annoying at first but I liked them by the end. One thing I absolutely loved was the part when they were discussing Generation X as it became obvious that Brooks was really inspired by these texts.

Some of the writing felt very off though. There was a massive overuse of metaphors and some of the description was just awkward. Plus some of the remarks were horrendously offensive and don’t think they were as funny as they were supposed to be.

Would definitely try Brooks again so think I will read Lolito in the future if I am ever able to get my hands on it.

[Maria Bonet · Rating 5 out of 5]

M'ha agradat moltíssim. Segurament no m'hauria d'haver agradat tant ja que parla de la vida d'un adolescent de 17 anys que es droga, beu en accés i folla sense prendre precaucions, però és que està TAN ben escrit o almenys a mi m'agrada TAN com escriu que fins i tot parlant del que parla m'agrada.

[Miri · Rating 5 out of 5]

estaba triste y me pillé el libro en wallapop porque el mío me lo robaron hace unos 10 años. ahora quiero meterme en la cama y llorar una semana

[Snakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. I know the novel was written from the perspective of a 17-year-old but the mentality of the protagonist fitted more appropriately with an 8-year-old. Or perhaps he was just a supreme and phenomenal idiot (and I’m not just missing the irony in the title, Grow Up, on this one). On the whole the story kept me reading but the characters were just gratuitously stupid which kept me from becoming more attached to their outcomes. Not my first Brooks, and I may be mistaken, but I would almost swear that the main character’s belief that one of his parents is a “secret murderer” was a plot device in his other book I read. Either way it read as rehashed.

[Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben, si tu infancia realmente se parece a lo que escribes en tus novelas, no me extrañaría nada si en unos años te conviertes en el nuevo Jeffrey Dahmer. Combo perfecto entre locura y genialidad.

[Chelsea Campbino · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the story of a rapist who gets by on the laxness that comes with being lucky enough to be a boy.

Jasper thinks he is extremely clever and smart. His narrative voice is the common, quirky kind that would have been especially adored in 2011.

He does whatever the fuck he wants and uses brief and undercooked moments of self-awareness to excuse himself from the violence he perpetrates.

If anything, this book lends credence to discussions we are now having about white boi entitlement and toxic masculinity. But the book should not get praise for that, just like Harvey Weinstein should not get praise for exposing the system of abuse and inequality in Hollywood.

It is the problem itself, not the exposure of the problem.

This book is complicit in supporting that which it would have to look at critically in order to be more than a self-aggrandizing waste of time.

Jasper rapes someone, knowing before that it is probably rape. He does it anyway. Afterwards he thinks it is rape. He tells himself he’ll cry in court and get away with it. He tells his femme friend Tenaya, the ultimate not-like-other-girls male fantasy chill girl who keeps jasper grounded and elicits some basic displays of empathy from him, that he raped Georgia. She says it’s not rape. That’s just the kind of sex teen girls have.

Cool so the male main character gets a pass from the female character who is a figment of the male writer’s imagination. If you think that it is a subtle criticism of rape and internalized misogyny you can eat my ass because right after that jasper is briefly interrogated by police because he reported his step dad as a murderer. The police forgive him. His mom forgives him. He says most funny people are male. He kisses Tenaya. Wow maybe he is growing up isn’t the blossoming of a young idiotic male beautiful and profound. I barf. The end.


Oh yea and earlier he thinks about threatening a girl he had sex with violence if she doesn’t get an abortion but it’s funny cuz she’s fat, get it?

I was born the same year as Ben brooks, 1992. I have changed a lot since my frontal lobe grew in at 25 in 2017. I assume the same has happened to him but honestly don’t give enough of a fuck to read his other books. Shitty white boy authors and coming of age tales are as common as toenail clippings and half as interesting.

[Vasileios · Rating 2 out of 5]

https://www.vintagestories.gr/grow-up...

Ένα σύγχρονο βιβλίο ενηλικίωσης

Πώς είναι να είσαι συγγραφέας στα 16 σου; Ο Ben Brooks ξεχώρισε με το Grow up, το πρώτο του βιβλίο που έγραψε μετά από ένα πολύ μεγάλο μεθύσι του και αποτελεί ένα βιβλίο ενηλικίωσης. Ακολούθησαν πολύ ενδιαφέρουσες κριτικές και στη συνέχεια κυκλοφόρησε το βιβλίο του Lolito. Και τα δύο δεν έχουν κυκλοφορήσει ακόμη στα ελληνικά.

Τι συμβαίνει στο βιβλίο αυτό; Ο Ben Brooks με το alter ego του, τον Jasper που είναι ο κεντρικός χαρακτήρας, περιγράφει τις περιπέτειες 17χρονων εφήβων γεμάτες ουσίες, σεξ και πολύ αλκοόλ. Για τους περισσότερους νέους του βιβλίου η καθημερινότητα περιορίζεται στο να κάνουν πάρτυ και λιγότερο στο να διαβάζουν: καταναλώνουν ουσίες όλων των τύπων που τους «ανεβάζουν».

Ο Jasper εκτός των άλλων διαβάζει και θέλει να γράψει το πρώτο του βιβλίο. Ζει με τη μητέρα του που είναι ��ικηγόρος και περιφρονεί τον πατριό του που ζει μαζί τους και πιστεύει ακράδαντα ότι έχει δολοφονήσει την πρώην γυναίκα του (;).

Το Grow up μας δείχνει την πλευρά που δεν είναι τόσο ευχάριστη για τη σημερινή καθημερινότητα των εφήβων, μας περιγράφει μια κοινωνία όπου οι γονείς δεν έχουν καμία ιδέα για το τι πραγματικά κάνουν τα παιδιά τους, οπότε και η ζωή τους βασίζεται σε αυτό.

Η ανάγνωσή του θυμίζει προσωπικό ημερολόγιο, αδιαμφισβήτητα από έναν νέο με μεγάλη ειρωνεία, έναν μεγάλο παρατηρητή της σύγχρονης κοινωνίας, που όμως δεν μεγαλώνει πιο γρήγορα μπροστά σε ό,τι του συμβαίνει.

Αν σκεφτώ αν μου άρεσε το βιβλίο θα έλεγα μονολεκτικά πως όχι, κυρίως γιατί δεν μου ήταν πιστευτός ο κόσμος που περιέγραφε, ίσως αυτό για μια άλλη χώρα όπως είναι η Αγγλία εν προκειμένω να ισχύει, αλλά πάλι μου κάνει υπερβολικό. Θα μπορούσα όμως να βρω αρκετά στοιχεία του που μου φάνηκαν πολύ ενδιαφέροντα και ειδικά για έναν 16χρονο συγγραφέα: Το μέλλον που έρχεται αλλά και το παρόν: την εφηβεία που ποτέ κανείς δεν είναι έτοιμος να αντιμετωπίσει, και στη συνέχεια είναι κάτι που μένει ανεξίτηλο στη ζωή όλων μας.

Συνέχεια στο https://www.vintagestories.gr/grow-up...

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know Ben Brooks 'personally.' We are 'facebook friends.' What I know is that 1) Ben Brooks is a very good writer, especially for being so young 2) Ben Brooks has really nice eyebrows 3) Ben Brooks once gave me a $25 gift card to Starbucks via Facebook on my birthday & I a. not sure if it was a mistake, but that was pretty neat. ANYWAY - THE BOOK - GROW UP - READ IT. Read it before 'Lolito' comes out later this year. I am going to love that book most likely because the subject material is something I am very familar with & Brooks is fucking brilliant.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES FROM 'GROW UP' :

"After she wakes up, her hair always makes it look as though she has just had passionate sex with a crack addict in a room with Velcro walls."

"The plague is tolerance. The plague is being made to tolerate even the intolerant. This is why you can go to www.KKK.com and buy T-shirts with White Power slogans on them."

"Breakfast is the least important meal of the day for people who smoke."

"Sometimes, when I am drunk, I like to sit up in bed and sing along with the national anthem and try to imagine what it would be like to genuinely believe that being born in a certain place at a certain time is something to be proud of. Doing sex with a girl for over seven minutes is something to be proud of. Being British is not."

"I think about how it is illegal to sell drugs made from plants that grow everywhere but it is not illegal to manufacture a drug in a laboratory and sell it on the Internet."

"All human beings are very emotional. I am very emotional but I do not show it because if I do then people will think I am weak and they will mug me, emotionally."

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

i liked reading this book
one of my friends said seems like this is 'just about sex and drugs'

ben said 'this is 99% descriptive of my life'
feel like there is more to him than that [via irl conversation]
which makes me feel that he is conscious of the way he chooses to portray jasper
i think that is important to remember and is why it shouldn't be dismissed at first read

interesting again to think of the relation between text produced and person who produced text

laughed re post-its that his mom made him write, general factual information inserted into the text
winced when cat died, felt horrified/angry then thought ‘i hope ben didn’t rly kill a cat irl’
felt happy when he ‘got’ georgia treely (good name ben, i can remember her name)
jumping into a [water body] with a group of friends while on drugs seems appealing like i could imagine feeling happy and alive
really liked his relationship with his best friend, tenanya/tenaya (again i don’t have the book next to me), it seems really great that anyone would care that much about his/her best friend, even if you don’t understand what they are going through. i really like when he went over to her house because he thought she was in danger—made me feel hopeful, boys like that exist

finally i think what i liked most was being surprised every few lines or so
like emotional shampooing, i like that and remembered that
i think of being in the shower and emotionally shampooing myself
these phrases have startling imagery, a strange/refreshing perception

[John Morris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Firstly, congratulations to Ben Brooks for writing a novel so young, at 17. That in itself is a mighty accomplishment. It's such a shame the book is tedious, irritating and dull.

Characters are one dimensional. They are simply vapid, void of something that the audience can connect to. I'm twenty, only three years older than these characters and I can find nothing. The narrator, Jasper, is a 17 year old teenager engages in drugs, sexual acts, and visits chat rooms to jack off. But instead of being a teenager learning the world this is one who attempts to derail it. He is nasty to others, caring only for himself, and there is no comeuppance for him. He just is, and is allowed to continue. This would be fine if there was something else, some message, some reason. But there isn't.

Even though this novel is brimmed with sex and drugs it is devoid of anything of substance. Nothing in its 200+ pages offers anything of interest or wonder. It is a novel about growing up without the maturity to deal with its subjects.

Yes it is shocking. And yes it does have a few, fleeting, moments of humour or pathos but it is weighed down by a story and characters that leave as much of an impression as a scouring pad.

I wished that there was something to find within these pages but there isn't. Unless your a massive fan of tedious, wordy writing and characters who wouldn't go amiss on The Only Way is Essex (shudder) stay clear of this novel.

Hopefully Ben Brooks improves. After this début it'll be impressive if he produces something worse.

[Jen Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

'One thing I have learned from being alive for seventeen years is that people like to touch things very much. Things that people like to touch: Vaginas. Expensive things in shops. Jelly that is not ready to eat yet. Cigarette lighters. Necks. Dead things. Dogs. Piercings. Toddlers' cheeks. Snow. Each other's knees.

People also like to touch death.'

This book is hilarious. It's also very dark, and has beautiful language, and has wonderful relationships, too. Meet Jasper. He's very anxious. He goes to see a psychiatrist because his mum thinks he's racist. He isn't. He just likes making people believe stuff. His best friend is Tenaya. She's sad at the moment. Jasper's life ambitions are to sleep with Georgia Treely, convince the police that his stepdad is a murderer, not fail his AS Levels, and also win the Booker Prize for the novel he's writing in the shed. Oh, and to forget that the incident with Abby Hall ever happened. Yes. This is 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' meets Skins. I bloody loved it. I've bought Ben's book 'An Island Of Fifty' already, and I'm pretty sure that I'll be gifting 'Grow Up' rather a lot this year. Read it.

[Sergsab · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este tipo, nacido en 1992, es la promesa de un genio genuino y gamberro. El hijo necesario entre Palahniuk y Amis. Una voz generacional nueva, signifique eso lo que sea que signifique. Lo absurdo y la anomia vistos con un humor muy negro. Este libro es una orden de alejamiento entre aquello que no queremos ser y todo aquello que nos han prometido.

Ojalá crezca sin torcerse. Ojalá tenga este chico más cosas que contar. Ojalá se salve de sí mismo. O que se tuerza. O que cuente lo mismo. O que no se salve. En ambas opciones, estamos ante el nacimiento de alguien que puede llamarse a sí mismo escritor.

[Isobel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I thought Jasper was the sort of boy I would fancy for a bit before realising he was an idiot. He was an idiot. I don't like the short blunt sentences the book is written in, you know, reminiscent of The Curious Incident or The Perks or Submarine, where it feels like you're supposed to question if they're autistic. I don't know if that comes from Catcher In The Rye cos I haven't read it yet but it feels like it might. It's alright. I just wanted to get stuck into a novel again.

[Cristina MM · Rating 1 out of 5]

En la contraportada se puede leer: "Oro líquido", "un escritor formidable", "nadie entiende mejor el mundo de hoy que Ben Brooks", "El tipo más divertido y brutal que he leído en años. Me ha vuelto loco."
A mí no me ha hecho ni puta gracia, me niego a pensar que sea una voz generacional. Lo único bueno que tiene, en estos tiempos de pandemia, es que ante la escasez de papel higiénico viene genial para limpiarte el culo.